He feeds a fox named Hoppy and he has some great pics on Wunderphoto. Great Eagles, pigeons, and pics of Dutch Harbor, (home of Deadliest Catch).

And another picture of a crane.

Paul

That was fun to watch...they landed a few minutes ago.

here's a pic from just now of a Whooper in flight with Ultra Light

Twenty Wisconsin whooping cranes have made it to Florida – and they’re getting close to their final winter nesting spots.

The baby cranes landed yesterday in Jefferson County Florida. They’ll soon break into two groups and fly to a pair of national wildlife refuges, where experts hope they’ll mate with other cranes.

It’s part of a nine-year-old project called “Operation Migration.� The goal is to re-introduce the endangered whooping crane in the eastern U.S. The baby cranes will be joined by others who’ve made the trip before them. The veterans fly on their own – just like the baby cranes will, when they head north this spring.

[some may have huddled together to stay warm]

some may have huddled together to stay warm


The bodies of more than 100 pelicans and other birds were found on Sand Island this week when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service followed up on a tip from the public.

A dead pelican with an identification tag is seen on Sand Island off the coast of Alabama. Wildlife officials believe it likely was a victim of the extreme cold temperatures in the Deep South.Biologists believe the birds were killed by the extreme cold. Some appeared to have been dead for as long as two weeks, while others had been dead for a day or two, according to officials.

Five birds were sent to the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., for necropsies to pinpoint the cause of death.

The carcasses were all located around the southern tip of Sand Island, which is now a peninsula attached to Dauphin Island on the Alabama coast.



"Local residents tell us it's not uncommon for juvenile birds to die in colder temperatures. But a mortality rate this high is too unusual to be ignored," said Pete Tuttle, a federal biologist.

Most of the dead animals were pelicans, though a few least terns died as well, according to officials.

The Press-Register has also received reports of fish kills, primarily involving mullet, in Dog River and Halls Mill Creek. Fish kills have occurred around Mobile Bay during extreme cold weather several times in the last 10 years.

Photos provided by Fish & Wildlife officials show the birds heaped behind small sand dunes as if they died while huddling together to escape cold north winds. All of the pelicans in the photographs appeared to be juvenile birds.

This weather is killing birds and fish all around the globe....it's tragic.

Around 3 PM the sky was filled with kaking as 2 falcons fought near the nest box on the Times Square Building.  Alot of dive bombing and yelling.  The more aggressive of the two was obvious (hoping the other wasn't Mariah).  The aggressor declared victory within 5 minutes, and took perch on top of the torch in Mercury's hand where she (I believe it was Beauty) stayed for a few minutes more before touring the territorial terrain.  Any other locals catch it?

Oh boy, here we go. I don't like this fighting. Hope the other is OK and just has wounded pride.

Wow!
These are great, Gayle.

Thanks,

Paul

They sure are  ....thanks Gayle

Janet sent me this pic of a Red Tail that was at one of her other buildings...The Trade Center.

Paul, is this one of yours? She is having lunch and it's squirrel. 

!!! An exciting Spring ahead?
January 12, 2010 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Jan Chudy Reports:

Both adults have spent quite a lot of time on the Sheraton ledge and the neighbouring perches since the start of the year.  I have also been seeing adults at Mount Sinai, but never all four adults at the same time.  Today, at 1 p.m. as I checked the locations, two adults are on the Sheraton nest ledge and two adults are on the south louvres of Mount Sinai!

Cheetah, killer whale, Arctic tern. The latter may sound an unlikely contender for nature’s greatest athlete, yet the small but elegant seabird migrates more than 50,000 miles every year — the longest trek of any creature, according to research.

The Arctic tern breeds as far north as the Arctic before flying tens of thousands of miles to Antarctica and back within a single year. By moving between Arctic and Antarctic summers, the bird sees more daylight than any other creature on Earth.

Until now, the birds had only ever been tracked as far as South Africa, through traditional bird ringing studies. “After that we lost them and we had no idea of how they got back up north,� said Carsten Egevang, of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk, who led the research.

Using miniature geolocators to track 11 Arctic terns from colonies in Iceland and Greenland, Dr Egevang and colleagues were able to follow the birds’ complete route for the first time.

The findings, published today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that some individuals travelled more than 50,000 miles annually. “They’re the ultimate commuters,� Dr Egevang said. “This is at the edge of the capacity of any living creature.�

Previously, the furthest recorded migration was by the sooty shearwater, a seabird that makes a 40,000-mile circular trek each year from New Zealand to Alaska.

Arctic terns feed in shallow coastal waters on small fish such as sand eels, and nest on beaches and offshore islands. The British population breeds mostly around the north and west coasts, with the largest numbers in Scotland and Ireland. The terns reach their northern breeding grounds by May or early June, where each female lays one to three eggs in a hollow scooped out of sand. The young can fly after 21 to 24 days, but stay with their parents for a month or two.

After leaving their colonies, the study showed the terns flying southwest to make a previously unknown stopover in the Newfoundland Basin.

Despite there being no land mass for the terns to seek rest, they hovered over a region of deep water for about 25 days, taking advantage of a hotspot of sea life at the junction between cold northern waters and less biologically active southern waters.

From here the birds veered towards the West African coast. South of the Cape Verde Islands, seven of the tagged birds continued parallel to the African coast, while four crossed the Atlantic to follow the east coast of Brazil. All eleven birds spent the winter in the Southern Ocean before setting off once more in March. The 15,000-mile return to South Greenland took only 40 days.

Comparing the tracking data with satellite images showing marine biological activity suggests that the route is largely dictated by food availability.

Arctic terns are 13 to 15in (33-38 cm) long, grey and white, with a black crown and a bright red beak. Their 2ft wingspan is one of the largest relative to weight and equips them well for long-distance flight. Despite their extreme migration, relatively few terns die each year and the birds can live up to 34 years.

The birds could face even more extreme challenges during the ensuing decades, according to Dr Egevang. “Climate change is happening most rapidly at the Poles and the Arctic tern is one of the only species that spends significant amounts of time at both extremes. There is no doubt that it will be affected,� he said.

   I was downtown with a friend of mine this morning and she was nice enough to take me over to the center on Elmwood Ave. where I saw 2 falcons on the back of the building at 11:00.One was on the right end of the ventilation system with it's back to us and the other was on a window ledge on the far right. I was very excited cuz I have no vehicle and don't get out and about a whole lot.

Thanks MAK...how exciting for you. Now to figure out who they are..

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/2010/01/sightings/overcast-windy-and-perhaps-a-few-degrees-below-zero-warning-peregrine-feeding-2/

["The BIG FLAT part of the ship does the Breaking, really cool to watch, it has water jet's in the front to help it glide on to the ice and crush it"!]

The Ice breaker finally made it to McMurdo Pier. It took 1 week to break 12 miles of 10 to 12 foot thick Ice.  It came in at 6:30 this am and left in the afternoon to widen the path for the fuel ship and Cargo ship that's due to dock. Amazing this all is.


Jeff: "The BIG FLAT part of the ship does the Breaking, really cool to watch, it has water jet's in the front to help it glide on to the ice and crush it"!

   
January 11, 2010
 
DRYDEN -- The recent cold spell along the East Coast has been wreaking havoc on nature.  Some birds that migrated south for the winter may be in trouble
     "Winter is always a stressful time for birds," said David Bonter, assistant director of citizen science at Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology.
     Bonter says birds that stay in our area during winter don't eat insects, so they should be fine.
     "These birds are pretty tough little creatures, so they're well suited for surviving our coldest winters here in Western New York," said Bonter.
    But if you're still worried about our winged friends, there is something you can do to make it through winter a little easier.  Bonter says there's good evidence to show birds that go to backyard bird feeders are doing well.
     But insect-eating birds that have migrated south this winter may have a problem.
     Bonter explained, "In the middle of the winter, if the food supply runs dry, they do continue to move, but migrating is very costly.  Birds have to put on a good layer of fat to fuel their migratory flight."
     And they already bulked up for months before they left Central New York.
     So will this cold snap force birds to fly even further south?  Bonter says the trend over the past decade shows birds are actually migrating north because of mild temperatures, but...
     "If we had a series of very severe winters, their populations would obviously be pushed down south again," said Bonter.

     If you set up a bird feeder, Bonter recommends using blackoil sunflower seeds.

Updated 8:20a.m 1-12

Officials say the whooping cranes are not flying to St. Marks Tuesday because icy weather conditions do not permit it.

The cranes may come in to town Wednesday.

We will update you with more information as soon as it becomes available.
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The wait is almost over. The flock of whooping cranes is nearing St. Marks.

Eyewitness News is told the giant endangered birds left Georgia Monday morning and of the afternoon they were in Jefferson County.

Officials with the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge say they expect the ten cranes to fly over St. Marks around 8:15 Tuesday morning.

Anyone trying to go out and catch a peek at the whooping cranes should dress very warmly!!