Is the clutch at the "Internet Storks" of five eggs complete?

On Thursday the 14th of April the fifth egg was seen. Is "Cico" and "Luna's" clutch at the Vetschau Internet storks complete?

Even with the nest camera, it is difficult to detect the exact number of eggs. The nest hollow is very deep and only during periods the storks alternate or turn over the eggs a momentary glimpse at the clutch is possible.

At intervals of two days the female stork laid the eggs. Already after the second egg, both storks began breeding. The breeding period from start to hatching lasts 32 days. At the beginning of May, presumably on the eighth, the "NATURE"-Adventure Day" at the White Stork Information Centre, the first stork chick is expected. Following this, another chick should hatch. Not always the breeding phase will pass without complications. Battles for the eyrie are possible, weather related inconveniences or injuries to the parent storks can lead to the loss of the clutch. To breed both storks are necessary, taking regular turns in the process. One of the storks watches constantly over the clutch. Rotating the eggs to ensure proper development of the chicks. The storks bring into the nest new material to keep the hollow warm and softly upholstered. In addition branches and twigs are added to the nest's edge.

Persons who wish to observe the storks during the breeding period and inform themselves about the necessary techniques for the protection of storks as well as the numerous other nature protection themes may do so at the Internet website www.storchennest.de or at the White Stork Information Centre of the NABU Regional Association Calau e.V. in Vetschau, Spree Forest. The exhibit is open from Tuesdays to Sundays and holidays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Bernd Elsner
Manager
NABU Regional Association Calau e.V.

http://www.storchennest.de/en/index_427.html

Maybe a stretch
back in

PORT ST. LUCIE — Three members of a family moving from Port St. Lucie to North Carolina were arrested Saturday after city police and animal control officers found more than a score of cats packed in four poorly ventilated wooden boxes.
The boxes were found nailed shut. (TCPalm.com)

The boxes were found nailed shut. (TCPalm.com)

The new owner of a home in the 300 block of Northwest Archer Avenue phoned police to report animals were in three nailed-shut wooden boxes stacked near her neighbor’s yard.

Animal control freed several cats from those boxes, when Jessica L. Eskew, 34, arrived in a van with dogs and cats inside.

The van was towing an open wooden trailer and Eskew told police she had come to pick up some ite
Police report a wooden box containing 20 more cats was on the trailer and that the cats were close to heat exhaustion.

Eskew’s parents, James F. Eskew, 59, and Shelia N. Eskew, 56, arrived and all three were charged with felony animal cruelty.

A total of 32 cats and two dogs were taken by Port St. Lucie animal control.

so sad

!!! More Questions than Answers!
May 04, 2010 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:

Just when I was all confident that I was on the right track , I find now that I am more confused than ever.  Last report had Jack here constantly and a lot of activity however the only food I saw go to the ledge was taken by Angel immediately and she flew off with it…or perhaps I was mistaken ?

Sunday I was her for 2.5 hours and did catch a shift change however Angel only went to the webcam and didn’t leave the ledge due to the rain.  Yesterday and today I have seen Jack sporadically unlike Friday through Sunday when he was here for hours.  I haven’t seen him taking food to the ledge at all but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t as I am not able to monitor for long periods of time during the week so I may just be missing him.

That being said, last night and this morning when I looked up to the nestbox I saw nothing..not a tail feather sticking out nor a wing and yet both times after a few minutes he flew out of the nestbox, vocalized to who I am assuming was Angel in the nestbox and off he went.  What was he doing in the nestbox with her?  Checking to see if he had any hatches?  Visiting with hidden eyases, bringing them food?  Just how deep is that nestbox?!

I can see quite clearly her tail feathers and the tips of both wings from the ground this morning so she is sitting high up again as she has the past few days.  Perhaps given that he’s running two site, they are being more protective and secretive than normal not to attract unwanted attention.   She has a pretty solid history of hatching out her chicks 30 days from the start of incubation however everything has been so different here the past year and without the cam for backup - I am in the dark so to speak!

I will keep watching a few more days and if nothing becomes overtly obvious, we will attempt to make another trip to a nearby rooftop to confirm or deny the presence of chicks.

Port Colborne now has 3 eggs with full incubation. After the 4 eggs disappeared in March...new eggs have been laid. Late fledge if all goes well.

:

As best as we can guess from the dates and time lines based on the reports that we received from our good friends at the DEC out of Buffalo New York, there should have a hatch by now. While it was confirmed that the peregrines are in fact nesting at the decommissioned Ontario Power Station facility in the Niagara gorge, the small opening in the wall face where the peregrines have been nesting, makes it only visible from the US side, and it requires very strong magnification to see across the gorge to the wall face of the old OPG plant to see the nest opening. We can only hope that we get additional observation reports of food being taken into the nest by the adults that would confirm that there has been a hatch. The old OPG plant has long since been turned over to the Niagara Parks Commission who have yet to do anything with the old facility.

Beauty's back

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features1005/citizenscience.html

Band of Brothers
Not even a tragic accident could derail two young men’s inspiring project to study one of North America’s least-understood birds. Their groundbreaking research is helping ornithologists understand how to help these birds as a warming climate alters their mountain home.

One night four years ago, two boys were driving outside of Roswell, New Mexico, after a day of birding, when suddenly the unimaginable happened: a terrible car wreck. Ryan Beaulieu, 17, a bird enthusiast who had helped bring national attention to Sandia Crest, the highest point in New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains, and to the rosy-finches that congregate there in winter, was killed instantly.  (Continued)

[On April 23, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued a permit allowing for the destruction of the nest and the mother swan.]

It's a quiet spring day on Buckeye Lake. Many families have yet to return for the summer season. But a family of a different kind sailed into the canal near Island Avenue two months ago.

"We'd seen them along the lake, and then in March they showed up in our canal. Everyone was really excited and rushed to feed them," remembers Richard Hill and Gary Preston.

The mute swans quickly set up house, picking a boat slip to build their first nest. But that didn't suit the pair, affectionately named Sam and Samantha by the families living in the area.

The pair moved to another site. This time they picked the fire pit on Jeffrey Gerling's property.

Sam and Samantha were run off and eventually laid their eggs right next to the Gerling's lake home. When anyone tried to get close to the house, the birds attacked.

On April 23, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued a permit allowing for the destruction of the nest and the mother swan.   

"Mute swans are an invasive species to Ohio and North America. Because of the great size they can easily hurt people when they attack. On the east coast there have been documented cases of mute swans attacking and killing people along the waterways. We don't want that happening here and that's why the swan was destroyed," explained ODNR wildlife biologist Gary Ludwig.

But that was of little comfort to the dozens of people who enjoyed the beauty of the waterfowl.

"I don't think you'll find one person out here that will agree with that because just about everyone out here has fed them by hand. We have a bigger problem with dogs," said Hill.

No one answered the door at Gerling's Buckeye Lake home.

Sam, the male mute swan, now sails the lake alone. Neighbors say they'll do whatever it takes to protect him.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/education/Watch-a-falcon-family-grow-on-webcam Video from News 4

[The library is hoping to upgrade the camera next year to record continuously, said virtual services librarian David Jordan. The current camera takes only still images every five minutes.]

With a few clicks, Evanston residents can watch baby falcons grow from eggs to birds of prey on the Evanston Public Library’s website.

The webcam, which operates from March to June, watches a nest of two falcons, which are two of 24 of their species in the state. The camera records every moment, from the falcons sitting on their eggs to the chicks finally leaving the nest to start their own families.The same pair of falcons have been nesting on a pillar outside the third floor of the building for three years.

When former library director Neal Ney first noticed falcons nesting at the library about six years ago, they had made their home in a flower box beside the third floor window. Ney covered the window with graph paper to keep visitors from disturbing the birds. An information technology employee recommended setting up a camera so people could watch as the chicks hatched and developed.

After the first year, it was not clear whether the project would continue because the first female broke her wing and only one chick survived, but a new female arrived the following year and the pair has been nesting at the library ever since.

“A new cliff may become more attractive at some point, but I think the likelihood of the birds coming back is pretty high,� Ney said.

The library is hoping to upgrade the camera next year to record continuously, said virtual services librarian David Jordan. The current camera takes only still images every five minutes. 

Since the falcons first started nesting at the library, officials have been in contact with Mary Hennen, collections assistant for the Birds Division at the Field Museum and director of the Chicago Peregrine Program. When the chicks are three to four weeks old, Hennen comes to the library, takes blood samples and fits bands on the birds so she can monitor their dispersal.

The EPL never publicizes the banding as an event, but a small crowd usually gathers and watches it, said Donald Westphal, who works in the maintenance department at the EPL. Videos from last year’s banding are available online.

Hennen has been monitoring peregrine falcons in Illinois for 20 years. In 1951, the species was completely wiped out in the state because of poisoning from a pesticide used on crops and in forests that made the birds’ egg shells so thin females would break their own eggs while trying to incubate them.

In 1972, the federal government banned the pesticide and the species began recovering about 20 years later, Hennen said. Now, the state touts 24 of the falcons.

That may not seem like a large number, but Hennen said the falcons are no longer considered endangered in the state.

Beauty spots Archer

6:23
egg hug

[Fifty-five of the eagles have been released in Kerry since 2007. Thirteen of them have now been found dead, seven of them confirmed poisoned.]

Ten protected birds of prey have been confirmed poisoned across the Irish Republic in recent weeks.

The birds included a golden eagle, as well as two red kites, two white-tailed eagles, three buzzards and a peregrine falcon.

One of the red kites had been released in Northern Ireland and was found dead in County Kildare.

The birds died after eating meat baits laced with pesticides, one of which is illegal in Ireland.

Two red kites and the peregrine were found dead in County Wicklow, the third red kite in Kildare, a golden eagle in County Leitrim, and buzzards in west Waterford, east Cork and County Donegal.

Within the last few weeks two white-tailed eagles were found dead near Beaufort, County Kerry.

Both eagles were said to be in excellent condition and had been surviving well in the wild for two or three years.

An investigation is being carried out by the Department of Agriculture and the Garda.

"The loss of a further two white-tailed eagles at this time is devastating," said Dr Allan Mee, manager of the White-tailed Eagle Reintroduction Project in Kerry.

"The older male could have been one of the first birds to breed in the wild in Ireland in over 100 years had it survived. Indiscriminate poisoning is literally killing our chances of re-establishing a population here," he added.

Fifty-five of the eagles have been released in Kerry since 2007. Thirteen of them have now been found dead, seven of them confirmed poisoned.



Two white-tailed eagles were among the poisoned birds

Take a look at UB's falcon cam
News 4 is keeping a close eye on the falcon family

Updated: Monday, 03 May 2010, 7:29 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 03 May 2010, 10:40 AM EDT


BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - News 4 is keeping a close eye on a feathered family on UB's South Campus that's about to get a lot bigger.

There's a clutch of peregrine falcon eggs in the tower of the Mackay Heating Plant on campus that are expected to hatch any day now.

As you can see, both mom and dad have been taking turns sitting on the eggs.

Archer left at 8:09
Beauty in at 8:10