[WanderingFalcon (Carol P.):]

WanderingFalcon (Carol P.): Falcon Watch - 10/19/09 - 12:30 - 3:00 pm - 2 Falcons - 1 on OCSR. 1 came in from north the other flew up to meet it. Male & Female.

Link:
http://twitter.com/WanderingFalcon/statuses/5001295686

Hmmm, so someone's still around......."Come into the nest CarolAnn...oops I mean A & B"
sorry, it's a Poltergeist thing.   

Annette just sent me an email....she is BACK online after a long absence and some PC repairs...C'mon back Annette!! 

[An recent e-mail from local resident Anne contains some very interesting information about F&F.Anne has recently observed a Peregrine attack and force a White-bellied Sea-Eagle to ditch into the Brisbane River near Admiralty Towers. She describes the attack as vicious.Attacks on other raptors by Peregrines are common but what is unusual here is that the Sea-Eagle was flying low enough to get itself into difficulties. Sea-Eagle often fly along the Brisbane River but they usually do so at heights where the Peregrines don’t regard them as a threat (and where most people don’t notice them).This Sea-Eagle was having a really bad day. Once it ditched, it narrowly avoided being struck by a City-Cat ferry before it drifted out of sight. It reappeared after about 10 minutes and was flying low and slow before ditching a second time without any assistance from the local Peregrines. One can only assume that it was thoroughly exhausted by the experience: the Sea-Eagle’s ultimate fate is not known.Anne’s report confirms that F&F are still around and that they are nesting (otherwise the attack on the Sea-Eagle would not have been pressed so hard).]

F&F are still in business
Greg Czechura – Monday, October 19, 09 (01:48 pm)

I have just received another report that confirms that F&F are still in the area around Admiralty Towers and that they are nesting at the moment.   

That's good news!!

OOPS, I forgot the rest of the story:

An recent e-mail from local resident Anne contains some very interesting information about F&F.

Anne has recently observed a Peregrine attack and force a White-bellied Sea-Eagle to ditch into the Brisbane River near Admiralty Towers. She describes the attack as vicious.

Attacks on other raptors by Peregrines are common but what is unusual here is that the Sea-Eagle was flying low enough to get itself into difficulties. Sea-Eagle often fly along the Brisbane River but they usually do so at heights where the Peregrines don’t regard them as a threat (and where most people don’t notice them).

This Sea-Eagle was having a really bad day. Once it ditched, it narrowly avoided being struck by a City-Cat ferry before it drifted out of sight. It reappeared after about 10 minutes and was flying low and slow before ditching a second time without any assistance from the local Peregrines. One can only assume that it was thoroughly exhausted by the experience: the Sea-Eagle’s ultimate fate is not known.

Anne’s report confirms that F&F are still around and that they are nesting (otherwise the attack on the Sea-Eagle would not have been pressed so hard). 

F&F are still in business
Greg Czechura – Monday, October 19, 09 (01:48 pm)

I have just received another report that confirms that F&F are still in the area around Admiralty Towers and that they are nesting at the moment.   

That's good news!!

Finally some some news about something!!!   


 Sir and Cirrus are Hanging In
October 18, 2009 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:

Bill and I stopped by the Lift Bridge this afternoon to see what we could see.  After searching the Hamilton Hydro Tower and under the Skyway, with no luck, we decided to check out the other favourite spot, the face of the Hamilton Tower.  Low and behold, there sat Mom and Dad just a few feet apart.  (We are assuming it’s Mom and Dad as we didn’t get a look at any bands.)   Mom appeared to be standing guard and Dad was enjoying himself preening.  The pigeons were everywhere, so I guess neither were hungry as there was no hunting taking place.  Looks like the adults are going to stay for the winter.

[You all missed a good chat!]

I'll be in chat from 7:30 - 8:00 pm in case anyone wants to know what's going on this weekend.   

You all missed a good chat!

[The Classic is a Classic.....what more can I say. Thanks Paul.]

Just bookmark
http://classic.kodakgallery.com/Welcome.jsp

Paul

The Classic is a Classic.....what more can I say. Thanks Paul.

[I so agree with you Paul...all I get is the spinning ICON also when viewing an album. It's way outta hand now. I loved the old way "OFOTO" and I still type that in my browser to get there. Also, if your not a fast reader, the caption on the pics disappears way to quick and you have to move your mouse over it again to finish reading it. They just changed it like not too long ago and their still messing with it. "Leave well enough alone"]

When I have to sign in for a slideshow that someone has shared with me, all I get is a black screen with a whirling icon.  However, I can view their album if I then go to Classic Gallery.  I wrote Kodak advising them of my problems and advising them to either fix the New Gallery or let it go the way of New Coke.

 Personally, I think that the best Kodak Gallery was the original Ofoto one.  I hate Flash, and have a friend that cannot view either the Classic Gallery or the New Gallery because her security settings prevent her from updating Flash. Kodak could save a lot of money by simply firing their entire programming staff and returning tom the original Ofoto site and updating the Kodak logos.

Paul

I so agree with you Paul...all I get is the spinning ICON also when viewing an album. It's way outta hand now. I loved the old way "OFOTO" and I still type that in my browser to get there. Also, if your not a fast reader, the caption on the pics disappears way to quick and you have to move your mouse over it again to finish reading it. They just changed it like not too long ago and their still messing with it. "Leave well enough alone"

Migratory route of Eleonora's falcon revealed for first time
               
Satellite tracking has allowed a research team to uncover the mysteries of the migration of Eleanora's falcon for the first time. In total, the bird flies more than 9,500 kilometres across the African continent from the Balearic and Columbretes Islands before reaching the island of Madagascar. Some of the previously-obscure secrets now revealed by the scientists show that these falcons migrate by both day and night, and cross supposed ecological barriers such as the Sahara Desert.

Until recently, the scientific community had almost no knowledge of the biology and life strategies of Eleanora's falcon (Falco eleonorae), a migratory bird of prey with low population numbers that nests on marine islands. However, researchers from the Universities of Valencia (UV) and Alicante (UA) tagged 11 individuals (7 adults and 4 chicks) in the colonies of the Balearic Islands between 2007 and 2008 and in the Columbretes Islands in the province of Castellón in 2008, with a further five individuals tagged in 2009.

"This represents a landmark in the study of this species, because to date nobody had been able to catch any Eleanora's falcon individuals and tag them using satellite technology anywhere in their colonies in the western Mediterranean", Pascual López, a researcher at the UV and lead author of the study, which has been published recently in the journal Zoological Studies, tells SINC.

The tagged falcons started their migration of more than 9,500 kilometres in the autumns of 2007 and 2008, travelling from the Balearic Islands to Madagascar. The new discovery made by this study was that the falcons do not fly over the waters of the Mediterranean and along the East African coast, but instead cross straight over the African continent.                              
The satellite tracking data have also shown that "Eleonora's falcons can migrate by both day and night (a new discovery among birds of prey of their genus), and cross supposed ecological barriers such as the Sahara Desert, the Equator and extensive stretches of open sea in the Indian Ocean", points out López.

During the two-month migration undertaken by the falcons in order to winter in Madagascar, the biologists received hundreds of position signals for the adults (throughout 10 countries) and the juveniles (in 14 countries). Their migratory route to return to Europe in the spring once again crosses the African continent, "but they follow a completely different path from that used for the autumn migration, flying for more than 1,500km non-stop over the Indian Ocean from Madagascar to Somalia, a phenomenon that has never before been described in birds of prey of this genus, and which pushes them to the limits of their physiological capacity ", says the researcher.

A very special bird

Some of the peculiarities of this bird of prey, which migrates over long distances and evolved only recently, include "a reproductive cycle adapted to the migration of other bird species, starting at the end of the summer and not in the spring (the latest among all European birds of prey). This makes it a model organism for looking into questions about its phylogeography and evolution", adds López, who also wants to find out how the Eleonora's falcons manage to navigate during such a long journey.

Eleonora's falcon was named after Giudicessa Eleonora de Arborea (1350-1404), a Sardinian princess who fought for Sardinia's independence from the Kingdom of Aragon, and who drafted the first laws in Europe protecting birds of prey.

I can't stand the new gallery.  I just uploaded new software because of the new computer and now I can't post new pictures to my gallery.  Plus, I don't like how the albums come out when we look at them.  Too small and it is hard to see the captions. This newest iteration of the gallery is really weird and very confusing. 

 

Is it just me, or are other people having problems with the new Kodak Gallery?  Since they rolled it out, I don't seem to be able to browse anyone's albums (for example, Ei's "Walk in the Woods" album posted today).  I also placed an order today about six hours ago and had to use IE instead of Firefox because Firefox wasn't displaying the page correctly where I could customize a holiday card.  I have yet to receive the order confirmation email, and when I go to the "order history" link, I get an error message.

I'll report all of these concerns to Kodak, but mainly I'm wondering if anyone else is having trouble viewing shared albums?

Patti

Patti, I can view all albums but it takes forever to load. It's on your own album drop down box. At the end of your albums says friends albums, it's grayed out but works. I don't like the new format, it takes forever for the albums to load.....why do they keep changing it? I use Firefox also, maybe that's why it takes so long to load.

I think only 3 also Ei....oh well but here's dad again.

I swear I see 4 in this pic   

You better water it and put a tomato stake in it Aafke. Weird place for a tomato plant for sure.

[As the Sand hill Cranes prepare to fly south for the winter, PG&E is installing more than 800 reflectors on power lines to prevent the birds from hitting the wires.]

Sand hill Cranes are a common sight in some parts of the region. Hundreds of the big birds migrate through the area in what can be a dangerous flight.

Now PG&E is working to make the cranes journey a safer one.

As the Sand hill Cranes prepare to fly south for the winter, PG&E is installing more than 800 reflectors on power lines to prevent the birds from hitting the wires.   

The reflectors look like a target with the main reflector in the middle.  The outside rings glow in the dark.

PG&E put most of the reflectors up already and is finishing the project this week.