Tag Archives: New York

Snow’s nest is still holding by a miracle….late Wednesday in Bird World

27 May 2026

Hello everyone, from a very hot Canadian Prairie that is due to get hotter. Ann kept Don and Toby inside. Friday is to be 34. I think that sounds like a walk at the mall!!!!!!!!

Allow me to take a deep breath, and before we get into the lawsuit in Florida about Scrub Jays, I want to say that by some miracle, the branch that broke on the Traverse City Bald Eagle nest in Michigan, fell and caught itself on the tree adjacent, and is supporting that tilted nest. How long it will hold, we do not know. I hope it is long enough for Snow to fly. We need a good three weeks. The average is 10-14 weeks. So, right now, Snow is 6.5 weeks old.

A bald eagle and a younger eagle perched on a nest surrounded by pine trees, with the sky in the background. The timestamp shows 9:42 AM on May 27, 2026.
A close-up view of a large eagle's nest located on a tree branch, with an eagle standing inside the nest. The background features a calm body of water and partly cloudy skies.
An osprey sits on its nest, which is located high in a tree near a body of water. The nest contains young chicks, and the scene is set in a partly cloudy sky.
Two eagles, one adult and one juvenile, perched on a nest surrounded by trees near a body of water.
A large bird resting on a nest made of twigs and grass, surrounded by a natural setting. The scene captures a partly cloudy day, with a view of a blue sky in the background.
A young bird sitting in a nest made of twigs and grass, overlooking a body of water. The setting is partly cloudy with visible weather information displayed in the corner.

Now, back to the Endangered Florida Scrub Jays. We have a detective in our midst, and ‘R’ was able to find out the following information which should really bring a light to the threat to the birds!

“I searched for this, and got the following: 

Yes, it appears Colosi knew (or should have known) about the protected status before buying.
Key facts:
• Purchase date: March 2024. 
• Habitat plan: Charlotte County’s Scrub-Jay Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) was approved in 2014 — a full 10 years earlier. It’s been public policy since then, with clear rules and fees for building in designated areas. 
• Public records: The county’s property records for his specific parcel note that “Land value may be adjusted due to scrub jay habitat.” It’s also visible on the county’s GIS maps (a public online tool)

Did he actually know?
• Colosi and his lawyers (Pacific Legal Foundation) have not directly said whether he was aware of the restrictions when he bought it. When journalists asked, they avoided answering.
• Critics and local observers point out it’s hard to miss: the restrictions are on maps, in public records, and part of standard real estate due diligence in the area. Many people assume he bought it anyway, possibly betting on a legal challenge.
This is a classic “buyer beware” (caveat emptor) situation. The restrictions were already in place long before he purchased the 5 acres. He’s now challenging the fee system as unconstitutional rather than claiming he was blindsided.”

I love this type of deep digging and finding the true facts. Thank you, ‘R’. I hope that there are lawyers representing Scrub Jays. They have represented ‘trees’ why not birds and rivers? I must look into this. Gosh I wish I had the time I had before Don’s dementia entered my world.

A respected scientist recognized.

Email announcement from BirdLife International regarding Dr. Stuart Butchart's election as a Fellow of the Royal Society, highlighting his contributions to conservation science.

We are all pulling for Dewey Beach. Last year, the only surviving osplet died on day 50, five days from fledging, due to starvation. This year only one egg hatched and this little sweetheart has woven itself into our hearts. Dad is finding little fish, sometimes a nice sized Menhaden. Please keep sending positive wishes that this single osplet survives and flies. Now the question I have is this: When does Omega Protein start taking out all the fish?

Found out: Omega Protein’s menhaden reduction fishing in the Chesapeake Bay typically begins in May. For the 2026 season, operations are set to ramp up significantly in June. 

An osprey nest with a parent osprey feeding its chick, with an adult bird visible in the background. There are two eggs in the nest among twigs and grass.
An osprey is feeding its chick in a nest containing two eggs, with a waterfront restaurant in the background.

Chick 3 has arrived at Kielder 1A nest.

Full complement at Nest 1A

Fundraising at Poole Harbour. Looking for a beautiful osprey print?

Artwork featuring a detailed illustration of ospreys in their natural habitat, created by wildlife artist Bruce Pearson to celebrate the nesting of the Carey Ospreys.

Myrtle, the female whose five eggs were destroyed by two different males, has returned to Loch Garten and is being courted by a pale male.

An osprey nest with one bird perched and another flying above, showcasing a natural environment at Loch Garten.

‘PB’ reports that there are four osplets at Steelscape in WA. They note that the older two are already fighting! Send them positive wishes. Mum is trying her best to feed all including little 4.

Please be sure to go and vote for the name for NewGuy2 at Hellgate Canyon. Iris’s great mate needs a name!

​​Help name Iris’s mate! Vote on your favorite name by June 2, and you could win free enrollment in Bird Academy’s Hawk and Raptor ID course. Vote here 👉 https://hubs.la/Q04hFrKD0

A nest of hawklets for Big Red and Arthur!

A red-tailed hawk is perched in a nest with two fluffy chicks, surrounded by twigs and branches, against a backdrop of greenery and urban streets.
A nest with several fluffy red-tailed hawk chicks resting inside, perched on a metal railing, with a view of a tree-lined street below.

Geemeff’s Woodland Trust daily summary for Loch Arkaig Wednesday 27th May 2026

No rain, no intruders, just sunshine and plenty of fish today. Louis delivered two fish for Dorcha, taking the Nest Two tally to ninety, while over on Nest One, Garry LV0 delivered three fish to Aurora 536, taking that tally to eighty five. Aurora actually refused the second fish but took the third one eagerly, perhaps she’d worked up an appetite following her encounter with a Great Tit which startled her so much she fled the nest. Safe to say, the tiny passerine was also startled – the size difference is stupendous. Another dry night of clear skies and light winds is forecast with a low of 9°C overnight, continuing tomorrow with sunny intervals, a gentle breeze and a high of 25°C. At the time of filing this report (00.30), Cam Two is still on day mode. This time next week we could have our first hatch! Fingers crossed these calm conditions continue.

Today’s videos:
https://youtu.be/kiZWFWC-Z1U N2 Louis delivers a very early breakfast 04.48.25https://youtu.be/q7tXL9-lePA N1 Garry LV0 brings elevenses 11.07.27 https://youtu.be/zqn2ekT6_a0 N1 Aurora’s not interested in the second fish 15.07.16https://youtu.be/_0Lt0-0fHzE N2 Louis arrives with a teatime trout 15.44.22https://youtu.be/hRAXavzJk9Q N1 Aurora is startled by a passing passerine and flees the nest 17.15.39 (slo-mo repeat)https://youtu.be/jnSHJWFcXRY N1 Aurora doesn’t ignore fish three – she seizes it immediately 19.35.13
Bonus read: For those interested in technical details, here’s the consultation on the management of Clunes and Arkaig Forest:

https://forestryandland.gov.scot/living-and-working/communities/land-management-plans/active-plans/clunes-and-loch-arkaig-forest-land-management-plan-consultation

Monty and Hartley certainly have their hands full with these four boys. Thanks, SK Hideaways for capturing some of the antics: https://youtu.be/gJPOZNVVLf4?

The trio at the nest of Maya and Blue 33 are now in the Reptilian Phase. Big ones in food coma and Maya feeding the third hatch. It looks like the final egg is a Dudley.

An osprey stands near its nest on the edge of a water body, with three fuzzy chicks nestled in the nest surrounded by sticks and twigs.

One of those short reads that is so informative – think White Storks and how people love them. They bring luck and my friends and readers in Poland and other parts of Europe treasure these beautiful birds and pray that they will make a nest on their home!

Country diary: A jaw-dropping bounty of wildlife – and a reminder of what Britain has lost | PolandDownload

‘PB’ sent me a note at a time when I really needed a renewal in trusting humans to help. A female White Stork whose eggs were hatching lost her mate. The community takes turn feeding her just like they did at Mlade Buky.

A stork standing on a nest made of twigs atop a pole, with clouds in the background.

Good night Bety and Bukachek.

A view from a stork nest overlooking a small village at dusk, featuring two storks, one standing and one sitting, with rooftops and mountains in the background.

Little Golden Eaglet safe under Mum in Estonia.

A golden eagle sitting on its nest with two white eggs, surrounded by trees and foliage.

Black Stork Nest 3 in Estonia has 3 eggs.

A stork standing in its nest with two eggs, surrounded by trees and foliage.

Toby says ‘enough is enough’. It is time to play fetch! How can I resist those eyes?

A black and white Cavalier King Charles Spaniel sitting on a brown mat with a toy in front of it. The background includes wooden decking and potted plants.

There is a second hatch at Pont Cresor! Yeah for Aeron Z2 and Blue 014.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care. Stay cool and hydrated if you are in a region that is hot like it is here. See you soon!

Thank you to all my contributors – to SK Hideaways and Geemeff for their videos and reports, to ‘PB’ for keeping me up to date on several nests, to the folks that are literally with their will power and that supporting branch miracle holding up Snow’s nest, and to the others who wrote reports and posted them on FB and to the owners of the streaming cams who let us view these incredible bird families. Thank you to all! We are so fortunate.

Help coming to Captiva nest and What does Rodenticide have to do with Dyson’s kits?

13 February 2026

Good Late Afternoon Everyone,

It is stunningly beautiful here today. Toby and I had a 45 minute walk while Ann and Don went to the nature centre. Our walk was filled with flitting chickadees…we left a trail o Black-Oil seed for them while Brock lounged on my neighbour’s chair after filling up at her feeder! Glorious and Happy. Two good words.

‘J’ sent me a posting from ‘Annette’. This could not have come at a more appropriate time. Let me explain after you read it:

“https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1334445735376985&set=pb.100064347147336.-2207520000

My can of worms:

A follower asked me to talk about the use of rodenticide increasing mange in wildlife. Sure! Good topic, but the subject of toxins in our environment opens a very personal can of worms for me. 

Toxins in our environment weaken immunity. I realize the particular study on the increase of mange in the wild is focused on the use of rodenticides suppressing and damaging immune systems in wildlife causing mange to be on the rise which is absolutely possible and even probable, but the bigger picture here is all toxins in all our environments weaken all our immune systems. When the body is constantly battling a toxin, the immune system can overload if something else is introduced, or in the case of demodectic mange which is naturally present in canids, (just kept in check by the immune system), it can overgrow and take over. 
Long term exposure to toxins can permanently damage the immune system causing chronic inflammation and shrinking of the thymus resulting in reduction of T cells. At that point the immune system is impaired.
Toxins can also lead to confusion of the immune system, causing auto-immune disorders. The body attacks itself rather than the problem, often without a problem. Now the immune system is misfiring and can even become dangerous. 

Exposure to microorganisms in safe doses has the opposite effect. Like our muscle mass, we have to use our immune system for it to be strengthened. You can’t focus on avoiding microorganisms and ignore toxins. It’s a trap. Get my logic here?

I have one young mom in my “friends that are my family” circle that has figured it out. She doesn’t freak out when her kids ‘eat dirt’ (that’s a euphemism) but she doesn’t store or microwave food in plastic, reads every label and researches every ingredient or chemical she doesn’t know. I tease her constantly but she is protecting her children at the very core of their biology. She’s my hero. What happened to me and my siblings won’t happen to her babies. 

I grew up In Blackwell Oklahoma from 1969 to 1981-ish. Our house was the closest house to the zinc smelter and my bedroom window faced the stacks. With no central air conditioning in our home, windows were always open in mild and hot weather and the smoke from the foundry (Sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid mist, and zinc fumes) blew freely into my room day and night for most of the year until the smelter closed in 1974, but the closing did not eliminate the danger. 

Our streets were paved with red brick on a bed of the tailings that the smelter “donated” to the town for it’s use. We played in those tailings, and when it rained, we were barefoot in the toxic puddles for hours. (Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury, Manganese, Chromium, and Zinc). We swam and played in the Chikaskia River, just down from the plant. (chromium, zinc oxides, and zinc sulfate) The mountains of tailings at the plant property were our jungle gyms. (Yes, we trespassed, but their fence was lame and we were unsupervised Gen X kids) The list of exposures goes on and on. 

My oldest brother died of two cancers 4 years ago at age 59, my younger sister barely survived two cancers and we both have polycystic liver and kidney disease though my sister’s is way advanced (we speculate due to her previous chemo). Our youngest brother is healthy but the smelter closed before he was born and we moved before he was old enough to play outside on his own. Believe it or not, I am pretty healthy other than I have hormonal imbalances that keep me fat no matter what I eat or how active I am, and I have severe and bizarre reactions to antibiotics and battle full body chronic inflammation for no apparent reason. I manage the pain and inflammation with Chaga and Noni juice (I shouldn’t take NSAIDs or acetaminophen -liver and kidneys) and keep my immune system strong by doing what I do every day, exposing myself to plenty of microorganisms. (POOP BONUS!) 🙂 Stress is my enemy, but I can’t get away from it and still do what I love to do, so I try (often futilely) to manage it. 

We were forever damaged from early exposure to toxins, but it didn’t show up until later in life. We were not included in the later lawsuits. We missed the deadlines as all our health issues surfaced afterward, and none of this can be fixed by money anyway. I need health not wealth. 

The warnings were out there as we lived and played in danger, but getting people to heed them and companies to bend takes time. People believe what they choose to believe and that is fine. There are far more knowledgeable people out there than I am, and I am sharing what I know and believe from personal experience, research, trial and error, worry and tragedy. I am, like everyone else reading this, some more than others, fighting to survive and have a quality life while I do. 

The wildlife are the “canaries in the mine” for Nature. If we are doing anything that creates damage to them, know without a doubt, it will likely hurt the rest of us eventually, and the practices we ignore and accept now can harm generations to come. 

Do your own research, make better choices for you and yours and don’t count on someone else to protect you. Most toxin using companies don’t care about you if there is money to be made, and because of liability, they certainly won’t admit they were ever doing anything harmful, even if they are busted. That is why we have lawyers. 

It’s supply and demand people! If we stop using the weapons, they will stop making the ammo. (another euphemism)

And STOP using lead in the wild and shooting it into your food. It’s so stupid. 

Annette”

About a week ago, an individual living in my neighbourhood had to take their dog to the vet. The dog almost died of pancreatitis due to rodenticide poisoning. It is believed that the dog ate the faeces of a rabbit that had eaten the poison. Imagine how little it took for this tragedy.

Well, two days ago I noticed that one of Dyson’s kits ‘looked strange’. I took out the longer lens camera and yesterday got images. Dyson’s kit also has mange. It is believed, after talking to the DOC officer, that the kit’s issue is also linked to individuals using rodenticide in my neighbourhood.

I am furious. Annette is correct. There are many useless things in our world, and two of them are lead – that we see impacting our raptors each day – and rodenticide, which also has impacted raptors. I continue to speak of Joe and Connie’s Peace and Love on Captiva. The perfect example of how a toxin can destroy a family.

Please, please spread the word. Let the owls do their job. The feral cats. The hawks. They love nice ‘healthy NOT poisoned’ rats and mice and they do a far better job of killing them than a toxin.

Isn’t this sad? If I could get to the squirrel, I could put coconut oil on her skin to help her, but alas, she is wild! She is eating, and I want to be hopeful that she will survive.

Before I leave just a couple of nest notes:

The human debris on the Captiva Bald Eagle nest is being removed today. They will turn the cameras off at 1700 local time after determining that the danger to the eagles and Quinn was enough to warrant getting up there and getting that mess off. Thank you to everyone who helped.

Quinn is about the age of the Dale Hollow eagles that were tangled in fishing line. Things should go smoothly at this nest. CROW is right there on Sanibel and they are incredible (I am making an assumption that it will be CROW that facilitates this removal).

Hatch watch is the 15th for the first Kakapo egg. Now you must go and watch this little one – these flightless parrots are so rare and this is such an opportunity. Egg count for today also sent by ‘J’.

Winter Park Bald Eagle nest: Name the eaglets: Here is the info from the chat: “​Hello, if you’d like to submit names for the eaglets, please see this link: https://forms.gle/7vYPwneMakwbaw3T7 The landowners will be selecting a pair of names that has been submitted. Ending Feb 17″

They must not like that Gar! Tiny Tim has a nice big crop after a feeding. No worries here.

SK Hideaways gives us a giggle at the Fraser Point nest of Andor and Cruz: https://youtu.be/zhDZeyBXIq4?

There are eggs being laid and all is well but for me the best thing that happened today was that for the first time (to my knowledge) Big Red and Arthur were both on the Cornell Campus Fernow nest together preparing for a new breeding season. Our Red-tail Hawk Queen will be 23 this year and she’s still going strong.

The Big Bird Count began today – please go to the Cornell Bird Lab and participate!

Junior filling up on peanuts.

Mrs Junior

Dyson is healthy.

The new Hedwig:

Baby Hope wishes everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Thank you so much for being with us for this quick tirade on rodentcides and a check in on a few nests. Take care everyone!

Thank you to ‘J’ and ‘Annette’ for the rodenticide news, SK Hideaways for their video, and the owners of the video cameras that allow us into the lives of our dear birds.