20-Apr-23, 08:05:54 AM
|
|
23401
|
Rochester Falcons / Falcon Watches / Re: Pictures from todays activities - 2/27/10
|
on: 28-Feb-10, 07:27:24 AM
|
Oh I don't think I can take anymore drama with these falcons. What a WILD few weeks. Real nice photos Dana. Wondering what happened to the falcon from 2 weekends ago. Maybe 1 will fly into Mariah's area and she can finally find some HAPPINESS!!! This is a banner year so far. Holy Smokes! This reminds me of the Bachelor! Who does she choose? Thanks. Soon as you said "unbanded", you know who I thought of?.  |
|
|
|
|
23405
|
Other Nature Related Information / Falcon Web Cams / Re: Buffalo Peregrine Falcon Nest at Statler
|
on: 27-Feb-10, 11:35:17 PM
|
why were the cameras removed?
There was discussion of tearing the building down, so the cameras may have been removed prior to the sale of the building (which ultimately failed). The images displayed on their webcam were very poor, and the cameras frequently shut down. Don't know if was the camera equipment or connection within the building. The Statler is now abandoned and no one is allowed access. Last year I met up with Kimmarie and Irina for a Buffalo falcon watch reunion. We went into the Statler and asked the guard if we could to use the facilities. I had never been beyond the main hallway downstairs. We went up to the second floor. The old wood work and chandeliers were gorgeous. I can just imagine how beautiful a hotel it was in its day. ~Joyce That's a shame...too bad it can't be restored. Hope the falcons, if they come back, will be OK. This is very sad. |
|
|
|
|
23411
|
Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Golden eagle injured in illegal trap (WV)
|
on: 27-Feb-10, 08:32:17 AM
|
|
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A golden eagle that probably was passing north over West Virginia on its migratory route dropped down for a bite to eat near Clarksburg, got caught in a leghold trap, and had to have one toe and the tip of another one amputated.
The bird of prey will be nursed back to health at the West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center near Morgantown. Recuperation is expected to take two to three weeks. Then it will be released near Clarksburg where it was found Tuesday.
A homeowner spotted the injured creature and notified Susan Olcott, a diversity biologist with the state Division of Natural Resources.
"They thought they had a turkey vulture that was injured sitting up on a brush pile," Olcott said.
When Olcott arrived, she immediately realized it was a golden eagle.
For backup, she contacted Mike Book, chairman of the raptor rehabilitation center.
Book said capturing a turkey vulture is nothing like capturing a bigger, stronger bird like the golden eagle.
"It's kind of like wrestling a German shepherd or a bear - and you'd rather have somebody that's wrestled a bear," he said. "They felt better having somebody that has handled the eagles."
Book said he caught the eagle easily, though. He walked toward it with a sheet and draped it over the bird.
"It never flinched. It never moved the whole time," he said.
Book said he believes the trap was illegally set.
"Any trap that catches a bird of prey in it is set illegally," Book said.
He said he believes someone set the trap with exposed bait on top, which is against the law. Normally, a trap is buried so that animals, guided by their sense of smell, have to dig to get the bait.
Birds of prey hunt by sight, not smell, so Book believes the bait was in plain sight.
"Eagles don't just get down on the ground and start walking around where you're going to set a trap," he said.
Olcott said the trap wasn't identified either. The law is that all game traps must contain tags with the trapper's name and address.
Though the bird could've been snagged miles away, Book said it probably happened near where it landed.
When the trap was removed, Olcott and Book noticed that one of the bird's toes was hanging by a small piece of tissue and another toe was badly injured.
They rushed the bird to veterinarian Jesse Fallon, who removed one toe, bandaged the eagle's foot and started the animal on antibiotics, antifungal medication and pain relievers.
Fallon said eagles are extremely susceptible to fungal pneumonia when they're stressed.
Fallon performed surgery Thursday afternoon to remove the tip of its other injured toe. The bird should be healthy enough to move to the raptor rehabilitation center by Saturday, he said.
Fallon said the eagle will remain on both kinds of medication - hidden in the rats it eats - while it's at the rehabilitation center.
Olcott said the eagle will probably do just fine without the two toes because its middle and back toe - the strongest and most essential for hunting - were unharmed.
Katie Fallon, Jesse's wife and education director for the raptor center, said golden eagles are prevalent west of the Mississippi River, but there aren't many in the East.
Researchers aren't sure exactly how many there are in the East, but Fallon said Pennsylvania-based Tussey Mountain Eagle Watch usually counts a couple hundred flying over the group's observatory every spring.
Fallon said the birds that do live on this side of the country spend winters in the southern United States and migrate to Canada in the spring to breed. She said the injured bird was probably just passing through West Virginia on its way north.
|
|
|
|
|
23412
|
Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Red knots: The little Lowcountry visitors are in big trouble
|
on: 27-Feb-10, 08:21:14 AM
|
|
There's a tie that binds two creatures often seen during spring in the Lowcountry, and its red knot is quickly coming undone.
The red knot is a bird that feeds on the eggs of horseshoe crabs to sustain its annual 10,000-mile migration, one of the longest of any bird, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Web site, All About Birds.
The tie has loosened drastically over the years, as the red knot's favorite food source has dwindled, mostly in northern states where fishermen harvest horseshoe crabs for bait.
Barry Lowes of the Hilton Head Audubon Society says he recalls seeing thousands of red knots flock to Hilton Head Island's beaches during the 1980s in time for the horseshoe crabs' mating season.
But through the years, he said he has seen the number of red knots decline drastically. Now, only a handful of the birds stops at Lowcountry beaches on the way to the Arctic, he said.
"Like lemmings going over a cliff, they just crashed," Lowes said. "In a few years, they were gone. We do see them on the beach, but just a handful, and that's the disquieting thing."
The red knot is about the size of a robin, about 5 ounces. It also has a reddish breast in breeding plumage and is gray the rest of the year.
Their journey begins in Tierra del Fuego in South America, where they fatten up on mussels. They flock together in thousands as they make their way to Arctic breeding grounds. They stop along the Eastern Seaboard, timing their arrivals to the ancient mating movements of the horseshoe crab.
The horseshoe crab is not really a crab. It's a marine arthropod, more akin to the spider and scorpion. When it's time to mate, they gather in large numbers in coastal waters, awaiting the full and new moon tides to emerge on the beach to mate. One female horseshoe crab can lay as many as 75,000 eggs during the spring ritual.
The world's largest gathering place for the horseshoe crab is Delaware Bay. It was the decline in the numbers of red knots there that first alerted scientists to the horseshoe crabs' decline in the bay, according to "Crash: A Tale of Two Species," a PBS documentary that premiered in February 2008.
The documentary cited a 70-percent decline in horseshoe crabs in the bay. It partly blamed an increase in harvesting the crab in the 1990s for bait, primarily for the American eel and conch fisheries. The birds were unable to obtain enough fat to fuel the rest of their two-day straight journey to their breeding grounds. The red knot's population in Tierra del Fuego has dropped 50 percent from the mid-1980s to 2003, according to the All About Birds Web site.
The horseshoe crab population in the Lowcountry, however, appears to be stable. In April, May and June, the scary looking but harmless prehistoric creatures continue their ancient spawning ritual.
South Carolina law protects the crabs, prohibiting their harvest for bait, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Web site. The horseshoe can be harvested for the medical industry but the state requires a license to do so. The crabs must be returned to the waters after one-third of their blood is extracted. It has been estimated about 10 percent to 20 percent of them don't survive the ordeal, the site says.
The horseshoe's blue blood is used to detect bacteria in intravenous fluids and injectable drugs and is used for other medical purposes, according to the DNR Web site. The horseshoe crab is not listed as endangered or threatened in South Carolina.
Their gelatinous eggs about the size of BBs attract about 20 different migratory birds, but Lowes said it appears the red knots have had the most difficulty in adjusting to the reduction in horseshoe crab eggs.
"A lot of other shorebirds feed on those eggs too, but the red knots seem to be the biggest," he said.
|
|
|
|
|
Loading...
|
|
Show Posts
