20-Apr-23, 08:29:09 AM
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17539
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Peregrine falcon released in Evansville in 1994 dies from gunshot wound
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on: 04-Jan-11, 07:42:19 PM
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NEW ALBANY, Ind. β
The state Department of Natural Resources is seeking information about the shooting of a peregrine falcon in southern Indiana.
The injured bird was found near the Interstate 64 bridge over the Ohio River in New Albany on Dec. 22. A veterinarian who X-rayed the falcon determined it had been shot. The bird died Friday.
DNR biologist John Castrale says the falcon named Phoenix was released in Evansville in 1994 and may have been nesting in the Louisville, Ky., area.
Peregrine falcons were removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 but still are an endangered species in Indiana. The DNR urges anyone with information about the falcon's shooting to call 800-847-4367 or go online to TIP.IN.gov.
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17541
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Anything Else / Totally OT / Useless fact of the day
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on: 04-Jan-11, 09:35:09 AM
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The useless fact of the day (UFOTD) - Tengmalm's and Great Horned Owls, when recovering food they have stored and finding it frozen, will defrost it before eating it by incubating it like it's an egg.
From Ireland
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17542
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Anything Else / Totally OT / Re: Spain lotto winner nearly loses millions by tossing tickets
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on: 04-Jan-11, 09:18:02 AM
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Nicest Canadian couple in world dole out lottery winnings
A retired Canadian couple who won $11.3 million in the lottery in July have already given it (almost) all away.
"What you've never had, you never miss," 78-year-old Violet Large explained to a local reporter.
She was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer when the couple realized they'd won the jackpot in July.
"That money that we won was nothing," her tearful husband, Allen, told Patricia Brooks Arenburg of the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald. "We have each other."
The money was a "headache," they told the paper--mainly, it brought anxiety over the prospect that "crooked people" might take advantage of them. Several people called them out of the blue to ask for money when the news first broke that they'd won the jackpot. So they began an $11 million donation spree to get rid of it and help others, the Chronicle Herald reports:
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17543
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Anything Else / Totally OT / Spain lotto winner nearly loses millions by tossing tickets
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on: 04-Jan-11, 09:16:13 AM
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 MADRID (AFP) β A Spanish lottery player nearly lost nine million euros (12 million dollars) in winnings after tossing tickets in the rubbish only to later discover they were winners, Spanish media said. Ignacio Gonzalez, a lottery ticket vendor in the country's northern Basque Country, was stunned to discover Friday that the number he had played along with 14 friends -- 48104 -- had come up in a charity draw run by a Spanish organisation for the blind, ONCE. Gonzalez's euphoria quickly turned to despair, however, when he could not find the winning tickets. "The New Year was off to a very good start, with a shower of millions, but on the other hand I couldn't find the tickets," Gonzalez told Basque radio station Radio Euskadi. After a desperate search of his home and with hope running out, Gonzalez ran out to his neighbourhood rubbish bin. "Without thinking about it for two seconds and in front of stunned passers-by, he dumped over the container" and began rifling through its contents, newspaper ABC wrote Sunday in an account of the incident. Mixed in with the rubbish, Gonzalez finally found the winning tickets, no worse for wear, allowing him and his friends to collect more than 600,000 euros each in winnings. [Extreme luck: Lottery winner hits jackpot...four times] After the close call, Gonzalez admitted that he feared his friends would have "crucified" him if he had lost the tickets for good. (I'd go to the dump if need be to find that ticket)!!
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17545
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Other Nature Related Information / Raptor Web Cams / Re: Norfolk Eagles in their new nest
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on: 04-Jan-11, 06:44:35 AM
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Azalea is near the Adam Thouroughgood House in Thoroughgood section of Virginia Beach at midnight Jan 3. I am going to look for her. More details later.
Well, Azalea wins again!! I arrived at 7:45am at the exact spot where she was at midnight, but she had already flown the scene. I took a chance that she might return to Witchduck where she was on Jan 2 and where she has spent several nights lately. Also, photographer Jim Deal got a look at Azalea there yesterday. As I arrived a juvenile was being chased away by two adults. Was it Azalea? I donβt know. The juvie did not return. All was not lost however. The two adults put on a flying spectactular for the next 30 minutes. Dipping, diving and screaming. On New Years day, Jim Deal and I located a new eagle nest just a short distance from there. It is likely those two eagles that were putting on the show.
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17546
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: 1,000 dead black birds have fallen from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas
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on: 04-Jan-11, 06:34:42 AM
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A mysterious event that caused thousands of red-wing blackbirds to rain down from the sky New Year's Eve in the Arkansas town of Beebe may have occurred when loud noises or fireworks frightened a flock that roosts in a neighborhood, causing them to fly into buildings and other obstacles, a state ornithologist said.
But others still think weather could have played a role.
Preliminary necropsies on the dead birds by the state Livestock and Poultry Commission "showed trauma," said Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist. "The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages." Beyond that, all the birds were healthy.
The state is also performing chemical and disease testing, but the results will take a week.
Neighbors reported five to 12 booming noises in the eastern part of Beebe, a community of 5,000 northeast of Little Rock. "They reported it sounding like a cannon or transformer exploding," but officials are still investigating to find out what the noises were, Rowe said.
The flock then rose from its roost and tried to fly away, but possibly because of fireworks in the sky "they naturally wouldn't want to go up high," she said. "They were below the roof line, so they were hitting houses, mail boxes, chimneys and walls."
Blackbirds have very poor night vision.
The first calls about the incident came in at about 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, according to Keith Stephens, with the Game and Fish Commission.
"They told us there were birds falling out of the sky. After we verified that this wasn't some kind of prank, one of our wildlife officers went over there and sure enough, there were birds falling," he said.
The Department of Emergency Management tested the air and found nothing amiss, so the state isn't putting out any health warnings, he said.
Many theories being floated about causes of the die off can be discounted, said Dan Cristol, a professor of biology at the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. The birds couldn't have eaten a fast-acting pesticide because they would have eaten it during the day and died long before they began to roost at night, he said. A slower-acting pesticide wouldn't have affected them all at the same time. A hail storm is unlikely because they would have had to be flying for that to happen, and at that hour red-wing blackbirds are asleep.
Rough weather had hit the state earlier Friday, but the worst of it was well east of Beebe by the time the birds started falling, said Chris Buonanno, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
But one expert said he can't discount weather as a cause.
"Thousands of birds encountered something, whether it was a lighting strike or hail or something, and that caused the trauma and death," said Robert Meese, an avian ecologist at the University of California-Davis. "I don't see any way that they could have flown into obstructions, because then the birds should have been at the base of the objects. ... This was a scattering."
The number of dead blackbirds is more than 3,000, Rowe said. "Environmental Services says they picked up approximately 2,000 birds." There were others they couldn't reach, she said, and "scavengers probably carried off quite a bit β if you're a cat, it's Christmas dinner."
Red-wing blackbirds are native to North America and gather in large flocks in the winter, generally settling near food sources for weeks at a time, said Mike Parr of the American Bird Conservancy in Washington, D.C.
The number of birds that died Friday is high, he noted, but "to put the number in perspective, windows, communication towers, power lines and wind turbines kill tens of millions of birds each year, probably hundreds of millions."
In an unrelated event, a major fish kill was reported on the Arkansas River last week, Stephens said. Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 dead freshwater drum were found along a 17-mile stretch of the river, about 100 miles from Beebe, between the Ozark Lock and Dam and a point due south of Hartman.
State officials believe the fish kill was disease related. Specimens have been sent to state labs for testing.
The incidents β coming during a traditionally slow news period β made for a wild weekend for state Game and Fish staffers.
"It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced and I've been doing this for 25 years," Stephens said. "I'll bet you I've had 100 calls today, I've done 25 interviews. I did Al-Jazeera live last night."
USA Today
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8.20 in the sunrise this morning - Bobbin returns after a five day break, looks a bit windy on the perch....Dave
WHY???
