20-Apr-23, 07:04:01 AM
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Rochester Falcons / Falcon Watches / Re: Mariah at the Mall and St. Ann's - 10/27/09 (3:15 - 4:20 pm)
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on: 31-Oct-09, 08:09:15 PM
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Mariah was back. She was imitating a kite so well, just floating above the square St. Ann's bldg. How does she do that!!! It's as if she isn't moving a muscle, just hanging on the wind. The pigeons weren't happy and all took flight. Mariah didn't seem interested, so we can only assume that she had been successfull on her earlier hunt. clap
She gracefully floated off towards the north. Kathy and I waited for her to return, but she didn't.
We discovered an old cemetery near the parking lot. It was the Hooker Cemetery. It was an old pioneer cemetery with markers from the mid-1800's. Kathy and I decided to check it out. Was there a better way to end our Halloween Falcon Watch?
Great report Carol, so now it's Beauty & Mariah huh? Why is it, the boys have to leave? Good she's doing so well and has seemingly adjusted to territories outside of the Kodak Tower. She's quite a Falcon. Thanks! 
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24664
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Real-life batwoman helps tiny creatures
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on: 31-Oct-09, 03:19:47 PM
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She may have devised treatment for fungus afflicting population
Kashmer applies a diluted concoction of apple cider vinegar and warm water to bats' skin using a Q-tip -- a trick she learned as the owner of tropical fish.
Most interesting... One wonders if perhaps misting sleeping bats in caves with a dilute vinegar solution might turn out to be effective against this plague. What a breakthrough that would be  Carol WV
I was thinking the same thing, as vinegar is a wonderful antiseptic and cleaning agent (I clean my glass stovetop with it - shiney and squeeky clean).
Donna - those mines aren't too far away from you (Greenpond Road??) might be worth an investigation.Very close to me...been there done it. Might be fun to have another looksie.   |
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24666
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Wayward NJ manatee arrives in So. Florida
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on: 31-Oct-09, 11:36:43 AM
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Reported by: Associated Press Last Update: 10/29 4:20 pm (Courtesy: WSVN) MIAMI, FL (AP) -- A wayward manatee has arrived in Florida after being flown on a transport jet after being rescued from murky waters near a New Jersey oil refinery. Ilya left Atlantic City International Airport Thursday. Miami Seaquarium was the ultimate destination. The sea cow was pulled from a creek at the ConocoPhillips oil refinery in Linden and had been recuperating at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. Federal wildlife authorities kept the rescue a secret, fearing a crush of media and well-wishers could stress the manatee. Ilya needed to be rescued because New Jersey's waters are too cold for him to survive for long. He's been migrating as far north as Massachusetts for the past decade, but dithered too long in the Garden State this year. http://www.wptv.com/news/state/story/ilya-manatee-wayward-new-jersey-wptv-miami-seaquar/8O4nyg40uE6A-4bBw-7kcg.cspx |
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24667
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Anything Else / Totally OT / Re: Vulture getting too close to a wind turbine
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on: 31-Oct-09, 09:33:28 AM
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Hi Lou, Someone posted on this topic earlier. I came across this youtube video of a vulture getting too close to a wind turbine. the poor vulture.  He will probably never be able to fly. Annette Oh boy....this is not good. I know Turbines are good but did they consider what could happen to passing birds?  |
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24669
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Condor that hatched in wild takes first flight (CA)
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on: 31-Oct-09, 08:22:25 AM
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Oct 30, 2009
HOLLISTER
The first California condor hatched in the Central Coast region in more than 70 years has taken its first flight near Pinnacles National Monument, according to a press release.
Someone first observed the bird perched away from its nest on a cliff on Oct. 17.
"The two places I've seen him he definitely didn't hop to," said Jason Bumann, manager at the RS Bar Guest Ranch where the nest is located.
The ranch is about 12 miles from Pinnacles, one of the recovery sites for the endangered species.
The young condor has been reared by a pair that produced a single egg last spring. Biologists then traded the egg for one produced at the Los Angeles Zoo on April 17, a day before it hatched.
The press release also notes that the parents were each released at different recovery sites, the male at Pinnacles and the female at Big Sur.
The young condor is a "healthy, growing bird," according to the statement, which notes how condors usually take five and a half to six months before they fly.
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24670
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Migrating birds' close encounter
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on: 31-Oct-09, 08:18:24 AM
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Two young ospreys, which left the Highlands independently of each other and followed different routes on their migration to Africa, may have met up. RSPB Scotland said data from the female birds' satellite tags showed they came within three miles of one another on the Senegal-Guinea Bissau border. But the birds may have come much closer during a spell when data temporarily stopped being received from one bird. Rothes and Mallachie were raised at the RSPB's Loch Garten reserve. The latest satellite readings show the pair have drifted apart, with Rothes crossing between Senegal and Guinea Bissau and Mallachie in the Gambia. Richard Thaxton, RSPB Scotland site manager at Loch Garten, near Aviemore, said the siblings meeting following a long journey from Scotland was a nice thought. He said: "Both these birds left us independently back in August, journeyed separately down through Europe, crossed over to the African continent, having taken slightly different, yet broadly similar routes, and now they have pitched up within three miles of each other. "How amazing is that?  "If they didn't meet, then it was tantalizingly close. Their paths crossed though, quite literally." |
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24671
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Scientists urge action on e-waste (affecting peregrine eggs)
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on: 31-Oct-09, 08:15:09 AM
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Electronic waste is a growing problem in the U.S., and the country needs a comprehensive policy to deal with it, scientists at the University of California say. The researchers, writing in the journal Science, say the U.S. is one of the largest producers of e-waste but lacks federal policies on mandatory recycling and the elimination of hazardous materials in electronics. Oladele Ogunseitan and his colleagues estimate that there are 1.36 million tonnes of e-waste, electronics that are broken or no longer useful, in storage in American homes. As well, most Americans are unaware of programs that are available for safe e-waste recycling and disposal. Since the 1990s, e-waste has become the fastest-growing component of the world's solid waste, with the proliferation of small consumer electronic devices, such as cellphones and portable music players, in industrialized and developing countries. Toxic e-waste shows up in forms as varied as high lead levels in the blood of children in Guiya, China, where millions of tonnes of e-waste are illegally dumped, and as fire-retardant chemicals in the eggs of California's peregrine falcons. Canada's e-waste showing up in China The Science article points to directives in the European Union on managing e-waste and regulations on electronic and electrical waste that are coming into effect in China in 2011. The scientists suggest laws to promote education, recycling and research into less toxic alternative materials for future electronics. In Canada, some provinces, including Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, have imposed surcharges on electronics to pay for the eventual disposal of the products. Canadians dispose of an estimated 184,000 tonnes of e-waste every year. Although Canada has signed the Basel Convention, which regulates the import and export of hazardous wastes, e-waste from Canada still makes it to places like Guiya. The U.S. is the only OECD country that hasn't ratified the Basel Convention. |
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24672
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Real-life batwoman helps tiny creatures
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on: 31-Oct-09, 08:06:19 AM
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She may have devised treatment for fungus afflicting population
Bats are nothing like they are portrayed in Hollywood movies: vicious, screeching
creatures that will turn humans into vampires.
Just ask Jackie Kashmer, who has been rehabilitating sick and injured bats at her home since 2005, when she started Bat World New Jersey in Hunterdon County. As a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, the 55-year-old Milford resident not only nurses bats back to heath, but also works to change the negative perceptions most people have of the tiny winged mammals.
She has even concocted a treatment that state biologists are studying as a possible cure for a devastating bat disease.
"Bats are a totally beneficial animal,'' Kashmer said. "They are tiny little creatures
that don't make any noise. They are gentle and shy, very intelligent, each with its own
personality.''
Kashmer's services have been in high demand since January, when a mysterious ailment called white nose syndrome was first found to be threatening the nine species of bats that call New Jersey home.
White nose syndrome -- a cold-loving mold called Geomyces destructans that grows on the muzzles and skin of stricken bats -- has led to what some scientists have called the "most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in recorded history.'' In just three years, the fungus has wiped out an estimated 1.5 million insect-eating bats in nine states, from New Hampshire to West Virginia. It causes bats to lose stored body fat, forcing them to venture outside their caves in winter when there are no insects for them to eat.
That's where Kashmer comes in. Bats recovered alive -- suffering from frostbite, starvation and incapacitated with dried wings crinkled like crepe paper -- are often brought to Bat World New Jersey, where the 17-year wildlife rehabilitator has devised a way to treat them.
Kashmer applies a diluted concoction of apple cider vinegar and warm water to bats' skin using a Q-tip -- a trick she learned as the owner of tropical fish.
"Tropical fish develop a fungus and tail rot if the water is too alkaline, and I read that
fungus can't grow in an acidic environment,'' she said. "Putting vinegar in the tank worked on fish and I found that after two weeks of application on bats, not only did it kill the fungus, but the skin repaired itself.''
Photos of Kashmer's rehabilitated bats caught the attention of the Mick Valent, principal zoologist with the state's Endangered and Nongame Species Program. Together, they conducted a study of 30 bats from Hibernia Mines in Rockaway Township, the state's largest-known bat hibernaculum, to see if the solution cures them of white nose.
The experiment was promising, Valent said, but it is too soon to tell if it was successful because lab results have not yet been studied.
What Valent is sure of is that white nose syndrome has decimated the bat population at Hibernia Mines. An estimated 30,000 bats normally hibernate there, but Valent said he found just 750 in March.
"When we went in there in the spring, there were thousands of dead bats on the floor,'' Valent said. "We are not sure what we will find this winter, whether the returning bats have found an immunity or if the fungus will return.''
Biologists in the fight against white nose are focused on researching its origins and measures to treat stricken bats and prevent the spread of the fungus to bats in other states, said David Blehert, a microbiologist with the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin.
"It's very challenging to manage a wildlife disease,'' Valent said. "A wild animal won't go to a doctor, won't isolate themselves in a bedroom and stay home from work. There are limited means by which to deal with it, and we have to be sure we're not harming the species, other species in the ecosystem or harming the environment.''
Kashmer, a court reporter by day, devotes countless hours to bats, feeding them mealworms and cleaning their cages. At her home, about 20 little brown bats that have recovered from white nose are isolated in a spare room, living in netted cages. Others are in a separate structure built recently to serve as an education center, and more in a giant netted outdoor cage.
Kashmer does not get paid for her work, but said the payoff is releasing bats back into the wild.
"This is my calling,'' Kashmer said. "We can't let bats die.''
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he liked it. 
Your welcome Janet....anytime!
