[Soooo.........this is how they get the Penguins to Antarctica]

Soooo.........this is how they get the Penguins to Antarctica 

[2010]

2010

 

[WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

front page article of the Chicago Sun Times today:  http://tinyurl.com/ye3thrf
This bird went south for the winter the hard way.  A Ferruginous hawk was apparently struck by a train in western Canada -- and then got stuck in the front plow of the train for 1,000 to 2,000 miles.  It was finally discovered when the Canadian Pacific Railway train pulled into a train yard in Franklin Park.  "It's absolutely amazing that he lived through it," said Dawn Keller, founder of Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation, which operates rescue centers at Northerly Island, Itasca and Barrington.

Have a healthy and joyous New Year, everyone!
Dale

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my neighborhood, it's a sharp-shinned raising havoc on the bluejays.

I have no concrete proof that mine is a Cooper's but could be.

 Flint Peregrine Majesty of Royal Descent
December 31, 2009 - International, National and Local News
Matt MacGillivray Reports:

While not of royalty, Majesty, incorrectly identified as Majestic in yesterdays post, the Flint Journal and Michigan Times, has a very special family tree for us at the CPF.

As noted in a post earlier this year by Frank, Majesty was born in 2002 at the 18 King St nest site to the first recorded Toronto nesting Peregrine pair in over 100 years.  The parents, Victoria and Pounce-Kingsley, were first monitored more than 12 years ago and were one of the inspirations for the creation of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.  They produced 29 offspring over 8 nesting seasons in downtown Toronto at the King St nest site, one of which was Majesty.

July 2002 -- Majesty and Viking settling down together for the night on the roof of the Richmond Hill Town Hall.

Majesty is the last known living relative of this inspirational Peregrine pair in Toronto.  While born in the King St nest site in 2002, Majesty and her siblings were relocated just outside the city in Richmond Hill as a result of the tragic loss of Victoria and Pounce-Kingsley that year.

Now, in 2009, Majesty has moved on to Flint Michigan to continue the cycle with Maize.  The family seems strong, having dealt with construction and a nest relocation earlier this year by MDNR.

Special thanks to Barb Baldinger, a Peregrine Falcon volunteer, of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, for correctly identifying Majesty from our previous post.

[All is well in Port ColborneDecember 29, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM MillDoug Garbutt Reports:We still have two crazy active falcons here !!!!!!!!!! They seem to like the snow.]

All is well in Port Colborne
December 29, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill
Doug Garbutt Reports:

We still have two crazy active falcons here !!!!!!!!!! They seem to like the snow.

Toronto Peregrine creates a family at Durat Hotel in downtown Flint Michigan
December 30, 2009 - International, National and Local News
Matt MacGillivray Reports:

It looks as if a 7 year old Toronto Peregrine Falcon named Majestic, has created a family with an 8 year old Peregrine named Barry from Ohio.  The pair had a chick earlier this year, named Maize, who has become a bit of a mascot for Flint, and the local Michigan University according to this Flint Journal article which includes great photos and video.

It is great to hear about Canadian Peregrines moving on to create new families beyond our borders.

I have yet to find details about Majestic’s birthplace or parents in Toronto, but will followup with more details if we find them.  Until then, here is a bit more information from the Michigan Times about the banding of Majestic’s chick Maize in the summer of 2009, including a great photo of a Peregrine atop the North Bank Centre.

A Great Show by Cirrus
December 30, 2009 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:

Hello everyone and Happy New Year.

Yesterday Bill and I visited the Lift Bridge.  We arrived around 12:30 pm to meet Carol and Kathy from Rochester.   We found that the Parking Lot was closed, the area was fenced off and the bridge was reduced down to 2 lanes of traffic .  Looks like renovations have started on the Bridge.  Let’s hope that the construction will not have an effect on the Peregrines and that all the work is finished prior to mating season.

Carol and Kathy must have some magical powers because we were treated to a great show by Cirrus.  Unfortunately, we had not taken the camera out of the car so were unable to capture the action.  By the time Bill got back with the camera, all the action was over.  Carol did have her camera and hopefully, she will be able to share some of her shots.  When we arrived, Cirrus was enjoying a meal on the front face of the Hamilton Tower while Sir begged for scraps from the cables.  He eventually left the cables and perched on the very top corner of the Tower.  As far as we could tell, Cirrus did not share.  While we were watching, we noticed a Gull feeding on the Lake side of the peer.  Upon closer examination, it was a headless Pigeon, so we speculated that one of the Peregrines had dropped it.  After some preening, Cirrus left the face of the tower and flew directly over our heads and began to harass the Gull.  We then realized that it must have been a meal that Cirrus had dropped and was not happy that the Gull was enjoying her catch.  Cirrus flew around us and over us and every time she dive bombed the Gull.  After many attempts, she drove off the Gull and eventually gave up on trying to retrieve the Pigeon.  When we left, both birds we visible on the Hamilton Tower and the beheaded Pigeon was floating out to sea.

Great visit with Carol and Kathy who had to travel all the way from Rochester to get their Peregrine fix.

So this is where Carol is hiding....in Canada!  

 


December 29, 2009, 7:04PM

A $700,000 land deal has expanded the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris and Somerset counties by another 27 acres, adding acreage in Chatham Township that now brings the nature preserve’s size to nearly 7,800 acres, officials announced.

The deal, brokered by the Trust for Public Land, adds what had been a small, privately owned hunting preserve and lodge to the Great Swamp, under the ownership of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
great-swamp-wildlife-refuge.JPGMatt Rainey/The Star-LedgerA 2008 file photo of the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge.
The addition extends significant woodland habitat and watershed and public access for hiking and bird watching, while the house on the property will be used as an administrative building and residence for refuge staff, said conservation officials.

"This could have been sold to be developed for at least one home for a private buyer,’’ said Terrance Nolan, state representative for the Trust for Public Lands. "It had been listed for sale by a broker so development possibilities were real.’’

The money needed to finance the deal was secured through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, said Nolan, who credited Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) with leading the effort to obtain the money.

What is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was once planned to be the site of a major jetport but was preserved nearly 50 years ago as a refuge. It is home to more than 240 species of resident and migratory birds, and a wide variety of mammals and amphibians.

Refuge superintendent William Koch said there are continuing efforts to purchase key parcels of privately owned land that abut the nature area to add "valuable habitat area’’ and provide a buffer.

Earlier this year, the Trust for Public Land conserved a six-acre former dairy farm in New Vernon, preventing development of habitat along Great Brook and Fox Hollow Brook.

WEYMOUTH —

Two years off the endangered species list, bald eagles are becoming less of a rare sight on the South Shore. There are 25 pairs of bald eagles in Massachusetts, said Simon Perkins, staff ornithologist at Mass Audubon, from one pair when it was restored as a species in the state in the early 1980s.

“They’re not common, but they are much less rare than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago,� Perkins said.

Joe Halpin saw one Saturday in his Birchbrow Avenue backyard, where it spent more than an hour in a tree near Wessagusset Beach.

Halpin sees plenty of cardinals, finches and other birds, but this is the first unusual sighting, he said.

“Nothing like an eagle,� he said. “That’s probably once in a lifetime.�

Two bald eagles were seen within 15 miles of Boston during the annual Greater Boston Christmas bird count Saturday.

Breeding pairs of bald eagles live around the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts and Assawompsett Pond in the Lakeville-Middleboro area.

Near the water is a natural place for eagles in the winter, Perkins said. They need to be near unfrozen bodies of water to hunt food.

The bald eagle is a “striking bird,� Perkins said, with the contrast between white and brown and bright yellow beak and talons.

“It’s our national symbol,� he said.

Mass Audubon will hold the annual Merrimack River Eagle Festival on Feb. 13 at the Joppa Flats and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport.

 PALMYRA - A little bird is causing quite a stir at the Palmyra Nature Cove.

Maybe it's the fact that the last spotted towhee was seen in New Jersey about 25 years ago.

Or maybe it's the mystery of how this normally nonmigratory sparrow, which typically lives out West and is rarely seen this side of the Mississippi River, even got here and what it plans to do next.

"It's exciting for us and for birders," said Clara Ruvola, executive director of the cove, which is owned and operated by the Burlington County Bridge Commission.

While the spotted towhee - there's some debate over whether it's a female or an immature male - is no doubt far from home, it has become something of a celebrity with birders, or bird watchers, who are flocking to the cove to catch a glimpse.

"It's definitely a rare sighting on the East Coast," said Ruvola, who made the bird's presence known to her bosses at the bridge commissioners' recent meeting. "It's outside of its normal range."

Make that way outside.

The spotted towhee is found in the Midwest and Southwest. Think Albuquerque, Phoenix and San Francisco.

Stranger still is that the bird usually doesn't leave its nest, so to speak. While some spotted towhees are nonmigratory, others do travel for the winter, said Kristina Merola, a naturalist at the cove.

"It's usually a north-to-south migration, not usually this far east. We don't usually see them cross the Mississippi River," Merola said.

"She should be staying home," Ruvola said with a laugh.

Sometimes a girl just needs to spread her wings, right? Maybe, but Merola thinks this spotted towhee is very young and may have gotten caught in one of the large storm systems earlier this year.

"We do get rarities in New Jersey from time to time," she said. "They get blown off track and kind of lose their way."

Even before the spotted towhee landed in Palmyra in late November, the nature cove was a popular place for birders because of its location along the mid-Atlantic migratory flyway.

"Birders can see a lot of different birds in their comings and goings when the birds make their way through here in the spring and fall. Something like this rare sighting brings even more recognition to the park," Ruvola said.

In fact, birders have been chirping about it and sharing their photographs on the Internet since the fall. For many, it's a chance to add to their life-sighting list, which marks the first time a birder sees a species in its habitat, Ruvola said.

Since the towhee's arrival, it has found some feathered friends among the cove's population of eastern towhees, which are resident nonmigratory birds at the 250-acre park on the Delaware River just south of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.

The New Jersey Audubon Society has identified more than 250 species at the park, which is an important feeding site for migratory birds, officials said.

So will the lost little sparrow find its way home?

"It may stay if it doesn't realize it's off course - and we have plenty of food," Merola said. "It has no reason to leave."

["They are too fat to fly," Dickie said]

NORTH OGDEN -- The city is having a duck population explosion at Bicentennial Park.

The park, on the corner of Washington Boulevard and Pleasant View Drive, has always been home to a few ducks, and people travel miles to walk the short trail around the stream, feed the ducks and get fresh well water.

For the last few months, the duck population has grown so that, on any given day, 50 to 100 ducks crowd the area. Their droppings cover the walkways, and with the wet, snowy weather, it can be a safety hazard for those walking in the area.

"It is a borderline nuisance," said City Manager Ed Dickie.

He and the mayor have each spoken about the problem and worry that conditions will get out of hand quickly if some of the ducks don't move out.

Part of the problem is that people drop their domesticated ducks at the park. In turn, people feed the birds regularly and the ducks don't leave.

"They are too fat to fly," Dickie said.

He said the domesticated ducks are definitely too fat to fly and the wild ducks are now as well because of the amount of food people are feeding them.

The city is working with the Department of Wildlife Resources to capture some of the ducks and take them to Willard Bay.

City officials tried to solve the problem a month ago by herding ducks to the wetlands area across Washington Boulevard.

"They came back two days later," Dickie said.

He was surprised they all came back, because they had to cross the busy road, and that they did it so quickly.

"If people would stop dropping off their domestic ducks, that would be a start. People think it is a good place for them to live and be happy."

Harrisville resident Curtis Taylor visits Bicentennial Park with his grandchildren at least once a week to look at and feed the ducks. He is an avid duck hunter and likes to look at the birds' markings to see what he needs to look for in the wild ducks as he hunts.

Ogden resident Jeff Moody also visits the park regularly with his daughter, but admits he has noticed a lot more ducks lately.

"I don't think I have ever seen as many," Moody said as he pointed to the pond full of ducks. "There are a lot more than usual here."

He enjoys the activity because it is an inexpensive way to spend time with his daughter and look at nature.

Dickie said that is the point of having the park, but that the city would like to discourage feeding the ducks so much so the fowl can fly south as they should.

City officials think it is odd that so many ducks are still around this late in the year.

"It's really a tough one because we hate to discourage it (feeding the ducks), because it is a fun thing," Dickie said.

Both Dickie and Mayor Gary Harrop have encouraged residents to "adopt a duck" to help the problem.

Dickie pointed out that people shouldn't take the wild ducks, but the domesticated ducks are fair game.

"We don't want anybody shooting them, though," he said.

Ideally, the city would like no more than 10 ducks at the park.

http://laurakammermeier.com/2009/12/ten-favorite-bird-photos-of-2009/

Laura Kammermeier is a writer and web consultant based in Rochester, New York. She specializes in nature, travel, and birding, and is an accomplished online content specialist and web producer.

RUSSELLVILLE, Alabama - A migrating flock of the world's rarest cranes has been grounded again in Alabama.

Rain kept the flock of 20 Whooping Cranes grounded on Wednesday. Thursday's forecast doesn't look any better.

Almost anyone with a backyard bird feeder has been a witness.

You're staring out your window, admiring a variety of birds alighting, grab a seed and hang for a few moments, then fly off. Then they're back again.

Then, whoosh, a streak dive bombs, talons snaring a helpless songbird.

Birds scatter in terror. There are feathers floating in the air.

Or maybe you didn't witness the massacre. But the next time you're out refilling the feeders, you find the puff of scattered feathers on the ground.

The hawk attacked again.

You are, after all, trying to help the birds by feeding them. So it's only natural to wonder: Am I dooming birds by feeding them?

Here are several reasons why you should banish your guilt.

One, consider that birds clustered at your feeders mean more eyes on the lookout for hawks and other predators, including cats.

And realize that songbirds are hard to catch. The most likely targets are cardinals, mockingbirds, pigeons, sparrows, chickadees and titmice.

Hawks most likely to target feeders are sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks.

Birder Stephen W. Kress makes the case in Audubon magazine that feeders might actually reduce predation since they reduce the time birds need to be out foraging for food.

Thus, they have more idle time to be alert for those that would eat them.

Studies have shown that the birds caught by predators often are ones slowed by disease -- think house finches with eye disease of recent years -- or weakness, old age or are dimwitted.

Thus, notes Scott Weidensaul, a nationally known bird expert and author from Schuylkill Haven, "the hawks are probably helping to control the spread of pathogens."
Besides, notes Weidensaul, "if the hawks come back too many times, the birds will avoid the spot, so in a way it's a self-regulating system."

If a hawk has zeroed in on your feeders with multiple attacks, take them down for a few days, advises the www.wild-bird-watching.com Web site.

The hawk will move on and the birds will quickly return to your feeders.

There are some things you can do to lessen the chance of feeder birds becoming a raptor meal.

Place your feeders near bushes, evergreen shrubs and trees where birds can quickly escape or stage before making a quick fly to the feeder.

If you don't have such cover, plant some shrubs next spring. Weidensaul, each year after the holidays, attaches four Christmas trees to stakes near his feeders. They provide escape cover and a nice windbreak throughout winter.

Weidensaul notes that one Cooper's hawk that had targeted his feeders adopted an effective killing strategy. It would swoop over the top of the house and dive straight down to scatter birds into the corner of the porch, where they couldn't escape momentarily or would be stunned when they hit the walls.

Weidensaul is one who, though he loves all birds, doesn't begrudge birds of prey their chance to eat, also.

"They are bird feeders, after all," he says. And nearly one-third of all adults in the United States now engage in bird feeding, to various degrees.

Somewhere around a billion pounds of birdseed is placed out each year, as well as tons of suet or seed cakes.

"You will never eliminate predation. Nor should you try to," says Weidensaul.

"Let's face it, most Americans these days don't have an opportunity to see predation up close. They won't see a mountain lion take down an elk from their backyard window.

"But they can look out to see this incredible action drama play out. It's not always the most pleasant thing to watch, but it is the most riveting."

[Yes Janet and to the watchers who put hours of time in Wind, Sleet, Hail and Snow.....Thank you so much. We all appreciate your reports and BRAVERY!!]

Yes Janet and to the watchers who put hours of time in Wind, Sleet, Hail and Snow.....Thank you so much. We all appreciate your reports and BRAVERY!!

 

[It's been a rough year with all the changes. Nest box removal, Kaver's disappearance, Mariah's injuries, new forum, new falcons. My wish for the New Year is for Kaver to come home, find his sweet , find a new home together and raise a family. It's unlikely my wish will be granted, so in reality: I hope that Mariah finds happiness where ever she decides to call ~HOME~, Kaver is out there and is safe, (I miss him so much), if Archer & Beauty stay on, (please, no more battles), they will raise a family at the Times Square building. At this point, I don't think we have a choice, the choice is theirs and anything can happen. Happy New Year all and let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.]

It's been a rough year with all the changes. Nest box removal, Kaver's disappearance, Mariah's injuries, new forum, new falcons. My wish for the New Year is for Kaver to come home, find his sweet  , find a new home together and raise a family. It's unlikely my wish will be granted, so in reality: I hope that Mariah finds happiness where ever she decides to call ~HOME~, Kaver is out there and is safe, (I miss him so much), if Archer & Beauty stay on, (please, no more battles), they will raise a family at the Times Square building. At this point, I don't think we have a choice, the choice is theirs and anything can happen. Happy New Year all and let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.