Peregrine falcon from Potter Park Zoo found

Osprey Diary August 25th
August 25th, 2010 by E Rawling, Perthshire Ranger SWT

  The osprey diary today is no not so much about our Lowes birds, who haven’t been seen on the Loch at all in the last 24hrs, probably having started their autumn migratory wanderings. Other local birds, however, are still around, and reports are coming in thick and fast of osprey beings spotted travelling through. I myself saw an adult osprey fishing at another of our reserves, Stormont Loch, yesterday which doesn’t have a breeding pair, which just shows it is worth keeping an eye out in all sorts of local waters.

Our webcams are still plagued by technical problems- how grateful are we that this didn’t happen in the middle of the osprey season!!! Most of you will sympathise with the endless contradictory answers we’ve been getting and the ‘on hold’ phone queues we’ve been enduring trying to sort out the problem, which now appears to be phone line and electricity related. Our sincere apologies for the lack of visuals and we assure you are not missing a great deal on the nest- just the sad sight of grass growing on it now there is no one home!

Emma Rawling

[Have a great day]

Have a great day 

please---cute but just something in a cat suit (heaven knows what)

It's a real cat for sure. It's called a Scottish Fold and that is exactly what they look like.

http://www.google.com/images?q=scottish%20fold&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=576

A peregrine falcon that had escaped its enclosure is back home at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing.

Zoo veterinarian and animal curator Tara Harrison tells the Lansing State Journal the wayward bird was located around 6 p.m. Monday.

Some people spotted the falcon and kept him within their sights until zoo staff arrived. The fugitive falcon flew up into a tree, then circled around and eventually landed on a zoo van.

Harrison says "he was pretty hungry." She says staff "had a mouse waiting for him."

[Don't let me near that woman!]

Don't let me near that woman!

I'll say exciting! Be nice if it were Jemison and Callidora! Ya never know and joined by a 3rd? Thanks Suzanne, good info.

["Poppy kok" to my "Happy Kak!"]

Wha-hey, Donna! A "Happy Kak"! This has to become part of Forum Parlance!

Slainte!

Bobbie

Wha-hey you say Bobbie! I guess it's "Poppy kok" to my "Happy Kak!"

[I agree Janet, these pics of Jemison are one of Jim's best. Thanks Jim.]

I agree Janet, these pics of Jemison are one of Jim's best. Thanks Jim.

Carol, great job on the videos, wow, I had tears too. He wasn't making any sounds? Just flew free. I know MAK's out there looking for a blue band with a red stripe. 

He never made a sound.   

Wow, I thought maybe a "happy Kak", hmm, just wanted out, I guess.

As Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, wrote:

So fare thee weel, my only Luve
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Dear,
Tho’ 'twere ten thousand mile.

Seems appropriate as we say good bye... especially to that magnificent Lady of Lowes...

That was BEAUTIFUL and so fitting. Thanks Bobbie. I'm going to miss that whole family.

I would SO love to see a burrowing owl! Guess I better head for the desert first...

(... almost typed "borrowing" and "dessert" there... what an image!)

  Bobbie. 

[I agree Janet, these pics of Jemison are one of Jim's best. Thanks Jim.]

I agree Janet, these pics of Jemison are one of Jim's best. Thanks Jim.

Carol, great job on the videos, wow, I had tears too. He wasn't making any sounds? Just flew free. I know MAK's out there looking for a blue band with a red stripe. 

http://php.democratandchronicle.com/blog/birds/?p=3454

The Lesser Yellowlegs were numerous and easy to photograph all along the pond next to the visitor’s center at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge last week.
These migratory shorebirds, having completed their breeding season in the boreal meadows and muskegs from northwest Alaska to northern Quebec, are headed to their wintering grounds in the southern U.S., and Central and South America.
In the meantime, they’re stopping over in favorable habitats like Montezuma all across the continent to fuel up for the next leg of their journey/.
They’re also managing to squabble over “feeding rightsâ€� even where there appears to be more than enough habitat to go around.  (Continued)   Great pics.

[Very cute pics.]

This is the moment a playful owlet pounces on his baby brother to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek.

Spotting the perfect moment to surprise his unwitting sibling, the crafty six-week-old creature swooped in, talons outstretched, in the display of affection.

Caught completely unawares, his brother is almost bowled over backwards by the playful ambush.

The heartwarming antics of these two burrowing owls was captured by wildlife photographer Rob Palmer.

The 57-year-old was on the look out for burrowing owl dens when he came across these two, part of a brood of six.

As their name suggests, this species of owl nests underground in burrows that have been abandoned by animals like prairie dogs and badgers.

Mr Palmer, from Littleton, Colorado, USA, said: 'I spend a lot of time looking for burrowing owl dens, which are fairly common where ever you can find a prairie dog colony

'There were six owlets in this brood and they would play in the early morning.

'I managed to get about 30 feet from them to take the pictures and, after a while, they had no problem with me being there. They were very tolerant of my presence.

'These two are just having fun so neither got hurt.'

The burrowing owl grows to around 10 inches in length and has a wingspan of 21 inches.
The small, long-legged species is found is usually found in the dry, open areas of North and South America.

Unlike their nocturnal relatives, these owls tend to be at their most active during day-light hours.

They hunt for food from dusk to dawn, their diet consists mainly of insects and small rodents.

They are preyed on by badgers, coyotes and snakes as well as cats and dogs.

The burrowing owl lives for around nine years in the wild but can survive for more than ten in captivity.
Dropping in: The playful bird perched on his brother's head as wildlife photographer Rob Palmer took the amazing shots in the Colorado desert

He's behind you: In another frame the cheeky burrowing owl creeps up behind his sibling

Brotherly love: But in a tender moment that seems almost human, the owlet appears to nuzzle up to his sibling

Very cute pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJOgypwziXI&feature=player_embedded

Suspended above the metropolis, everyone in the enclosed observation space atop the Empire State Building is competing for a sunset view of the concrete jungle that lies 1,000 feet and 86 stories below; everyone except for Robert DeCandido, AKA ‘Birding Bob.’  On a Friday night as the pinkish hue is shoved aside by the encroaching faint black of a light polluted night sky, Bob holds binoculars to his eyes and looks up.
“Winds are northwest now,� he says, “not so good.�

A born and raised New Yorker with a PhD in Evolutionary Ecology Bob is a fixture of the New York City birding scene. Aside from studying night migrations, Bob regularly leads bird watching tours throughout the city and thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, is amidst an urban nesting study of American Kestrels  for which he has recruited over a hundred New Yorkers to spy on the sky and report their findings to him. Despite the crowds, Bob makes it to the roof quickly, slithering past slow and spacey tourists like a worm on speed.

“I like to think of [The Empire State Building] as a great big island in the sky,� an animated Bob says, as he loses his bright yellow hat to the wind. After retrieving it, he elaborates.
“I’ve seen birds just stop up here and rest before continuing on their way.�
 
Tonight Bob is accompanied by three other fellow birdwatchers, Jack and Jane Rothmane and Carol Wood, and feels sorry about the birds' weak showing.         
“Is that a bird�? Asks Jack.
“No, that’s a moth,� Bob replies.
“Oh, there’s one I think,� says Carol.
“That’s a bat,� says Bob, “and those over there are balloons.�
 
This was Bob’s last chance to watch the night migration until next spring. By now he is in the sky en route to Thailand to continue his study of migration patterns in Southeast Asia.