20-Apr-23, 07:24:46 AM
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / This birds getting the boot
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on: 03-Dec-09, 09:46:50 PM
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This is actually a bird nest....cute.
Top ten tips for a successful nest box:
1. Ensure your nest box has a hinged or removable lid to aid easy inspection and cleaning.
2. Treat your nest box with a water-based wildlife-friendly preservative to increase the longevity of the box.
3. Fix a horizontal or vertical batten to the back of the nest box to help prevent water from running down into it.
4. Do not site your nest box too close to bird feeders where the presence of large numbers of feeding birds may cause disturbance to any occupants.
5. Site your nest box in a place that will not make it easily accessible to predators.
6. For cleaning and monitoring purposes, place your nest box at a height where you can easily reach it.
7. When erecting your nest box, use screws instead of nails as these will last longer. Stainless steel/brass screws are ideal.
8. Ensure the nest box entrance faces away from prevailing wind, rain and direct sunlight.
9. To give additional shelter to the box entrance, angle the box slightly downwards.
10. Drill a few holes in the base of the box for drainage.
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24349
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Migratory birds in South Korea face Starvation
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on: 03-Dec-09, 09:19:29 PM
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MIGRATORY shorebirds face starvation from the planned destruction of their wetland "pit stops" in South Korea.
The world's population of great knots has already plummeted 20 per cent because of previous wetland destruction in South Korea, but last month the Environment Ministry approved the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. A day later, President Lee Myung-bak broke ground on the project, which includes 21 new dams, destruction of 87 old dams and dredging of almost 700km of rivers.
Birds such as the great knot, curlew sandpiper and tiny red-necked stint "winter" in coastal waters in Tasmania and southeastern Australia before flying to Siberia to breed in the northern summer.
Hobart-based shorebird ecologist Eric Woehler -- with Birds Tasmania and the University of Tasmania -- said migrating birds used South Korean wetlands to fuel up for the onward journey to Siberia.
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"The birds have no alternative feeding areas. They feed on intertidal invertebrates like clams and shellfish that live in the mud, put on weight and then fly to the next staging area," said Dr Woehler.
"We've already seen the impact of the reclamation of the Sae Man Geum Wetland along South Korea's west coast.
"The reclamation has destroyed the food, so when the birds arrive they starve."
The Sae Man Geum Reclamation Project represents the world's largest tidal flat destruction, claims environmental group Friends of the Earth Korea.
The group estimated that, three years after it began in 2000, roughly 200,000 migrating birds failed to return to Australia.
And a tanker collision in January last year released 10,500 tonnes of crude oil off Sae Man Geum. "That was a double whammy for the birds," Dr Woehler said yesterday.
A spokesperson for Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the minister was aware of the new project but had no evidence it was driving the decline in waterbird populations. He said the minister would "seek advice" from Korea should evidence emerge.
According to FOEK, the new project will reclaim more than 1000sq km of critical coastal wetland for industry, roads and port developments.
Spokesperson Ma Yong-un said more than 100 river wetlands on the country's National Wetland Inventory would be affected, some linked to Korea's 11 Wetlands of International Importance, protected under the 1971 Ramsar convention.
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24350
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / 13 gram bird travel thousands of kilometres to winter in Malta
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on: 03-Dec-09, 09:16:54 PM
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Thursday, 26 November 2009
A Robin, ringed in Russia and weighing just a few grams, traveled over 2200 km to spend the winter in Malta. The bird was caught by BirdLife Malta ringers participating in international ringing studies. Photo by Denis Cachia.
A Robin (Pitirross) from Russia has travelled over 2000 kilometres while another Robin from the Czech Republic flew over 1100 kilometres to Malta, where a large population of these birds spend the winter months.
The Maltese bird ringers, who are part of BirdLife Malta’s scientific ringing scheme, identified the two Robins, which weigh only 13 grams, from the uniquely numbered rings that were attached to their legs. After getting in touch with the Czech ringing association, BirdLife Malta found out that the Czech bird was ringed 27 days before it was caught in Malta, after travelling at least 1110 kilometres. The Robin from Russia was ringed 42 days before it was caught in Malta and travelled over 2200 kilometres. After the rings were read, and scientific measurements taken, the birds were immediately released back into the wild.
“This is an amazing feat for a 13 gram bird that must face the full power of the elements on an exhausting migratory journey.” said Mark Gauci, Head of BirdLife Malta’s Ringing Scheme.
“These scientific records show once again the importance of Malta as one of the main migration routes taken by various bird species. It also highlights the importance of the island as a wintering ground for these species.”
Ringing is the scientific study of birds involving fitting birds with a uniquely marked ring. Details of the bird are then put into an international database to facilitate sharing of data at an international level by the various ringing organizations in the birds range. Ringing efforts in Europe are coordinated by The European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING). BirdLife Malta is the EURING recognized national organisation responsible for ringing studies in Malta.
Europe’s birds breed during the spring period, when food is abundant and the weather hospitable, leaving Europe and travelling to their wintering grounds in autumn as food supplies dry up and the weather worsens. While most of Europe’s birds over winter in Africa, many also over winter in the southern Mediterranean including the Maltese islands.
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24352
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Anything Else / Totally OT / Re: 1,000 Posts
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on: 03-Dec-09, 08:32:13 PM
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Good job Donna. Congrats on being our first cyberspace falcon. Lou  Thanks all, I'm honored to be a Cyber-Falcon..it seemed very easy for me to reach that 1,000 post milestone. Maybe I'll slow down now and let you all catch up....   As we used to say in Brooklyn...MIGHT EVAH!  You so know Ei...  What EVAH!!!  |
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24353
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Anything Else / Totally OT / Re: 1,000 Posts
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on: 03-Dec-09, 06:22:50 PM
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Good job Donna. Congrats on being our first cyberspace falcon. Lou Thanks all, I'm honored to be a Cyber-Falcon..it seemed very easy for me to reach that 1,000 post milestone. Maybe I'll slow down now and let you all catch up.... |
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24354
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / California Condors to feather new nest in Idaho
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on: 03-Dec-09, 06:23:27 AM
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By :EXPRESS STAFF
Construction of a new outdoor exhibit for a pair of California Condors is now under way at The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, with completion expected in spring 2010.
The exhibit will provide the only opportunity to see live California Condors on display outside of California, said Public Relations Coordinator Susan Whaley. The 25-foot-tall structure will use state-of-the-art materials and allow unobstructed views of the huge birds. A cliff scene, complete with a cave-like nesting structure at the rear of the exhibit, will mimic the condors' natural habitat in remote locations like the Grand Canyon.
The World Center for Birds of Prey is home to the world's largest captive flock of endangered California Condors. Each year, young birds raised in Idaho are transported to northern Arizona for release to the wild.
The exhibit is strategically designed so that the pair of condors could breed and lay an egg in the nest cave. Biologists will be able to collect the egg and relocate it to The Peregrine Fund's on-site captive breeding facility, which would allow the young condor to be released to the wild.
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24355
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / How Raptors use their deadly talons
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on: 02-Dec-09, 10:27:31 PM
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http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=birds_ext_quest Video, Extraordinary birds http://www.livescience.com/bestimg/index.php?url=birdsofprey_bateleur_00.jpg&cat=birdsofprey Birds of prey gallery Scientists have unraveled how the talons of birds of prey have evolved to help them kill victims.
The killing techniques range from dismemberment to squeezing prey to death. The findings could help researchers understand how the claws of extinct dinosaurs and birds helped them hunt.
As common as raptors are, the specifics of how they capture prey often remain poorly understood. Even with modern technology, actually closely witnessing how birds of prey deal with victims remains largely a matter of luck. As such, surprisingly little was known about how talons are employed during feeding.
"One famous ornithologist from the 1920s said that he had only personally observed close up about 30 raptor kills his entire career," said researcher Denver Fowler, a paleobiologist at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana.
In the most thorough study up to now of raptor talons, scientists took detailed measurements of length and curvature of the claws from 24 bird of prey species and compared them with nearly 200 videos of attacks.
"In recent years we have been lucky enough that members of the public have been posting videos of raptor kills on YouTube — just things that they happened upon while out for a walk, or looked out into their garden to see amidst a blizzard of pigeon feathers a sparrowhawk furiously plucking away at its kill," Fowler said. "This is fantastic data."
Consuming victims while still alive
When it came to accipitrids, which include eagles and hawks, the researchers found they had giant claws on the first and second toes of each foot, evolved primarily to restrain large struggling prey. The raptors then often consumes victims while they are still alive, so long as they do not protest too vigorously — the prey eventually succumbs to massive blood loss or organ failure, incurred during dismemberment.
In contrast, falcons have only modest talons on each toe, and rely more strongly on the high velocity of their strikes to disable their prey, having evolved a 'tooth' on their beaks to then aid in severing the spinal cords or crushing the heads of their prey.
The osprey has enlarged, highly curved talons on each toe. These are adaptations for catching fish, also seen to a lesser extent in fishing raptors such as the bald eagle.
Owls have enlarged talons on each short, robust toe, and each claw is less curved than seen in other birds of prey, part of a suite of adaptations to maximize grip strength. This enables them to squeeze victims to death — they specialize on small prey they usually swallow whole.
A box of claws
When the researchers began their study, they thought investigating a box of raptor feet stored at the museum would prove to be a small project they would complete over spring break, but it took months longer and became much more involved than they expected.
"My favorite, the goshawk, had a humungous claw on its second toe," Fowler recalled. "This was interesting to us, as dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus also have huge claws on their second toe, so we wondered, 'what do these raptors do with this claw?' Well, after searching through the scientific literature, it turns out that no one had tried to answer that question before. In fact, no one had even noted that accipitrids — hawks and eagles — even had such a strangely oversized claw, so this is what prompted us to go and find out."
"Claws are very much understudied as a whole, which is strange because they represent the business end of the animal — they have direct interaction with pretty much everything the animal is doing," he added.
The videos the researchers found online proved extraordinarily helpful.
"We can watch them over and over again, making sure all that data is recorded, without missing anything," he explained. "Furthermore, often these videos are very long: up to seven to 10 minutes, so we see the full spread of behaviors. The videos are often unintentionally funny — either the music some people set to the video, or what is going on in the background, as the person calmly films the animal carnage outdoors while their kids are flinging toys across the room, or they are trying to have a conversation about sales with their boss on the phone."
"On a more serious note, these behavior videos represent a good way the general public can contribute to primary scientific research," he added. "There are some limitations of course, but generally it's a great resource that researchers are only just starting to use."
The researchers are now using the lessons they learned with birds of prey with research on the claws of extinct dinosaurs, including carnivorous theropods such as Velociraptor and Deinonychus and giant herbivorous sauropods such as Diplodocus.
"It's often helpful to look at modern species and make comparisons to how dinosaurs may have behaved," said researcher Elizabeth Freedman at the Museum of the Rockies.
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Kinda reminds me of my friend who calls and talks for 1 1/2 hours...I get 5 words in and she.....1,000. All I get in is a few wows and a hmm. 
Sorry Ei!
