The streaming computer is down again. Looks like I'll need to go over to Times Square today to replace it with the backup. First I need to find someone to let me in.

Good luck Shaky and thanks! 

It would be wonderful if one of them was Jemison 

Or Callidora! 

I see the agenda for today's events..but no where do I see "Falcon Watching" in their schedule! 

A bird that just five years ago seemed to have disappeared from land around a Saddleworth reservoir has now returned.

For several years, no ring ouzels have been spotted breeding at Dove Stone. But this spring and summer, delighted conservationists found two pairs nesting on the edges between Chew Valley and Raven Stone. Jon Bird, (nice name), one of the wardens working at Dove Stone, said: 'Ring ouzels are fantastic. Sometimes called mountain blackbirds, they like heather for nesting in, grassland with lots of worms to feed their hungry chicks, and berries to eat in late summer.

'Now the two pairs at Dove Stone have finished nesting, there's a chance to see them gorging on bilberries and rowan berries as they feed up in preparation for their amazing migration journey to North Africa, where they will spend the winter,' he added.

We are working with United Utilities to make Dove Stone an even better place for people, water and wildlife.

'Today, we carefully manage sheep grazing to encourage more heather and bilberry. Together with new woodlands, particularly with a range of berry-bearing trees, Dove Stone is once more a home fit for ring ouzels,' Ed added.

Ring ouzels look a lot like blackbirds, but have a white crescent across the chest and are slightly bigger.

Ed Lawrance, wildlife warden for United Utilities, said: 'Sadly, ring ouzel numbers have fallen alarmingly in Britain in the past two decades.

'Historically, the Dove Stone edges were the summer home of an important population. There were as many as nine pairs here in the early 1990s. We hope that work we have been doing in the last few years to restore the cloughs and moorlands above Dove Stone will encourage numbers to grow once again.'

Ring Ouzel

WITHOUT the help of crofters, the distinctive rasping call of the corncrake could have fallen silent in Scotland, the Scottish Crofting Federation annual gathering in Oban was told.
According to RSPB Scotland but for the intervention of crofters and farmers the corncrake could have been all but wiped out following the dramatic declines in population across the UK during the 20th century.

A shy and elusive species, corncrakes are frequently heard but not seen, preferring instead to seek cover in nettle beds or the waving grasses of hay meadows. However, a loss of this habitat and changes in farming methods saw numbers decrease significantly.

That this bird can still be heard at all is thanks to the vital work undertaken by the farmers and crofters, says RSPB Scotland.

Corncrake numbers have increased in Scotland from fewer than 500 in 1993 to over 1,200 today. But their continued survival depends upon the cattle-based and mixed farming and crofting systems that provide the habitat they need, and is by no means guaranteed.

Speaking of the need to reform the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) to better target funds towards crofting, Vicki Swales, head of land use policy for RSPB Scotland, said: "The CAP doesn't fit crofting. It fails to recognise the high nature value of such farming systems and the contribution they make to our natural and cultural heritage.

"The majority of CAP support favours large scale, intensive farms rather than extensively managed family farms and crofts.

"Reform of the CAP is currently under discussion in Brussels. With the CAP budget likely to be cut and the reasons for providing public funds to farming under scrutiny, there is growing interest in supporting those farming systems that deliver greatest public benefit."

Vicki Swales continued: "RSPB Scotland is calling for an overhaul of the CAP and for a new system of payments, including payments for High Nature Value farming and crofting. Alongside payments for rural development, this would help to secure the future both of crofting and amazing birds like the corncrake."

Corncrakes spend the winter in Africa, returning to the UK in spring. The males' rasping call gives them their scientific names, Crex crex.

They used to be widespread across the UK, but 150 years ago numbers started declining. By the 1990s, there were less than 500, almost all on the Scottish islands.

Here, crofting management systems continued to provide the conditions required by corncrakes, and so served directly to prevent the national extinction of this species.

How cool is that Suzanne, 3 in one day. Way to go. Good luck today, we'll be waiting. Thank you.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100917/local/police-catch-bird-trappers-after-cabs-monitoring Story and video of the culprits

Beauty being a bit stubborn this am...poor Archer waits.

Live stream not working  off air

Angel wing
Watching Beauty at the Wilder building.

Archer
Rubber-necking

      Hey Donna I didn't use north,south,east or west just for you!!!   

It was easier to follow looking at the Map...thanks Ei and thanks MAK-ster. That is a BIG place for sure.

Ei if you look at the first map Shaky has on his post I can try to explain. Follow Weiland Rd. from the right side of the map down to the bend in front of the stacks. Joyce and Kathy were parked right on that bend when security and police kicked us out. There are several metal stacks behind there and both PPE and SPE were on separate stacks that day. Today SPE was on the middle rail of 1 of the 2 larger stacks that are like the stacks at Kodak office near the high falls area. If you find McNaughton Blvd. on the map where it meets Weiland Rd. there's a parking lot and then buildings to the left where PPE has been spotted several times. Now if you find the blue marker on the left side of the map that's where Carol and I got kicked out of last week. Now find Ridgeway Ave where Weiland Rd. meets it. Across Ridgeway Ave. on the bottom of the map is a parking lot where we've been watching from since we got the boot from Kodak property. Hope you understand my explanation.

 

I'm pretty sure there was still yellow tape.  But that doesn't mean it would still be there.  Quest's tape  was off in Cape Cod

Thank God for transmitters or we'd probably never know....about Quest!

Monarch release was a big success. This one is tagged.

A happy customer has his tagged monarch in its protective, breathable bag until the moment of release

Here's a recent picture of Zeus!
 
and a PPE also!