Tag Archives: woodpecker

Saturday in Bird World

14 September 2024

Hello Everyone,

The weather is still warm and will continue to be. The air was heavy Friday morning. We headed out to the nature centre to see how many geese were on the lake and check on the Mallard family with the two small ducklings. The sky was black, and it looked like rain could start any minute. In the forest, we could hear the Black-capped Chickadees and the American Goldfinch. The Goldfinches migrate, but the Chickadees stay all winter!

We found the Mallard family, but we could only see one duckling. I hope the other one was hiding in the reeds. The tiny duckling has grown but is still not large enough to migrate. Our weather is supposed to stay warm through October, so it should be fine to take off then.

At the hide, a female Downy Woodpecker was at the peanut feeder while another Mallard looked for seed in the grasses. Honking was constant overhead as the winds grew stronger, and the dark clouds gathered.

Even with the impending rain, it was a good morning to be outside for a walk. Always makes our day!

I was just so happy to see Annie! Annie is loafing!!!!!! Oh, it is so good to see you, Annie. https://youtu.be/3Vcnr3Fg9yU?

In Bird World, Hartley and Monty are back at the scrape in San Jose, too!

https://youtu.be/bg-SeoBSjDc?

Please tell everyone to please store their sports nets (of any kind) but especially soccer when they are not in use. Look what happened to this owl!

West Nile Virus killed the only surviving, of two, hawlets of Big Red and Arthur this year. It is also having an impact on all of our feathered friends including ospreys.

What is West Nile Virus and how is it impacting birds? Sadly, the most common in Canada are my beloved Crows and Blue Jays.

West Nile and Dead Birds | West Nile Virus | CDCDownload

“As of September 2003, West Nile Virus has been identified in 11 Page 2 species of native owls, 4 species of falcons, and 15 native species of diurnal raptors, including osprey, vultures, and bald and golden eagles.”

This document from the Cascade Raptor Centre is particularly good:

West-Nile-virusDownload

Heidi reports that Harvie and the two juveniles at Fortis Exshaw Canmore Osprey Platform are still home. You can see the wildfire smoke spreading through the valley behind the nest. Yesterday, Heidi saw five fish delivered in a short period of time to the fledglings at the nest after a period of rain.

Heidi checked on Fenwick Island and Johnny is still bringing Fen fish.

At the Hellgate Canyon nest, Antali had a very late night fish. I can’t rewind but he is holding it at 22:46 and is till eating in the wee hours of the morning. Antali has an enormous crop. It seems Finnegan wants to fill his fledgling up and hopefully get him on his way south.

Antali’s crop was still huge at 0741 when he was fish-calling. No delivery. Antali flew off after Dad (or so it would seem).

Finn sits on the nest with a lunch fish looking around and Antali comes flying in! He is not going to miss that fish dinner.

Finnegan takes good care of his boy. Another headless fish is delivered at 1644. Antalia has not had a sunken crop all day!

Now I love geese and on my ‘Bucket List’ has been a trip to see the Pinkfooted Geese that breed in Iceland and Greenland and then travel with their fledglings to the UK to winter arriving sometime after September 1. In the 1880s, the birds did not come to the UK til the last week of October. Now, to the astonishment of all, a pair of Pink-footed Geese have bred in Lancashire!

The concern was with climate change and the melting tundra that the Pinkfoots might not migrate to the UK. So this is very interesting.

Look at the image below. The heads are the colour of a cafe lait. This dark to medium brown head fades into a boey that is blue grey. The lowest part of the neck is pink! The goose has fluffy white underparts. The legs are, of course, pink matching the lower neck which gives these geese their name.

The female lays a clutch of 3-5 eggs. It takes 26 or 27 days for the wee ones to hatch. At that moment, both the male and the female will lead the clutch to wetlands to feed. In Iceland, they also eat crowberries, which makes their ‘ps’ pink!!!!! Their main enemies in Iceland are foxes and gyrfalcons.

“Pink-footed Geese” by naturalengland is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Pink-footed Goose pair breeds in Lancashire – BirdGuidesDownload

Some absolutely gorgeous closeups on this video by Cornell Bird Labs of the Royal Albatross chick. https://youtu.be/PsUNmjyrOFU?

The area of Shadow and Jackie’s nest is under voluntary evacuation for the Line Fire that is scorching parts of San Bernadino County. Shadow was spotted at the Snag and Roost Tree despite the wind and smoke by Eagle22 on the 12th of September. https://youtu.be/VNOQ7VrBTXc?

They say Jackie and Shadow are safe from the Line Fire (as of 9 September).

Are eagles Jackie and Shadow safe amid California fires? | Raleigh News & ObserverDownload

Connie Dennis reports that Oscar is still feeding Skylor at the Russell Lake nest in Nova Scotia. So no migration other than Mum, Ethel, so far.

Skylor you crack me up!

Dad is still providing fish at Niagara Bee.

Charlie is still supplying fish to C16 at Charlo. Interesting that it is the males staying behind at the nest and having Dad fish and fish and fish!

No love is lost at the Newfoundland nest of Hope and Beaumont between fledglings when a much-desired fish dinner arrives at the nest. That was the only delivery I saw at the nest – fish could be provided elsewhere, I do not know.

Juveniles in Latvia fight over dinner! https://youtu.be/eh85H6lpaW8?

A juvenile at the Kurzeme Osprey nest in Latvia gets a goldfish dinner. https://youtu.be/E-Bm_C8mv4E?

There was an odd break in the transmission from Sandpoint. Keke is still delivering fish. River was on the perch and then mysteriously on the nest with a nice fish. It was the camera. River is not catching fish – as far as I know, none of the males at these nests are getting their own food. Gorgeous wingspan on this fledgling.

At Orange, a Willy Wagtail comes to visit Diamond.

https://youtu.be/fl7TSd-6KiU?

Incubation continues at 367 Collins Street.

Still no breakfast at the Olympic Sea Eagle nest by 1130. Lady found a few scraps in the nest.

Do you love seabirds and Puffins? Dani Connor Wild has some amazing images in her recent video. https://youtu.be/IJi4vnEk1do?

Calico’s Tip for the Day: When the sisal on the scratch post cylinders is ragged, and you are ready to toss the entire thing in the garbage, don’t. First, could you check your online retailers for replacement sisal disks? They are about half the price of a replacement post where I live. The package we ordered also contained new hardware and an Allen key. Calico knows that I am the least ‘handy person’ in the neighbourhood, so if I can do this, so can you!

The Girls had really scratched up that sisal!

New cylinders to compare. Note the small bag with the hardware and Allen Key. We used our handy dandy cat fur remover and tried to get the old scratch post in near new condition.

What do you think? You can see that we got it all finished. Make sure that the Allen Key has everything secure. Gosh, I even amazed Calico and she gave the new sisal cylinders her Golden Paw Award – because they had a small bag of hardware with the Allen Key so I didn’t have to go rummaging around trying to find one!

Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care of yourselves. We hope to have you with us soon!

Thank you to the following for their posts, notes, comments, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: SK Hideaways, Farmer’s Way, Diana Lambertson and The Joy of Ospreys, the CDC West Nile Virus, Cascade Raptor Centre, Fortis Exshaw Canmore, Heidi McGrue and The Joy of Ospreys, Montana Osprey Project, Openverse, BirdGuides, Cornell Bird Lab, Eagle 22, News & Observer, Connie Dennis and Ospreys of Nova Scotia, Pam Breci and The Joy of Ospreys, Charlo Montana, Newfoundland Power, Sandpoint Ospreys, Liznm, Holly Parsons, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac,

Bird World News 16.2.22

It is -17 C on the Canadian Prairies, almost noon on 16 February. The temperatures will drop overnight so that it is -32 C tomorrow. No snow. Yeah! But the wind was blowing this morning and swirling around Mrs Woodpecker when she was eating the suet.

Yes that white strip is actually how the blowing snow looked to the camera. Isn’t she lovely? None of the other birds had arrived and she had this compressed seed cylinder all to herself. They seem to prefer it over the more traditional suet- at least at our breakfast bar!

It is the middle of the night in Port Lincoln Australia and Ervie and Dad are on the barge. Ervie on the nest and Dad up on the perch.

Yesterday afternoon I needed a break from the worrying over NE27 and so I went and checked on Xavier and Diamond. Diamond had a large crop and was in the scrape. Oh, she is gorgeous.

Did you know that the Latin word peregrinus means ‘foreign, wandering’? Apparently they noted that the bird was constantly on the move!

Sharpie came to visit the other day and I was reminded, looking at him, that he is just so much smaller in size that the Peregrine Falcons which are medium to large size hawks.

I love how the raptors can close one eye with their nictitating membrane, that third eyelid unique to them.

It was comforting to see Diamond in the scrape. Breeding will not take place til the late summer but if you are longing for Peregrine Falcons, it is time to turn your attention to Annie and Grinnell at the UC-Berkeley Campus. Egg laying should be taking place in a couple of weeks.

Both of the chicks have hatched at the Eagle Country nest of Abigail and Blazer. The oldest was given the name Thunder and the youngest is Fern. Fern gets some bites amidst a bit of bonking from Thunder.

There is a pip on at least one of Andy and Lena’s eggs at the Captiva Osprey Cam. I thought it was on two eggs, some think only one.

Here is the link to the cam:

I grew up in Oklahoma. Sadly, one of the oldest living eagles, Taurus, who was an ambassador for the Sequoyah State Park in my home state died. Taurus was 43 years old!

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article258434148.html

At the 07:10 feeding on the NEFlorida Bald Eagle nest of Samson and Gabby, NE27 did the old snatch and grab. It got right under the parent and up so it could grab ignoring a couple of earlier pecks by 26.

NE27 needs to keep its head and neck away from NE26. It seems to know that. It is also figuring out how to circumvent NE26 and get up front quicker. Clever little eaglet.

Later NE27 stared down 26 with the older sibling not reacting. Well done, Little Bit.

That cheeping by Little Bit is because it is hungry. Some eaglets do it more than others.

We are in the third week. We should be seeing this competitive behaviour by 26 easing up in the next week. NE27 is going to be fine and much better suited to deal with the outside world where there will be huge competition with other raptors.

If you missed it, Liberty and Guardian now have three eggs as of yesterday! I missed that one for sure. Last year this couple fledged three juvenile eagles. The Redding California Bald Eagle nest is one to watch!

Here is the link to the Redding Cam:

The sun is shining bright and it is getting a little colder. I am off for my walk and to check on the chickadee at the park. There is a small bag of seeds for it in my pocket today.

Take care everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Port Lincoln Osprey, Charles Sturt University Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross, Captiva Osprey Cam, and NEFlorida Eagle Cam and the AEF.

Blame it on Dyson

According to all of those pop-ups on the computer that can drive you mad at times, today is Black Friday. The Friday after Thanksgiving to kick off a season of buying – all those things we want but don’t need, everything to put a smile on someone’s face for the holidays, etc. I said that I would not buy anything on a Black Friday sale. Famous last words?

Dyson is our resident grey squirrel with the ‘good tail.’ There are 2 others, another small one with a weird tail and the big grey one. Dyson got his name because he can suck up more bird seed than all of the birds in our garden together and in record time.

Dyson was regularly coming to take the corn cob away from Mr Blue Jay.

For several days Mr Blue Jay, Mrs Blue Jay and Junior thwarted Dyson’s attempts. And then Dyson got clever. OK, he is clever he just worked faster to get that cob out of sight.

The little grey squirrel would push and pull until he got the cob off the deck. He had to move it over cinder blocks and flower beds before getting it on the grass. Then he pushed and pulled and got it about 5 metres away. Then the cob disappeared.

Where his winter’s supply is, we do not know.

From the corn cobs Dyson advanced to the hanging tray feeder where he could sit or pancake himself eating all the glorious nuts and berries. That was until Little Red explained to Dyson that the hanging feeder is ‘off limits’.

Little Red cleared Dyson out of the hanging feeder in no time. I wonder if he has a silent alarm that lets him know if someone steps on that feeder?

Little Red enjoying a nut in the hanging tray feeder.

Dyson then discovered the ‘new’ chipped peanut and sunflower seed feeder with accompanying tray. No effort at all, just sit and vacuum out the goodies! I am certain the man at the birdseed store was laughing as I left the store the day he sold me that tray!

So, word of warning. If you have a persistent squirrel around that you love – and I mean who wouldn’t love Dyson? – don’t put a tray on your feeder so the seed won’t fall to the ground. All it does is act like a squirrel platform! Dyson has even be caught napping between meals on that tray!

Even though Dyson has found the ‘gold mine’ of feeders, he does not like to share his space with Little Woodpecker – and, yes – Dyson has figured out how to get at the suet cylinders, too! I went off today to see if there was ‘something’ for the woodpeckers that Dyson would not like. And that is how it happened.

I walked into the door of the seed store and was promptly met by the cheerful owner who put a bag in my hand and told me that it was their Black Friday Sale and everything that would fit in the bag would be 20% off. Dyson!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow’s challenge for Dyson will be the new wire mesh feeder with the chopped peanuts mixed equally with the Bark Butter Bits for Little Woodpecker. The owner smiled and said, ‘Make sure you don’t put a tray under the feeder!’

From Dyson and all the gang in the garden, we hope that you have a wonderful weekend!