http://96.61.192.55:8888/update.html

Big Reds webcam

  Ahh, phooey

"or do you prefer a side view"? Go for it Beauty!

"Like this right"

Beauty is back. Let's psych her out. "Come on Beauty, I bet you can't lay an egg"?

"Oh yeah, watch me"!!

Beauty is back. Let's psych her out. "Come on Beauty, I bet you can't lay an egg"?

Ya just never know where you'll find Sam

Lovely

[Hope you have a great day]

Hope you have a great day

I was searching around to see if I could find a listing of leg band information, and came across an extensive, but not all-inclusive, list of pf bands. As it focuses on the pfs of the midwest, none of the Rochester, NY falcons are on it (yes to Rochester, MN, however), but I thought it might be helpful when trying to identify non-native birds for those who follow other websites.  The list starts in 1989 and goes through 2008. A lot of other information is included, but you can look up a band by using the <Find> function on your web browser.

http://www.fieldtripearth.org/repository/7893/falcon_banding.txt

Does anyone know if there is a similar list available from anywhere else that would include our eastern continental birds?

Thanks!
ezsha

Wow, great list. I was going through it and just getting halfway, I counted over 100 deaths of fledglings. 1 hit by Lightning...a few died in smokestacks...1 in a road sign...1 mummified in a nest..the majority are window strikes or hit by cars. Lead poisoning in 1.. In Buffalo Wi, there were 4 eyas's and both parents were killed in a fight, moved to hack. A  few died from falling from the nest. Pretty sad the odds.

Archer
Beauty.....maybe they should trade places?

http://www.thewebbroadcastingcorporation.com/barnowlcam_nestcam.html

 Staff at the Barn Owl Trust in Devon and owl watchers across the world are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first egg … will it be in time for Easter?

Viewers around the globe are getting a unique insight into the world of Barn Owls thanks to the Barn Owl Trust's 'Nestcam' project. David Ramsden MBE, Head of Conservation at the Trust said “The 'Nestcam' project is now in its third year and is run in conjunction with the Web Broadcasting Corporation who kindly provide both the cameras and the images to the Trust free of charge. It gives a fascinating insight into the life of this beautiful bird. Barn Owls are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and there are thought to be just 4,000 pairs of nesting Barn Owls left in the wild. The 'Nestcam' is a fantastic way for anyone with access to a computer to enjoy the privilege of watching this protected bird. Anyone who visits a wild Barn Owl site must carry a valid licence, so the chance to see wild Barn Owls in the nest is a rare privilege.�

Visit the Barn Owl Trust's 'Nestcam' and get a close up view of wild Barn Owls nesting on a farm in Cornwall. Watch life inside the specially built nestbox; mating, egg laying, incubation, food deliveries, fledging; it's happening right now - live. You can share a unique insight into the enigmatic world of the Barn Owl by visiting www.barnowltrust.org.uk and clicking on the 'Live Barn Owl Cam' icon at the top of the page. The 'Nestcam' is accompanied by the 'Nestcam Diary', a daily written account of events taking place, so, even if you can't watch regularly, it's easy to keep up to date with the latest news.

There is plenty of activity to follow throughout the nesting season and avid viewers can watch every stage, or just follow parts of the cycle that are of particular interest to them. Later in the year a second web cam situated in the barn outside the nestbox called 'Barncam' gives wonderful footage of the young Barn Owls fledging the nest and taking their first venture into the outside world. A privileged sight not to be missed!

Barn Owl courtship typically starts in February/March with egg-laying occurring during early April - perfect Easter Egg timing! Once you start watching, you just can't stop! Visit www.barnowltrust.org.uk

[I Molly cam]

This Owl Box thing is really getting out of hand, and I'm wondering why. Loyal and attentive readers may remember that last week I wrote about Molly, a mother owl in San Marcos with her four healthy chicks and one apparently healthy egg. That is still the situation as I write this.

Well, Molly has hit the big time, or at least the big time for owls. One reader wrote to tell me that there is a bar near San Marcos in which, during daylight hours, all the television sets are tuned to owl cam. I could not confirm that data, but I do like the idea of daytime drinkers debating which chick can currently be seen poking his/her head from under Mommy's butt.

That's one of the major events going on in the Owl Box. There's also a lot of pecking and rummaging. At evening time, McGee, the male owl, comes swooping in with some delightfully eviscerated rodents, and I imagine drinks are on the house during that bloody yet cuddly display.

But it's not like Molly is the only bird with her own cam. She's not even the only owl. The Hungry Owl Project, which is part of the WildCare hospital in San Rafael, has an up-and-running Barnowl Cam, with up and squirming chicks. Alas, it is not streaming video, but it's still pretty good: www.hungryowl.org/barnowlcam.html.

And there are eagles and hawks and hummingbirds, all with their own cams, many of them with eggs because 'tis the season, and all of them cute in their own bird-like ways. So why Molly? Is this one of those "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" deals, where citizens get all involved in something - in this case, a relatively benign something - while other apparently equally appealing things never get off the ground.

I'm thinking about Ponzi schemes. Now, the basic idea behind a Ponzi scheme is not hard to grasp; I'm sure almost any larcenous human being could work out the mechanics. So why do some Ponzi schemes succeed spectacularly (until they fail - failure is built into Ponzi schemes) and others never get off the ground. Is it skill of presentation or timing or what? Was Bernie Madoff that much smarter than all the other crooks?

Why is this owl different from all other owls?

I think the same thing about pop musicians too. Obviously there are a few wonderfully talented or quirky or whatever singers, and their success is not a mystery. (Although not all amazingly talented pop musicians make the big time; they become "cult favorites," which is a term of art meaning "marginally employed.") But then there's the great seething mass of people trying to become pop stars, and a few of them do and most of them don't and the difference between the first group and the second is not perceptible.

Even a gigantic star-making entity like "American Idol" can't make pop stars, not with all the money and the exposure in the world. Of the winners, only Carrie Underwood is an honest to god star, and she's really a country singer who won a pop contest. (Jennifer Hudson, I should remind you, did not win "American Idol," which makes my point very well.) So if you can't create a pop star with all the money and power in the world, and you can't get a Ponzi scheme going unless the stars are aligned, and you can't make your comedy video go viral no matter how much you plug it - what are we to think of the owl?

Popular culture is less predictable than you might think. I know there are singers and strippers and comedians out there who decided to take the low road, because crude always sells, but the interesting thing is that crude does not always sell - although sometimes, you bet - and those people did not make it. You do not know who they are.

And yet, an owl gets 4 million unique viewers and counting. Very few cable television programs get 4 million viewers; maybe they should have thought of putting an owl in the picture.

Maybe reality, provided it's real reality and not "reality" in the entertainment sense, is just riveting. Confession: I have an Owl Box window open on my computer even as I am typing this. The fifth egg has yet to hatch, and it's not clear whether the new owl will live. Plus Carlos, owner of the Owl Box and latest Internet sensation, is answering questions from schoolchildren. So cute.

Owls are all the rage these days - or at least one owl is. Does that not strike you as curious?

I  Molly cam

[I will always place the mission first.I will never accept defeat.I will never quit.I will never leave a fallen comrade.]

I recently wrote about my visit to Melbourne to speak at The 2nd Australian Positive Psychology and Well-Being Conference. The conference was a good one, but I did some other things down under that were just as enjoyable as attending the conference, including in particular a day (and evening) trip to Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, to see what is called the penguin parade.

Phillip Island is home to little penguins (also called fairy penguins or blue penguins). They are the smallest of the various penguin species, little more than 15" tall when fully grown. They live in burrows some distance from the ocean, where they go to feed.

What makes little penguins so interesting to human onlookers (who on Phillip Island are fenced off from the penguins) is that they return from the ocean precisely at dusk, en masse. All at once, they emerge from the water and make their way ever so slowly and awkwardly across the beach to their respective burrows. They move in groups of several dozen at a time. Apparently moving together is an evolved behavior that serves their survival by making them less vulnerable to predators as they return to their burrows. (It also means that male penguins don't have to stop and ask for directions, which I am sure would be as humiliating for them as it is for human males.)
If one penguin happens to be lagging behind its group, the others actually stop and wait for it to catch up. That was the magical thing for me, and I kept muttering to myself, "Leave no penguin behind." And the others never did. I am not an ornithologist and cannot comment further on these birds. But I am a positive psychologist, and their behavior provided a good metaphor about what it means to leave no one else behind.

First, it's not enough to have this as a slogan. The principle is only wonderful when in action.

Second, for penguins - and I suspect for people - leaving no one behind does not benefit only the stragglers. It benefits all, including those leading the group. Perhaps we need to rethink out attitudes toward those we fear are being left behind and dismiss any thoughts about charity, condescension, or noblesse oblige. In helping each, we help all, and that includes us.

Third, the little penguins have a group-orientation deep in their DNA. People may or may not be wired this way, but we have something just as powerful: cultural norms. In some groups, there exists a strong and enacted consensus that no one is ever to be left behind. Consider the US Soldier's Creed, which states in part:

I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Or consider this example which I witnessed several years ago during my first visit to Australia. I had the opportunity to spend several days at Timbertop, a full-boarding coeducational school for 220 9th graders near Mansfield. Timbertop is an academic and outdoor education program, and it is one of the schools worldwide that has expressed interest in positive psychology, because of the congruence between the premises of positive psychology and the goals of the school.

Timbertop is rigorous, not just academically but physically. All students run every week. One of the signature events of the school year is a half-marathon over hill and dale (i.e., up and down mountains). The event is mandatory, not just for all students but for all teachers and assistants.

During my visit to Timbertop, I saw one of these half-marathons. I didn't run myself, but I helped by passing out cups of water throughout the day to those who did run. Some finished sooner than others, of course, but everyone finished.

The point: At the end of the run, everyone - and I mean everyone - waited until the last person finished. The weather was terrible, but everyone waited, patiently and happily. The last runner was cheered as heartily as the first runner, probably more so because after all who was there to cheer for the first person? And the cheering for the last few who finished was sincere.

I assume that most of you readers are neither penguins nor soldiers nor 9th graders at an elite boarding school. So I assume that most of you, like me, have some lessons to learn from these stories.

We all live, love, study, work, and play in groups. How do we treat one another in these groups? Are the stragglers - and we are all stragglers in some domains - cut loose, ridiculed, or pitied? Or do we take it as a given that no one should be left behind?

Thanks Janet.....hope all is well there. Storks can be pretty aggressive.