http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/eagle.html#pix

On Feb 15, 1st egg was laid...

http://www.peregrinefund.org/pdf_files/Education/peregram.pdf

Just to keep you updated.

Bornheim, at night. Look how the storks stand out in the dark!

I had highbush cranberry bushes in my back yard until the boar got them some years back.
Every spring Cedar Waxwings would converge on them for the berries.  It was comical to watch
as they "rocked and rolled" from the fermented berries.  I miss seeing that.

I can't imagine!   

THE OREGON WILDERNESS—Frustrated by the widely held assumption that he unequivocally endorses the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a bald eagle said Monday that his thoughts on the conflicts were far more nuanced than many Americans might expect.

Speaking to reporters from his nest in the upper branches of a 175-foot ponderosa pine tree, the eagle explained that each member of his species was different and none should be taken for granted as a lockstep supporter of American military policy.

"I think World War II was justified, and I got behind the first Gulf War [in 1990]," said the bird, who has served as the national symbol of the United States since 1782. "But the recent war in Iraq, with its shifting rationale and poor planning, was clearly a huge mistake. Personally, I believe that these crucial, life-and-death matters deserve more honest and less politicized discussion than they get."

"I'm not a hawk or a dove," he added. "I'm an eagle."

The majestic bird of prey, who said he is not registered with any political party, admitted to having some ambivalence about the current mission in Afghanistan, lamenting that any argument one could make seemed to prompt an equally valid counterpoint.
Enlarge Image Iraq

The eagle said he would like to visit Iraq someday, but is worried it might cause impromptu firefights.

"Sure, I understand the reasoning behind the latest troop surge," the eagle said regarding President Obama's plan to commit 30,000 additional soldiers to the region to combat the Taliban. "Can we allow that country to collapse and become an al-Qaeda safe haven again? That seems like a disastrous outcome to me, but at the same time, maybe our continued presence is just creating more terrorists in the long run. Plus, how can we work with someone as corrupt as [Afghan president] Hamid Karzai and still purport to be champions of democracy?"

"You see, these issues are not so cut and dried," continued the Haliaeetus leucocephalus specimen. "And yet, every time I try to explain myself from atop a flag pole or the middle of a baseball field, no one wants to listen. They just cheer and chant 'U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A.!'"

Sources said the eagle then excused himself and launched into the air with a shrill "skree!" sound, returning three minutes later with a glistening fish in his talons.

"And another thing: We can't forget Pakistan," the eagle said as he used his hooked beak to tear at the flesh of the writhing rainbow trout. "We have to make sure that they're not so preoccupied with India that they neglect the terrorist threats within their own borders. Remember, Pakistan has nukes."

The eagle went on to tell reporters that, despite his attempts to individuate himself from the general public's perceptions of bald eagles, he could ultimately control his image only so much. He also admitted that he still had lingering resentment over the fact that someone had covertly photographed him crying on 9/11 and used the picture on a "Never Forget" dinner plate.

"I really hated being exploited like that," the eagle said. "Of course I cried on 9/11. Everyone did. But I guess that's the burden of being the symbol of a nation: People are going to use you in ways you don't always like. You step out of the nest to clear your head with a few minutes of soaring, and people automatically peg you as some kind of embodiment of American freedom worth killing and dying for."

"And, frankly, that's a little messed up," he added. "I'm just a bird.

The birds -- hiccup -- are back.

Dick Beal looks out the window of his Cocoa Beach home to see his truck covered in the aftereffects of robins that gorged themselves on palm berries in his yard.

"They seem to like my pickup truck for a bombing target," Beal said.

But they're not just eating.

Experts say they're getting drunk, too, on berries left fermenting after the freezing temperatures on the Space Coast this winter.

Every year, birds such as robins migrate to warmer climates, arriving from weeks or months of flying south. They begin feeding on the abundant fruits here -- everything from palm berries to Brazilian pepper seeds.

But during the coldest part of the season, plants stop sending nutrients to limbs, leaving the berries hanging out to rot.

"It affects (the birds') brains much the way alcohol toxicity affects ours," said Laura Erickson, Cornell Lab of Ornithology science editor. "It can particularly happen after events like frost. The sugar just starts to ferment."

Dane Culbert of the University of Florida's extension service said he has seen hundreds of orange-breasted robins congregating in his yard in the past two weeks.

"They were coming through, and it's like, 'Where's Alfred Hitchcock?' " he joked, in reference to the classic 1963 thriller "The Birds."

And some birdwatchers report that the robins are not just rockin' -- but teetering and tottering, too, which can lead more often to them flying into car windshields or glass windows and doors -- or just making a mess on vehicles and yards like Beal's.

Erickson urged homeowners not to plant berry-producing bushes close to roads or windows.

"That, at least, prevents them from having accidents," she said.

From what I read on the site, the female has laid 2 more eggs and NO snow this time. Hope all goes well the 2nd time around.

This pic is from now.

Does this mean that there is hope for the rest of us with a "few" "extra" pounds ?   

NOPE!!!

You know that I'm loving this!   

TOTALLY!!!

A white stork mid of february? Very early.

These Storks didn't migrate, they stay in the neighborhood. They are probably from a breedingprogram. But it's possible that Maxi migrate! A few times I saw one or two Storks, but never on the nest.

I just hired a small garden very close to the nest. This summer I will hear them, but because of the trees I cannot see them.
greetings Aafke

But what's more important....watching Storks    or gardening     Tough decision. If your only 164 yards away from the nest....then you can take many breaks and walk a few yards to watch! YAY & take pics. 

I know what you think of the snow. You hate it. But what do our local animals think? Has anyone thought to ask them?

Bill Peters of Dunkirk, Md., said his two Labrador retrievers, Fred and Wilma, are, like most humans around these parts, sick of the snow. Oh sure, they liked it at first -- romping, frolicking, even, occasionally, gamboling -- but once it got over shoulder height, it complicated every dog's favorite pastime.

The snow made the pair's usual backyard relief stations unreachable. Wrote Bill: "I've had to resort to 'trench warfare' in that I've had to dig various paths in the deep snow so that each can find a scented area that they would do their business in. They prefer to go in areas that they are comfortable in and each has a few to choose from normally.

"Indeed, if you were to visit, you'd think I had a paintball maze set up with no customers -- no splattered paint, just yellow and brown snow here and there."

If I were to visit? No thanks, Bill. As appealing as that sounds, I have my own Jackson Pollock Verdun in my back yard.

For wild animals, it's the other end of the digestive process that's been complicated by the snow. Birds especially are having a tough time finding food. This has been a good winter to have a bird feeder in the back yard.

"At a time like this, it really does make a difference for a lot of birds," said Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society, who watches birds from his house in Reston. "The snow just completely covers a lot of natural food sources."

Ground-feeding birds such as white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos typically look for weed seeds in grasses and shrubs, which are covered this year by a mantle of white. A feeder full of black oil sunflower seeds, mixed seed with millet or suet can be a lifesaver.

"People that are feeding birds are just loaded with birds at feeders," Greg said.

The season actually started slowly. "In November I was getting calls: 'Why aren't any birds coming to our bird feeders?' "

Part of the reason was that some birds -- pine siskins, purple finches, red-breasted nuthatches -- are irruptive species. Sometimes they spend the winter in Canada; sometimes they spend the winter here.

"This winter they all stayed up in Canada," Greg said. "They're probably happy they did. I think a lot of Canada is warmer than we are."

The harsh weather has forced a couple of interesting visitors to bird feeders. Greg was among a hundred or so birders who visited a house in Reston over the weekend to see a varied thrush -- imagine a robin with a bright yellow-orange breast. It's usually found on the West Coast.

"It probably wandered east in the fall," Greg said. "Nobody was seeing it much, but now with the cold weather, it's coming to his feeder a lot."

Dozens of people also cycled through a house in Bowie, looking at a painted bunting, an almost comically colorful bird whose green, blue and red plumage definitely stands out on a white background.

"They're supposed to be in Florida, Mexico or Cuba," Greg said. "Some are flying north instead of south. Because they like the millet in bird feeders, they seem to be surviving."

Greg said it's hard to predict the long-term effects of the snow.

"There's definitely mortality associated with these storms, no question about it. Some birds died, even though I think it's certain more birds would have died if we didn't have feeders out. I don't say that every week of the year, but we don't have these storms every week of the year."

Thankfully, nothing died over at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School on Calvert Street NW, where science teacher Simone Welch keeps 18 animals in her classroom. They include an African pygmy hedgehog, a ball python, a corn snake, a bullfrog, hissing cockroaches, a leopard gecko, assorted goldfish, a Russian tortoise and a three-legged box turtle. ("He got hit by a car," Simone explained.)

Simone went to Oyster three of the four days D.C. schools were closed, including one day when she trudged through the teeth of the storm.

"It took me 45 minutes to walk from north of Dupont Circle," she said. "It was nuts, but they had to eat."

Simone thinks the critters were happy to see her. "Generally, every day I let them get out and exercise around the room. I think they had as much cabin fever as we did."

Heavy Migratory Birds Take Shorter Breaks and Reach Their Breeding Grounds Faster

ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2010) — Small migratory birds, like the garden warbler, must make stopovers on their journeys to their breeding grounds. When they have crossed extensive ecological barriers, such as deserts or oceans, they must land to replenish their fat reserves. A researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and a team of Italian colleagues measured the duration of the stopovers made by garden warblers on an island off the Italian coast. There they observed that fat birds usually move on the night of their arrival, while thin birds interrupt their journey for an average of almost two days.

While pockets of flab accumulated over the winter months may be a source of frustration for some, it can be a cause of joy for others: "Fat garden warblers can make shorter stops to replenish their fat reserves on the taxing annual journey to their breeding grounds," reports Wolfgang Goymann of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen. The research results have shown that the duration of a bird's stopover is not only influenced by environmental factors, such as wind and weather conditions, or a genetically-programmed internal urge: subcutaneous fat stores are the main factor behind the varying durations of the stopovers made during avian migration.

The researchers fitted ten fat birds and ten thin birds that landed on the Italian island of Ventotene in the morning on route to the north with temporary adhesive radio transmitters. They then monitored, at regular intervals, whether the signal emitted by the transmitters could still be heard on the island. Nine out of the ten fat birds flew on the same night; the thin birds, however, remained on the island for an average duration of 40 hours before resuming their journey.

"We assume that the majority of the birds arrived on the island the morning we caught them," says Wolfgang Goymann. "However, even if this were not the case, our data clearly revealed that fat garden warblers only waited until nightfall on the same day to move on. As opposed to this, the thin birds had to wait until they had accumulated sufficient fat reserves for the next leg of their journey."

The data demonstrates the importance of ecologically-intact resting grounds: The birds can only replenish their energy reserves quickly and move on to their breeding grounds swiftly and unfailingly if they can rest in areas with sufficient supplies of insects, nectar and pollen. Those that arrive early at the breeding ground can secure the best nesting sites.

Late last year, state Fish and Wildlife agents knew they'd found a great location to release a rescued bald eagle back into the wild.

The property, just west of Millsboro near Ingram Pond, had lots of trees and was close to the corridor along Indian River.

The clincher: Four other bald eagles were standing in a field, feeding on a deer carcass, when the agents arrived to release the bird.

Not so long ago, bald eagles were rare in Delaware -- most often found only in the most remote places.

But last month, as the state Division of Fish & Wildlife completed its annual Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Survey, biologists tallied a record 120 bald eagles. Of those, 77 were adults and 43 were immature birds.

The survey, conducted as part of a nationwide effort, is used to get a snapshot of bald eagle health nationwide. In Delaware, the count is made in January to capture data on resident birds and those just passing through or moving south to feed. Over the next few weeks -- as the birds pair, mate and nest -- state officials will have a clearer picture of bald eagle breeding populations in the state.

State biologists also located two new eagle nests during the survey.

"The division had been receiving recent reports from the public of up to 40 eagles in one place at one time, and the numbers we observed during the midwinter flight further support that Delaware can be a great place for bald eagles during the winter," said Anthony Gonzon, the state wildlife biologist who coordinates the survey.

Susan Davis-Tyndall of Milton didn't realize bald eagles live in Delaware until she saw one feeding on a dead deer in November.

"I thought it was too cold," she said.

Davis-Tyndall said she had spotted the bird along the treeline near her home, and then one morning as she took her son to meet the school bus, they spotted the bird in a field, about 100 feet from the car.

"They are so majestic," she said.

Her 8-year-old son, she said, was "awestruck."

"When I was growing up, they were endangered," she said.

Delaware's nesting bald eagle population has grown from two nesting pairs in the early 1980s to 48 nesting pairs last year.

Bald eagles, though more common than they used to be in Delaware, still are a rarity and are considered a state endangered species. Nationally, the birds were taken off the federal threatened and endangered species list in 2007.

Gonzon said right now there are both nesting and non-nesting birds in the area. Some may be migrants from the north and some of the immature birds may be from the north or the Chesapeake Bay region to the west.

It takes young birds 4 1/2 to 5 years to mature, he said, so during that time "they're just going to be wandering around."

Among the hot spots for eagles in Delaware are places near water -- the Appoquinimink River, Drawyers Creek and Blackbird Creek, Gonzon said. Or places such as Bombay and Prime Hook national wildlife refuges. Anywhere along Del. 9 is also a good spot, he said. In western Sussex County, the Nanticoke River is a hot spot, he said.

Gonzon said that even though he has seen many bald eagles, they still catch his attention.

"I just have to stop and watch them," he said.

Gonzon said no one is certain why the population is up this winter. It could be an anomaly or it could be because of the weather -- snowier than most winters in our region.

But the snapshot helps scientists see emerging trends in bald eagle populations, he said.

The number of bald eagles now in Delaware may be even higher than the survey results show because some areas where eagles are likely to winter were not covered in the survey -- such as parts of western Sussex County and areas in New Castle County north of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, Gonzon said.

The midwinter survey, coordinated by the United States Geological Survey and the Army Corps of Engineers, gives state and federal officials a look at population trends nationwide.

The birds may be more common, but they still face threats including loss of habitat, human disturbance and danger from pollution.

In Delaware, as the eagle population grows, there are more cases of fighting among the birds as they spar over suitable habitat.

"Every year we are finding new nesting areas," he said.

A nesting pair typically establish their territory in a 3-mile radius around their nest. Eagles that stray in aren't welcome, Gonzon said.

Gonzon said there are some places in Delaware where the birds have given up on the turf battle and two pairs are nesting in the same area. It could be because the habitat is so good or so limited, he said.

With the nesting season beginning, state wildlife agents are starting their annual nest monitoring program and will conduct aerial surveys monthly through May.

Last year's nesting pairs produced 60 young, nine fewer than in 2008.

"During the midwinter survey, we observed a number of our birds that are already close to laying the first eggs of 2010," Gonzon said.

Valentine’s Day may be over, but there’s still plenty of passion to go around, especially if you fancy feathers: WeLoveBirds.org soared into the social networking scene a few days ago, promising an interactive community for any avi-phile with an Internet hookup.

Got bird photos or videos? Upload ‘em. Curious about an endangered feathered friend? Check out WeLoveBirds.org’s resource library. Scored an awesome sighting? Add it to the roster. Puzzled by a bird-related conundrum or want to share a funny avian anecdote? Ask a question or recount a story on the blog.

A recent post lists ways that "you definitely know you've been birdwatching too much"--for instance, "you have a birdwatching app on your iPod� and “you have long-winded debates...[about] what could have possibly led a famous ornithologist to call something as majestic as an eagle 'bald.'�

Hatched by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Natural Resources Defense Council, WeLoveBirds.org “is a is a place where birders can connect with one another around the issues that they care about,� said Miyoko Chu, director of Communications at the Cornell Lab, in a press release. “It’s a place where they can also easily tap into a wealth of resources to enhance their enjoyment of birds and take their love of bird watching to the next level by helping birds through citizen-science projects or other actions.�

So, next time you’re feeling lovey for the doveys, log online and spread the warmth.

  More snow in Rochester.....send it here!!!