Nice to see her!

Osprey Diary 11th August
August 11th, 2010 by E Rawling, Perthshire Ranger SWT

  Our two young ospreys have feeling pretty soggy this morning with another wet day meaning they are roosting in the trees away from the nest where there is a bit more cover- who can blame them! Neither has had a lot of fish yet today, but we suspect more and more of the fish are being passed over by dad away from the nest, so we could have missed one.

With weather like this you can’t help but think of our female osprey travelling south, hopefully in much better conditions. We know ospreys take anything up to 5 weeks or so in the autumn to migrate, stopping many times on route to rest and refuel. So with her being gone a week now she could already be over southern England or even over the Bay of Biscay or the Iberian peninsular.  Let’s just hope she gets good winds (ideally a northerly wind to speed her on her way) and no stormy patches that could blow her out to sea, or too far in over the desert. Safe travels Lady!

Emma Rawling

Juvies in there now, 1 has a fish as the other cries for some.

[wnyfalconfan (Joyce):]

wnyfalconfan (Joyce): Continued: Intruder was chased east.  All 3 back. Watchers - Larry, Brian, Joyce, MAK & family. Could be another juvie?

Link:
http://twitter.com/wnyfalconfan/statuses/20841689330

Maybe Sage is right....could be a Buffalo or Statler Juvie.

[wnyfalconfan (Joyce):]

wnyfalconfan (Joyce): Off came 1, then 2, then 3. OMG then we saw 4 falcons flying. No alarm kakking, but it looked like 2 males & 2 females.

Link:
http://twitter.com/wnyfalconfan/statuses/20840722589

Wow, wonder who the male was? Prob another mystery.

And we have it on tape! Archer came in first. Then Callidora chased him away. The action starts about 1 minute into the video.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8826825

The edited version of Callidora's visit is ready on Youtube!

Thanks Ei...Love when she comes screaming in. Can hear her making the Grand entrance and Archer getting all nervous, like "not again!"

poor kitty wouldn't the pepper really burn the eyes? 

I'm sure he was a hurtin Kitty. 

guys the date on that post says August of last year unless that is wrong.

Yes BC, it was from last August.

That man needs some kind of mental help, cause there is obviously a screw or ten loose there.

Um yeah, especially when he said the "Male" cat was pregnant. 

Do they call them Kingfishers because they have hair like Don King? What a doo.  They are cute.

...over the past several days.  I've compiled some pictures for viewing at Peregrinations.
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/08/some-recent-sightings.html

Thanks, Jim - I am sooooo jealous of those Pileated Woodpeckers at your suet feeder! These were once my "bogey birds". (Do birders use that expression in the US re a bird that always eludes them? They do here...). Finally got my eye on one a few years back - but to have them right outside the window? Wow! The Great Spotted Woodpecker, extinct here for ages, has now made its way back, probably from Wales. I look forward to my first contact...

The Belted Kingfisher is another favourite, and a trip home is incomplete if I have not seen one...

Slainte!

Bobbie

I've only seen 2 Woody Woodpeckers in my life....I find them fascinating and huge. My favorite though is the Red-Bellied. I see them and the Downy every day at the feeders where I babysit. Can always tell when their in the area, their calls are "music to my ears". I don't recall ever seeing a Great Spotted. Nice looking bird also. Thanks Bobbie and Jim.

She's leaving

  Birds are back

Archer
Beauty

A 20-year-old tawny owl has been discovered near Kielder Castle Visitor Centre, Northumberland.

The mother of four chicks has already doubled the average life expectancy of wild female tawnies in the North East.

Brian Little, one of the leaders of the long running Kielder tawny owls project, said: "It's incredible to find tawnies of this age.

"She'll need to keep Father Time at bay for another couple of seasons to notch the oldest tawny owl record."

Brian continued: "But with plenty of food around like voles you wouldn't put it past her."

According to The British Trust for Ornithology the average life expectancy for wild tawny owls is four years and the oldest recorded bird was 21-years-old and five months.

However, experts at Kielder say the average lifespan for wild tawnies in the North East is 10 years and therefore the latest discovery has doubled its average life expectancy.

Missing

The tawny owl project in Kielder Forest has been running for 30 years - the longest running study of its kind in the UK - and initially attached a ring to the owl when she was a chick in 1990.

She had babies when she was just one year old in one of the 230 nesting boxes erected by the Forestry Commission.

She then went missing for seven years before returning to the same box.

Record-breaking
The 21-year-old tawny owl
Boudica gave birth to a chick when she was 21

A record-breaking tawny owl astounded experts by becoming a mother again at the ripe old age of 21 in 2008.

Named Boudica, she became the oldest known UK tawny owl living in the wild if she had survived for a few more  months after she was discovered.

Although it is believed she passed that milestone judging by evidence found in her nesting box in Kershope, Cumbria - part of Kielder Forest - she then vanished before she could be caught again to establish refutable proof.

Brian said: "Everyone was gutted by the death of Boudica, but to find a bird almost as old is real consolation."

Boudica gave birth to a chick when she was 21

A second aircraft sent to Sitka on Sunday to replace Alaska Airlines Flight 68 after it was grounded by an eagle strike, also hit an eagle on takeoff.

The Department of Transportation confirms that the substitute aircraft struck the bird on the runway, but was able to proceed normally with its flight to Seattle.

“To the best of my knowledge at this point there have been two eagles that have died as the result of collisions with large aircraft down there,� Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer for the DOT, said.

Wetherell says the second eagle was killed by the collision with the replacement aircraft, but was apparently not “ingested� by the plane’s jet engines. DOT crews subsequently recovered the bird’s carcass.

Wetherell says the DOT works with the US Department of Fish and Wildlife on on bird mitigation at all the state’s airports, but the large raptors can present a special problem:

“Eagles are not overly scared of the hazing tactics we use,� Wetherell said. “They’ll depart the area, but shortly thereafter they’ll return.�

“Perhaps it’s their territorial nature.�

Alaska Airlines Flight 68 was forced to abort takeoff shortly after 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning, when an eagle was sucked into its left engine. The abrupt change in the pitch of the engine was audible in Sitka; hikers as far away as Gavan Hill reported hearing the unusual change in the aircraft’s sound.

The affected engine automatically shut down and the Boeing 737-400 braked to a halt halfway down Sitka’s 6,500-foot runway. None of the plane’s 134 passengers or five crew members was injured in the mishap.

Eagle strikes are unusual at the Sitka airport – but not rare. Wetherell says a third bird was struck earlier in the year. It survived and was delivered to the care of the Raptor Rehabilitation Center.

Wetherell says preventing eagle strikes will continue to require exceptional vigilance on the part of the DOT in Sitka.

There really is a high concentration of eagles’ nests that our crews have found around the airport,� Wetherell said. “We’ve found eight nests near the airport, five of which are on the causeway, and then one which is just about on the airport property.�

Eagles are federally protected under the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940. Wetherell says the federal permits required to relocate the nests would be extraordinarily difficult to obtain.

Ah, maybe you and Carol can go to group therapy! 

Ya think?