"Where is she?" "Is that...no, that's not her!" "I'll wait here a sec!"

           

Altera has laid a new egg!  Hoping things go better this time!

http://youtu.be/KffdZpSMpRc

Sad news to share about Savannah and Derek's 3 eggs...from FB-

Update from my curator:
"Yesterday we made the decision to remove the eggs from Savannah's nest. The eggs were quickly candled to be absolutely certain there was nothing growing inside and then dissected to check for any signs of viability. There were none. As far as we can tell the eggs were never fertilized. D&S still have time for a second clutch this season and we'll give them a few weeks to see if they do. We'll update you all if and when that happens. Our resident bird care staff are incredibly disappointed but not at all surprised by the lack of fertilized eggs. Hopefully we'll be able to pinpoint what's going on with these two and set them up to succeed in future years. Trust me when I say that we want bobble headed eagle babies as much as you all do. As always, thank you thank you thank you for your unending support in Savannah and our organization. We appreciate it more than you know."
-Natalie Childers, Curator of Birds and Programs

I can't get over how calm these birds are when eggs/chicks are checked.

The DOC staff are very gentle and caring with the birds, and as a result the birds are not stressed by their presence. In the later stages of incubation, when conditions were favorable for blowflies, they replaced each egg with a dummy egg during the day, placed the eggs in an incubator, and returned each egg in the evenings when the flies were not a problem.

Hoping to see confirmation of the good news about the little chick soon.

Yes, hopefully good news soon that the chick has been returned to its own nest. 

Laysan Albatross' fascinating courtship dance (with moos and wing salutes)!

http://youtu.be/S-M0y5SSv0s

The foster chick was checked and weighed this morning, and quickly returned to RBK.

I can't get over how calm these birds are when eggs/chicks are checked.

They are a beautiful pair but sad news about the chick was posted yesterday..hopefully it will do well and can return to its parents.  From FB..

Department of Conservation Update
The web cam chick hatched on 28 January and was doing well. Yesterday we found that it was fly blown. We removed eggs/maggots from the chick and used antiseptic to clean the area.

Today the chick has dropped below its hatch weight. As a result we’ve removed the chick from the nest in to intensive care.

Meanwhile we have given the webcam pair a foster chick, so the chick you see currently in the nest is not their own. The foster chick was moved due to a problem it had at its own nest.

Fostering of chicks is a regular occurrence at the colony. The ability for staff to be able to do this and for albatross to accept other chicks increases survival of the chicks.

Staff at the colony generally try to give parents back their own chick before the post guard stage (when the chicks are around 6 weeks old) as the adult albatross won’t accept chicks that have been swapped after that stage.

We'll update you as often as we can but bear in mind this is the busiest time of year for our rangers at Taiaroa Head. Thanks for your patience.

Update posted 3 hrs ago on FB:  

Joy-Ithemba has flown off our balcony. This happened a couple of hours ago right after sunset. Our chick flew down into our garden and ran around the grass for a while. Lady flew in and fed it, but it still didn't stop Joy-Ithemba from exploring more.

It flew up onto our garden bin then onto our wall, before flying across to the neighbour's wall. The neighbour is entertaining tonight which poses a problem when guests leave. Pappa and Lady are keeping a close eye on Joy-Ithemba and will attack anyone / anything close to it that they deem to be a threat.

We've contacted the neighbours so they've aware of what's happened. Let's see what the next few hours brings.

  Hope everyone stays safe!

My time for the 48 piece classic was 4:51

       http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/19055D5AD8A2

This puzzle is for Donna (who loves challenges)

       http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/19055D5AD8A2?z=31

This nest is located on Kauai and this year features 2 females, Mahealani and Pilialoha, who have a newly hatched baby named Kalama!
The story on how they received a fertile egg:

http://www.audubon.org/news/on-ground-us-navys-albatross-adoption-agency

A feeding by Pilialoha!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=BPGsgoW5y8o

The live cam link:

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/41/Laysan_Albatross/

[SUCCESS!!!]

SUCCESS!!!

                 Awesome!  Thank you, Shaky!   

"Purple Finch has a small crest and a split tail. House Finch has a round head and no split in tail. Color is not a good way to ID them."

I always have a hard time IDing them. 

               I do too.   

I remember this happening at the West End nest on Catalina Island many years ago. They were still doing the egg exchanges back then and they did raise several young together.

          Interesting. Maybe it happens more than people know.

An interesting Eagle's nest..a trio of Eagles-2 females and a male!  Last year, they successfully raised and fledged 3 young together and have been seen fixing the nest together for this year's season!

http://stewardsumrr.org/webcams/bald-eagle-nest-cam-live/

Main Camera's hard drive has been corrupted. I'll try to remove it and repair the damage tomorrow.

Netsville is coming in tomorrow to fix the slow internet problem.