20-Apr-23, 07:21:01 AM
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Other Nature Related Information / Falcon Web Cams / Froona finally fledged
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on: 23-Nov-09, 05:20:38 PM
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Monday November 23, 2009
After venturing out onto the perch and preparing herself for flight, Froona has finally fledged. Which leaves our webcam looking at an empty nestbox. Never fear, whether it's driving rain or a tempting snack, the chicks continue to return home, sometimes for picture perfect moments like this.
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24456
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Biologist shares love of wildlife
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on: 22-Nov-09, 08:25:20 PM
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SARATOGA SPRINGS -- For Beth Bidwell, it’s all about the wild creatures.
Bidwell gives up to 200 educational presentations each year featuring rehabilitated animals that were not able to be successfully released. On Sunday afternoon, she gave a presentation at the Saratoga Springs Public Library.
"Their prognosis was either to be doing this or be euthanized," Bidwell said. "Unfortunately, there are more injured animals than there are homes for them."
As a trained wildlife biologist, Bidwell is one of the few who give wildlife presentations, despite the network of wildlife rehabilitators, because what she does is very expensive. One cage for a hawk can run up to $1,000.
Bidwell receives support from International Paper Corp., Pearsall Adirondack Foundation and Stewart’s Shops. Her husband, Brad, assists in everything from trimming beaks and talons, to staging the presentation.
On Sunday before more than 80 children — most of them under 8 years old — and their parents, Bidwell showed off a snapping turtle, a black rat snake, a red-tailed hawk, a peregrine falcon and a barred owl during one of two hour-long sessions that were lively, humorous and involved much question and answering.
Bidwell uses creatures that she’s had for several years, so they are old hands at these public sessions, she said. What was hardest for the hawk and falcon was that this is the season for migration.
"Their bodies are telling them to go, but they can’t fly," she said.
The crowd listened to many facts and had the chance to view close-up each creature. A snapping turtle’s shell is too small for him to hide in, so when he’s scared, he swims to the bottom of the pond and hides behind a rock or plant, Bidwell said. On land, he gets "snap-happy" and can swallow a mouse in one bite.
When the children saw the non-venomous black rat snake, the children offered exclamations like "awesome" and "Oh, that is so cool."
As Bidwell walked among the crowd with the snake curled around her forearm, the crowd learned the snake could unhook its jaw and swallow prey larger than its head. One yawn and the joints fall back into place.
Death doesn’t come faster than a peregrine falcon diving out of the sky to snatch a pigeon, though. It can travel up to 270 mph, which makes it the fastest creature on earth, Bidwell said.
And the barred owl with its flat face, which captures sound waves, can hear a mouse’s heartbeat and its "delicious mouse feet" even in the midst of a rainstorm, according to Bidwell.
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24462
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Member Activities / Pets / Re: Farewell to Sonni
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on: 22-Nov-09, 08:57:49 AM
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Hi. my sociable finch female has died today.  I found it at lunch on the cage floor. It was very tame. The male is now alone.  Annette Oh Annette, I'm so sorry. I know how much you loved your birds. So sad for Sonni. |
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24464
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Vultures make Madison neighbors feel 'Creepy (CT)
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on: 22-Nov-09, 07:33:16 AM
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MADISON — It’s an otherwise normal afternoon on a quiet north Madison street: Children play in yards, dogs bark, a few cars drive down the house-lined streets.
You might not notice anything is amiss, if you didn’t look up.
But 35 vultures sat perched in the trees Thursday in the area around the Metz family’s Winding Road home, and the Amplos’ house behind it, on Wheatstone Road.
“That’s nothing,” Rachel Metz said.
Linda Amplo said she counted 75 of the large birds around her home one day this week; seven of them were on her house.
There’s something ominous about the birds, she said.
“I feel like the Addams Family,” she said. “I kept thinking that they found a deer and they’d (eventually) leave. But this has gone on for three weeks and if anything, they are getting stronger in number.”
State Department of Environmental Protection officials say the birds are harmless, that they feed only on dead animals, but Amplo’s son, Christian, 12, held his small shih tzu a little tighter when the birds began to circle above his driveway Thursday.
Amplo, who said she is a wildlife enthusiast who would never want to hurt an animal, has started carrying a baseball bat when she walks her dog in the morning, in case she encounters an aggressive vulture.
There are also wafts of a pungent odor, and portions of the woods and roadway coated in the birds’ white feces.
Metz said while that is annoying, the fact that these birds land in her yard, in close proximity to her small children, cat, and small dog, is downright scary.
So, Metz called the state DEP, Madison police and animal control, as well as the town’s Audubon Shop.
“Everyone’s scratching their heads. They don’t know why (the birds) are doing this, but no one can offer any help,” Metz said.
Worse, she said, is that the birds are protected, so her idea of tossing stones at them to scare them away is prohibited by law.
Julie Victoria, a wildlife biologist at DEP, said the birds are protected under the Migratory Birds Treaty, and people are not permitted to “harass or harm” them in any way. Metz was told if she harms or harasses the birds, she could face a fine or jail time.
“It seems as though I don’t have many rights on my own property, that I pay taxes on,” she said.
Metz said a police officer with DEP experience told her the birds were black vultures, which are uncommon to the area.
Jerry Connolly, owner of the Audubon Shop on the Boston Post Road, viewed a picture of the birds, and said he believed them to be immature turkey vultures. Turkey vultures are common in the area, and have black heads until they mature, when their heads turn red. Although Metz and Amplo both said the birds seemed aggressive toward their pets, Victoria said it would be extremely rare for the birds to harm a pet or person.
“They’re not dangerous at all,” said Victoria, who called the birds “the garbage collectors of the wild. They don’t eat anything that’s alive; usually they just eat things that smell very badly.”
Still, the birds have left Metz feeling ill at ease. She said she feels imprisoned in her home because she not only fears the birds may be stalking her pets, but she’s also afraid because the birds are known to heave projectile vomit if they feel threatened.
“There’s feces in the yard, and I can only imagine what’s in their feces,” she said.
Metz is waiting for answers — so far, sounding car horns and a horn purchased at a marine shop, and yelling at the birds have done little to discourage them. Every day, they return to the area at about 2 p.m., and they stay all night, Metz said.
“It’s real spooky, a lot of cars have been stopping,” said Amplo’s husband, Anthony Amplo.
Although the scene on Wheatstone or Winding roads might seem like something out of a Hitchcock film, Connolly stressed the birds pose no danger.
“There’s absolutely nothing to worry about, other than that they’re not super handsome to look at,” he said.
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24465
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Animal refuges treat 18 hawks, raptors in shootings; 4 survive (Pa)
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on: 22-Nov-09, 07:25:20 AM
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Someone is shooting the region's birds of prey.
Wildlife refuges serving Westmoreland and Fayette counties report an alarming spike in the number of hawks and other raptors wounded since the beginning of 2009. Most of the birds have subsequently died.
"These are protected birds," said Beth Shoaf, director of Wildlife Works in Youngwood. "It's extremely distressing."
"I think it's malicious," said Gretchen Weslager of Windy Ridge Wildlife Refuge of Acme. "A bird doesn't look like a fawn or a deer. It's hard to confuse the two."
Birds of prey are protected by state and federal laws, said Tom Fazi of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Southwest Region.
The maximum fine for killing or injuring a red-tailed hawk, for example, is $200. The penalty for killing a protected bird such as an eagle is steeper, Fazi said.
Since January, the two wildlife refuges report that 18 wounded birds have been brought to their doors for treatment, but only 4 survived. In a typical year, there are two at most, Weslager and Shoaf said.
Shoaf reached her breaking point when a red-tailed hawk that she had rehabilitated for seven months for malnutrition was returned Nov. 14 with a gunshot wound next to its left wing.
"Fuzzy" was discovered in a yard on Radebaugh Road in Hempfield, Shoaf said.
The bird had been returned to the wild in September. Shoaf said when she received a call about a bird on the ground in Hempfield, her heart sank. The Radebaugh Road area is where Fuzzy had been released.
Fuzzy's future is uncertain. The bird may need more surgery, followed by months of rehabilitation. It may not be able to fly again. In that event, it likely will be destroyed, Shoaf said.
A hawk without wings is a hawk in name only, she said.
Weslager and Shoaf said the red-tailed hawk apparently is the target of choice for whoever is doing the shooting. More of these birds have been wounded than any other type. No eagles are known to have been injured.
Shoaf was at a loss to explain the situation. She said it is "inconceivable" that anyone would be so mean or careless as to shoot the birds for fun but thinks that may be the case.
OK....here comes the bad words again. Sick sick people to do this.
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to the kids and all involved.
the E goose.....nice catch Annette. 
