Thank you Kris, this news is encouraging. 

It's "The Cat in the Vat".

Yes good one Miss Bobbie! 

Thanks Donna though it's a bit long I enjoyed reading this article. 

Yeah yeah, I know how much you  reading long articles. 

Hannibal the Vulture? I'm in love!

Exactly  I find them fascinating and YES, I have seen them..

Calling someone a vulture isn't normally considered a compliment.

But conservationists say the bird gets a bad rap.

In an attempt to remind the public that the unique talents of the vulture bring harmony to the ecosystem, International Vulture Awareness Day was celebrated at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary on Saturday.

The event drew a large crowd: Some came for the nice weather; others, like Mary Snyder of Bethlehem, a self-professed raptor addict, came for a full day of vulture-related activities.

Snyder and her grandson Noah Wilson, 10, Bethlehem, made their way to the trails for vulture spotting.

"You're a birdaholic," Noah said to his grandmother.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. there were events for children such as vulture counting at the lookouts, learning about vulture research techniques and a live vulture demonstration.

During the demonstration by Red Creek Wildlife Center, children and adults alike sat awed by Hannibal, an Eastern turkey vulture brought and presented by the wildlife center, which is near Schuylkill Haven.

Jim Dougherty of East Greenville, Montgomery County, brought his granddaughter, Keira Sikora, 6, also of East Greenville, to the sanctuary for the first time.

"We've always wanted to come up and see what's up here," he said.

Keira, undaunted by the ugly bird, knew her vulture facts.

"They eat dead things," she said.

And that's one of the best things about vultures, Morrie Katz, director of development for Red Creek Wildlife Center, said as Hannibal perched on his arm.

"They are really helpful animals," he lectured to the crowd at the amphitheater. "They're nature's cleanup crew."

He explained that vultures devour carrion, so that it isn't left lying around to rot, and they don't produce much waste because of the strong digestive acid in their stomachs. Their ability to efficiently remove waste helps control populations of feral dogs, coyotes and jackals, which reduces the risk of rabies.

While he talked, Hannibal mugged for the cameras, spreading out his wings.

International Vulture Awareness Day was launched two years ago to draw attention to the sudden drop in the tens of millions of vultures in south Asia and India. Hawk Mountain launched its own studies of North and South American vultures in 2007 to build baseline data on the winged scavengers.

Hannibal

New Jersey

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - When you drive along the Longport Bridge causeway, you can take notice of the traffic, the bicyclists, the wall of cooler sea air, the waiting Longport speed traps.

Or you might notice the 2,904 endangered black skimmers - sleek, elegant birds with a distinctive orange stripe on their beaks - that have chosen the little beach between Seaview Harbor Marina and the dog beach across from Ocean City as their nesting ground this year.

Breaking down to 2,112 adults and 792 juveniles, this unlikely endangered nesting colony next to rushing beach traffic represents nearly the entire black skimmer population of New Jersey.

"Ah, I'm so proud of this colony," said Chris Kisiel, senior environmental specialist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

Two years ago, most of the skimmers were on the remote southern tip of Stone Harbor or nearby Champagne Island. But the tidal island disappeared under water, and the Hereford Inlet area of Stone Harbor flooded, attracting predator gulls and foxes and sending the skimmers to the little strand with a view of Longport and the north end of Ocean City.

"It is very surprising," Kisiel said, peering through binoculars at the edge of the beach, which the state has roped off for several years as a protected nesting area for terns, plovers, and skimmers. Each year has brought a dramatic increase in the skimmer count. "It just seems so incredibly odd to have the road so close."

But close it is, with the entire breathtakingly choreographed colony sometimes soaring out over cyclists, trucks, and loaded-up SUVS on the road before landing back again near the edge of the bay.

A similar display of ospreys is available for viewing from your car as you drive over the Margate Bridge, where several wooden nests the state erected have yielded a banner year for the family-oriented birds and their young. And from busy Wellington Avenue in Ventnor, egrets are visible in marshes across from the Pathmark supermarket and the new Checkers restaurant.

Tourists travel thousands of miles to national parks to pull their cars over and stand gazing through binoculars at ospreys and other birds, but in Atlantic County, only a handful ever stop to look on their way to the beach.

"I was talking to three people at the dog beach and said, 'Have you seen the skimmer colony?' and they had no idea about the skimmer colony," said Melissa Tucker, a state seasonal field specialist. "It's amazing; it's right here."

Tucker has spent the spring and summer with the brain-numbing task of counting the birds one by one. "It feels like I've taken the SAT every time," she said.

After seeing the dense crowd of birds - the skimmer equivalent of blanket to blanket on the beach - Kisiel was optimistic: "I feel like it might be more," she said.

A woman on the beach, when told the count, was skeptical: "Give or take a thousand."

From below, as the birds suddenly take flight, the view is stirring: their breasts and bellies are bright white, and the underside of their wings bears a gradual, painterly shading from white to gray to a sharp black outline at the edge - like eyeliner.

The flash of orange beak gives a stylish look that stands out from the typical seagull. "I always say they belong on a tropical island," Tucker said.

They are a handsome and jaunty lot standing on the beach: stark black on top, skinny orange legs, and black-and-orange beaks.

"They look like penguin seagulls," said Marin Makely, 11, of Haddonfield, who walked with three generations of her family to the edge of the dog beach to look.

The land is owned by the Seaview Harbor Marina, and the state did get a few complaints when the Department of Environmental Protection roped off a large section as a protected beach and forbid dogs on the strand next to the marina.

Eric Sturgis of Somers Point, who works on the boats in the marina, grumbled a little. "This first section is private, the middle one's for the birds, the other end is the dogs," he said. "There's nothing left for me."

Others find the spectacle sublime. It is, for sure, the only place in New Jersey where you can lie on the beach next to a colony of endangered skimmers. As long as you belong to the marina, anyway. "It used to be our beach, now it's theirs," joked Marla Transue of Shamong.

Jim Robson, 73, of Bargaintown, a retired banker who grew up summering in Longport, made a special stop last week on his way to his dentist in Ventnor. "I haven't seen skimmers in years," he said. "This is the first time I've ever seen them like this. It's unbelievable."

Kisiel said she believed the birds liked the inlet for the gentle topography of the sand - no huge dunes, but lots of vegetation - and the protected waterways between the boats of the marina, where they can be seen skimming for food. With the breeze blowing off the bay, the sound of causeway traffic is muffled. The birds mostly turn their backs on the road, anyway.

"It's such a beautiful sight," she said. "They did so well this year. There's no reason for them not to come back."

They are graceful and charismatic birds to watch. Weighing less than a pound, they rarely go farther north than New Jersey or New York, and end up wintering as far south as South America, often in remote rain forests.

As for their chirping, "It's somewhere between a bark and a quack, almost like puppies," Tucker said.

"I feel like they're saying, "Marco! Polo!" Kisiel said.

With no apparent reason, the entire colony will take flight, swoop up and around, and settle on a spot of beach a short distance away.

The juveniles - at this stage all gray - wait around to be fed by their parents, who use a beak with a longer lower mandible as a scoop under the water as they fly just above it. They literally skim the surface of the water for bait fish.

"When [the lower mandible] hits something, they clamp down," said Todd Pover, head of the state's Endangered Species Program.

Last year, about 700 or 800 birds started the season in Egg Harbor Township, and by the end of the summer, with the addition of the bird refugees from Stone Harbor, the population had swollen to about 1,700. But because the nesting - they make little divots in the sand called scrapes that typically contain three or four eggs - happened so late, many were lost in a late summer storm.

As Hurricane Earl approached from the Carolinas, Kisiel said she believed these juveniles - hatched in June and July - would fare much better. "These guys are so much older," she said.

The skimmers should stay around the beach for a few more weeks and are then expected to mass at a staging beach on the Second Avenue jetty in Cape May before heading south. "Can we just tell them where to go?" Kisiel asked. "No. They go where they want to go."

  A black skimmer returns to the beach with a fresh catch. The lower half of the birds' beaks are longer than the top half, allowing them to skim the surface of the water for bait fish.

West photographer Richard Austin has spent more than quarter of a century focusing his lenses on birds, but this is the first time he's had to pretend to be one in order to grab ornithological images.

Yesterday Richard was given exclusive access to a secret location on the Somerset Levels making him the first photographer to ever successfully take pictures of cranes flying in the region's skies.

The last time the tall wetland birds lived and bred here was 400 years ago.

But now 20 young cranes are in the process of being released on the Somerset Levels as the first stage of a unique project comes to fruition. The birds were imported as eggs from Germany and have since been raised by Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT) and RSPB staff wearing special crane costumes so that the youngsters would never form a bond with humans.

"It was difficult taking photos dressed as a crane because you have to hide your facial features behind gauze," said Mr Austin. "They are all-in- one suits that break up the form of the human being – the young birds simply think you are another crane.

"If you took off the suit they'd fly off quick," he added after his successful mission. "You even have to wear it all the way back to the car so they don't see you take it off."

The Great Crane Project aims to reintroduce cranes to where they were once common. Project manager Damon Bridge said: "From first collecting the eggs from Germany back in April our aviculturalists have been working round the clock to give these birds all the care and attention they need. We are now at the point where they are making their first forays into the wild and over the next few weeks we are looking forward to them getting used to their new home in the Somerset Levels and Moors."

The project, a partnership between RSPB, WWT and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, with major funding from Viridor Credits Environmental Company, hopes to establish a wild population of the species in Somerset over the next decade.

Aviculturalists Amy King and Roland Digby with the cranes

Have you noticed groups of crows flying overhead in the late afternoon, wheeling and diving? These are American Crows with a purpose. They’re headed to their night roost, a giant slumber party. Up to 40,000 crows in one space is not uncommon for a winter-time roost. Gathering at dusk, crows land in a tree, then scuffle and squawk, filtering down through the branches. For more about the crow, visit Cornell's AllAboutBirds. Learn about the population explosion of crows in urban areas across the country.

Sadie McGee sat on her new double-level deck looking at hummingbirds flitter back and forth from the sugar feeder. The birds had metallic green backs and ruby red chests. Unexpectedly, however, McGee also saw a streak of white.

“I thought it was a figment of my imagination; the belly might have been white,� McGee said.

The bird kept showing up every day. McGee took photos and soon realized it was a white hummingbird, a rarity only seen by a handful of people each year.

The white hummingbird isn’t albino, a condition where no pigmentation can be formed. Instead, it is what is commonly known as leucistic, a trait found in animals and humans as well. It’s partial albinism, but the eyes and other features maintain color.

“Hummers with this condition are extremely rare,� Robert Daly, biology professor at the University of North Alabama, wrote in an e-mail. “I hear about one in this area every couple of years, but I have never been able to catch and band one due to their migration farther south.�

Daly is a bander affiliated with the Hummer/Bird Study Group, a nonprofit group geared toward preservation of hummingbirds. Banding involves catching and tagging or marking the bird to monitor its activities.

“Like with other leucistic/albino organisms in the wild, long-term survival is very unlikely,� Daly wrote. “Predators of all types focus in on the ‘white’ color. I would expect this bird to head south at any time.�

Data on leucistic hummingbirds are lacking, but “after 15 years of fielding queries and looking at photos, I would say about 10-15 are reported (to someone, even if not to us) every year,� Ross Hawkins, executive director of the Hummingbird Society, wrote in an e-mail. “Few are pure albino; most are leucistic, and a few are partial albinos. So to see one, of any type, is pretty rare!�

George Barrowclough, associate curator of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, has seen thousands of hummingbirds, but the only white one he has encountered is the sole one in the museum’s collection in New York City.

“It’s very unusual in my experience,� said Barrowclough, with more than 30 years as a researcher under his belt.

Barrowclough said the more scientific term for the condition of the white hummingbird is schizochroism, in which one or more pigments’ production pathways are turned off.

“There’s really a cost of not having pigment in your feathers,� Barrowclough said, particularly from the standpoint of the bird losing its camouflage, which is important to thwart prey.

“From a natural history standpoint, it’s costly to lose your pigment,� he said.

McGee moved to Alabama in 2007 after being a Navy nuclear mechanic for the past eight years. She put out her first hummingbird feeder, one taken over by a dominant male.

This summer, she put out a second source of sugar water that attracted a growing number of hummingbirds.

Cathy Markovitz, a neighbor, visited McGee on a recent Thursday.

Both watched as the white hummingbird flitted from branch to feeder before disappearing into a wooded area behind McGee’s home.

The evening before, McGee said, she filled one feeder with her recipe of two cups water and half a cup of sugar. The next afternoon, half the solution was gone.

“They’re going to be fat hummingbirds if they go through that much,� Markovitz said.

Camouflage in nature is nothing new. A wide variety of animals, like rabbits, birds and deer, are cryptically colored to blend in with their background and guard themselves from predators. Now researchers report that parasites, too, are capable of hiding in plain sight. In looking at lice  that live in the feathers of birds, researchers found that light-colored lice live on light-colored birds, whereas dark-colored lice live on dark-colored birds.

The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of The American Naturalist. The researchers looked at 26 pairs of related but differently colored birds, like a black swan and a white swan, and a white pelican and a brown pelican. In every case, the color of the lice on the bird’s body matched its feather color. Birds regularly preen their feathers and are more apt to find lice that are contrasting in color to their feathers.

Over time, lice evolved to match their hosts’ coloring, said Sarah Bush, a University of Utah biologist and the study’s lead author.

The researchers found, however, that lice in one area where it’s hard to preen — on the head — did not necessarily match feather color. “Birds can’t look at their own heads,� Dr. Bush said. “There’s no evolutionary selection for lice to be cryptically colored, unless they are removed.�

The lice on all the birds’ heads tended to be dark regardless of feather color, leading Dr. Bush to believe that darker lice may have an evolutionary advantage.

“Nobody’s tested it, but it may protect them from UV radiation,� she said.

  Lice evolved to match their hosts. Lighter lice live on the sulphur-crested cockatoo, right, and darker lice live on the yellow-tailed black cockatoo

Wildlife Diary 7 September 2010
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Good Morning all.

Oh what a dreach (horrible) day it is!

High winds and driving rain, not great for wildlife watching but the birds will still be at the feeders but I would imagine all the wildfowl will be hiding in the reed beds on such a horrible day.

I did notice that no one mentioned the pine marten in their comments from last night, Steven is looking back over last nights recording, if he finds anything we will let you know.

Tomorrow Fiona and I will be attending a meeting about our blog and how we progress with it over the coming year. If any of you have any Ideas on what you would like to see on the blog please let me know. We will not be able to implement everything but I think it would be good to get your feedback on this.

Peter

Archer comes a callin
Beauty's in her favorite spot
Archer gets the "Bow" rollin
But who's he bowing at?
Beauty looks on
Sure, now she gets closer after he's gone

Archer on his way out
So cute

The RSPCA has put out a call for new carers after being inundated with injured birds.

More than 120 birds are already in care, and spring and summer are the animal shelter's busy season with up to 400 new birds expected to need nursing in the coming months.

Wildlife supervisor Alanna Kropf blames the breeding season on the high number of injured birds.

Yesterday she visited a peregrine falcon who is sharing an aviary in Calwell with a barn owl.

''More get compromised because they are interacting with us,'' she said.

''In urban areas, where there are lots of stress and there is not that much food around, it's even worse. It can be worse because not only are they worrying about trying to find a mate, they have to find food and a suitable breeding site. We had a magpie come in that had been electrocuted because she had tried to build a nest on a power box.''

Ms Kropf said the peregrine falcon was found trapped in blackberry plants two weeks ago.

''We found she had no fractures or breaks, which is really fortunate because it's her livelihood. She needs to soar they can fly up to 300km per hour.''

RSPCA ACT chief executive Michael Linke said birds accounted for 85 per cent of the wildlife brought to the shelter, with carers nursing a brown goshawk, tawny frogmouth and a few gang-gangs.

He said carers started out nursing birds and as their knowledge increased, they cared for more difficult animals, such as reptiles.

''We are after long-term carers so they can build up their skills,'' he said.

Canberrans who are interested in becoming volunteer wildlife carers will need to attend a training day on September 19.

The barn owl keeps a wary eye on the peregrine falcon in the Calwell aviary where both are being nursed back to health.

OK

OK then