[(Read on if you like, it's pretty long) but very interesting.]

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/science_article/default.cfm?id=50

At the end of summer each year, birds from forests across North America leave their breeding grounds and travel thousands of miles, through all kinds of weather, over mountains and oceans, to their wintering grounds in the tropics.

Since it is such a long and demanding trip, they will need to stop in unfamiliar habitats to find food and rest before continuing on their journey to a tropical land that is quite different from the temperate one they left behind. In 5 to 8 months, they will start the journey again, in reverse. It happens every year, and yet we understand so little about the journey and the birds who undertake it.  (Read on if you like, it's pretty long) but very interesting.

   Good morning Rochester falcon watchers! I can't recall if this has ever happened to me on the morning watch before but I saw no falcons. Jim Pisello came down specifically to photograph the Black Crowned Night Heron and he wasn't dissappointed.  The juvie was down among the tall grass on the east side of the riverbank. Just before I left we spotted the 2 mink hunting for breakfast in the riverbed and under the rocks. I marvel at how fast these creatures can move in and around the slippery rocks.
   Perhaps Beauty and Archer went to Callidoras new digs for breakfast. Maybe they met up with Jemison out at Montezuma. Hopefully they'll be around for my evening watch. Have a great day everyone!

I must learn more about that wonderful river. Thanks for the reports. Jim, will you have pix up on your blog soon??

Thanks MAK....Bummer, no falcons. Bobbie, I'm sure Jim will have some great photos and story on his blog soon. We won't be disappointed there. 

God bless your eyes, Jersey Girl!! (...and I KNOW what you are going to say: "So. That surgery was no good, huh??"

Absolutely NOT Bobbie, I'm sure your a sharp-eyed gal. I just happened to be going through the archives and "OH, something moved". Anybody could have spotted it, if they were looking. I'm positive your surgery went stellar, your still healing. 

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/woodiecam1 Pretty sad for her. They think there was no male or the heat got to them. Who knows.

Aren't wild things amazing? No matter what, they stick with it... tenacious... faithful. We could learn...

I so agree with you Bobbie...look at the Falcon in the Netherlands @ Eemsmond...she sat on those eggs for over 50 days. Finally, the eggs had to be removed. That girl never gave up. Last year the same, oh I felt so bad for her. Unfortunately, I believe one of the couple is sterile and if they stay together, they will never have eggs that will hatch.  

A little birdie behind the main cam mount

(movie) That's right, fly away quick 

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/woodiecam1 Pretty sad for her. They think there was no male or the heat got to them. Who knows.

Wildlife Diary 2nd September
September 2nd, 2010 by E Rawling, Perthshire Ranger SWT

The staff at Lowes were so excited by the Pine Martin sighting on Wednesday morning, that some of us stayed up very late watching at the feeder window hoping…..no such luck last night! It brought back memories of all those long nights back in the spring doing osprey nest protection watch ( can that really only be five months ago?) when you get a previledge view of the nightime world of Loch of the lowes.

At night there is the errie call of the geese calling on the loch, and the quiet footfall of the deer in the woods. The tawny owls are quite vocal and the loch surface seem to buzz with daubentons bats scimming for insects. Lots of feild mice scrurry around the base of the feeders and our resident hedghog ( who lives under the VC) shuffled out to go about its business in the dark.

Alas, the only thing msising was a pine martin, but we hope it will return soon- keep your eyes peeled and be sure to let us know if you see it on camera!

[Thanks for posting this Joyce. Poor Ohio, I feel so bad for Ranger but glad he's improving. So it's Boomer huh? I watched him grow and yes, he will carry on the legacy of Orville and his mom "Scout", poor girl. Now if we can just find Mariah, Kaver & Jemison, all will be good.]

Thanks for posting this Joyce. Poor Ohio, I feel so bad for Ranger but glad he's improving. So it's Boomer huh? I watched him grow and yes, he will carry on the legacy of Orville and his mom "Scout", poor girl. Now if we can just find Mariah, Kaver & Jemison, all will be good.

An osprey in a basket...video by Capecast via Blackwater NWR

That's the cutest thing I've seen in a while. Poor other baby, sad but this one survived. Some humans are wonderful. Thanks Ei, this is a keeper.

[WanderingFalcon (Carol P.):]

WanderingFalcon (Carol P.): Looks like A and B. Preening and keeping cool in the framework of the F comm twr. This Watcher found shaf too. Warm one!

Link:
http://twitter.com/WanderingFalcon/statuses/22738166146

Carol, what is a shaf?  ???

I think it is a warm falcon watcher looking for shade

How about an over heated falcon watcher looking for a cool spot and it's a WARM ONE out?

[WanderingFalcon (Carol P.):]

WanderingFalcon (Carol P.): Looks like A and B. Preening and keeping cool in the framework of the F comm twr. This Watcher found shaf too. Warm one!

Link:
http://twitter.com/WanderingFalcon/statuses/22738166146

Carol, what is a shaf?  ???

Ospreys are currently listed as a threatened species in New Jersey. They were first listed as endangered in 1974 after the state population declined to only 50 pairs, from over 500 prior to 1950. Ospreys have made a remarkable recovery in New Jersey thanks to biologists with the Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) and many volunteers. Surveys that help monitor the population were conducted in late June and early July.

Volunteers and biologists surveyed all major nesting colonies from Sandy Hook south along the Atlantic Coast to Cape May and west to Salem County. Ospreys almost exclusively nest on man-made structures including platforms designed specifically for them, cell towers, duck blinds, channel markers, and boat lifts. Surveyors visited these nest structures to observe whether or not they were occupied. If they’re occupied, then the number of young were recorded and the young were banded for future tracking with a USGS bird band. Preliminary results show that productivity rates are up for all nesting colonies except one (Sedge Island WMA). Since ospreys are predators, they are at the top of the food chain. They are considered to be an indicator species, or a species that is sensitive to changes in environmental conditions and can serve as an indicator of an unhealthy marine ecosystem. Basically, a healthy osprey population means a healthy marine ecosystem.

The climate during this summer has been the complete opposite as last year. It was hot, dry, and calm, with only a few severe storms with high winds that caused some nests to fail. Otherwise, fish stocks are plentiful, especially menhaden. This year many out-of-state commercial fishing boats have started fishing for bunker off New Jersey waters. This is mostly due to declines in herring stocks in New England and the high demand for bait for use in lobster pots. State legislators have introduced a bill that would limit boats from catching bunker for use as bait. Read more here and this press release from the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

Three osprey nestlings at a nest near Osbourne Island.

The Golden Gate Audubon Society is partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the San Francisco Department of the Environment announce the fall Lights Out for Birds. The program enables building owners, managers and tenants to save energy and money while protecting migratory birds. Lights Out for Birds participants turn off unnecessary building lights during the bird migration (February through May and August though November each year). Ornithologists studying bird collisions at a single building in Chicago documented an 80 percent decrease in avian mortality after implementing the Lights Out program. However, another goal of the initiative is to reduce energy usage. Such cost savings will be apparent in lower electrical bills. (photo by William van Bergen)

San Francisco was one of the first cities to implement a Lights Out program in 2008. Now over 21 cities in the US and Canada have a Lights Out program. Conservationists hope that the program extends to every major city in North America, to save birds, energy and money.

Today brings a bit of short-term good news for horseshoe crabs - and a worrisome long-term prognosis.

Volunteers canvassing Maryland's coastal bays this summer counted a record 23,438 of the helmet-shaped crustaceans crawling ashore to spawn on five different beaches. That's the highest tally in nine years of checking by the state Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.

Horseshoe crabs creep ashore in late spring and early summer to lay eggs and fertlize them in a slow-moving orgy, with one or more males clinging to each larger female. The most action was seen on Skimmer Island, an eroding patch of sand just north of the U.S. 50 bridge in Sinepuxent Bay.

Surveyors report that the ratio of males to each female has gradually been climbing in the past eight years - a good trend for maintaining a diverse gene pool for the longlasting creatures. With more crabs laying more eggs, shorebirds and herons also had more to eat. The surveyors also saw an uptick in royal terns and black skimmers on aptly named Skimmer Island.

Now for the not-so-promising news: new research relayed by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that the crabs have been in a long decline because the earth's climate has been changing - and that future rises in sea level and water temperatures could dim their prospects even more.

While the recent drop in horseshoe crabs has been blamed on overharvesting them for eel bait, a study published in Molecular Ecology suggests that changes in climate since the last Ice Age have had a hand in altering the number of successfully reproducing crabs seen along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

What's more, the impacts of climate change to come - rising sea level and water temperature fluctuations - could limit crab distribution and interbreeding. With fewer crabs to mingle, there are fewer genes to mix and blend. And without a rich variety of genes at work, a species may have a harder time adapting to changing surroundings, the scientists said.

And that could be bad news for struggling shorebirds like the red knot, which feast on the crabs' eggs to refuel for their epic 9,000-mile migrations.  Likewise bad for the endangered Atlantic loggerhead sea turtle, which feeds on the crabs themselves.

"For this reason, the low effective population sizes indicated in the new study give one pause,� said Tim King, a US. Geological Survey scientist and lead author of the study.

it would have been different if she had stolen the bird from its nest but she didn't. she rescued it. In the beginning it says she emailed wildlife rehabilitation shelters to learn more. "The bird, they said, was unlikely to survive." Did anyone offer to take it and help it then NO. She did what she could for the bird and it survived and seemed to do well. Then they treat her like a criminal. Yet there are people out there shooting and injuring birds and they don't do a darn thing about that. Or if they catch them they slap them on the wrist and say bad boy don't do that again. It just ticks you off. 

All the time BC!

I was boiling after reading it too.