A little wing action

Wings!   

New nest installed but it sure looks like a small opening!

Very nice for Q and K!

[MAKfalcon (MAK):]

MAKfalcon (MAK): Doesn't matter I just want to know she is ok cuz Carol left and u are the only one still out to check for me

Was it Beauty and Unity fighting or another female?

I don't think we know for sure yet.  Sounds to me like Beauty was found in the same place the watchers left her before going to KP.

That's what I thought it sounded like too, Ei.

[MAKfalcon (MAK):]

MAKfalcon (MAK): Doesn't matter I just want to know she is ok cuz Carol left and u are the only one still out to check for me

Link:
http://twitter.com/MAKfalcon/statuses/125
618361605423104

Was it Beauty and Unity fighting or another female?

  Hey Bobbie I won't be in no wheelchair when you see me...I'll be walking that's for sure! Have a safe trip my friend and I'll see ya soon!!!   

That's right, MAK!  No wheelchairs allowed after knee surgery!  Work those knees-bend, straighten, walk!  If I can do it, so can you and you'll do great! Safe trip, Bobbie!

Gee, I thought I posted that, then I look and posted the same post twice! Oktoberfest....yeah baby. It's the Beer!!  Gotta blame something!

  

What a gorgeous tribute to her. 

I did not know kestrels would use nest boxes. There's a thing...

There's a Kestrel nest box at Iroquois NWR that has a webcam and there's a link to it on the Forum. I've been watching it for a couple years now.

Hope he does well!

Love the yawn!  Thanks for posting, Annette!

Do you remember our old friend Jack Tripper, the cat who was born without eyes? We learned from Jack (and his owner, Jamie) that a cat can adapt quite well to its environment when born blind. "He loves toys that he can hear," Jamie told us when we asked her what kinds of toys a blind cat plays with.
 
Rattle mice and plastic balls with bells in them are all well and good, but variety is the spice of life. Sometimes you have to make your own fun with your blind pet. 5-month-old Oskar, who also was born without eyes, can be seen in this video playing with his favorite improvised toy: a hair dryer! Says Oskar's owner, "His blindness does not hold him back at all. He can do pretty much everything that our 'normal' cat Klaus can do."
 
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ElzPZNSdd5w

A second cub has now died they're reporting.  They're getting alot of criticism up here for breeding the polar bears.  A WWF rep on the news tonight said they're not endangered yet so there is no real reason to breed them in zoos - save for profit as cubs draw crowds.  But as there is no release plan in place, they feel it's cruel to breed them in the zoos as they required alot of space compared to say a panda bear.  They mentioned that the mother here doesn't have a large enough enclosure and that might have contributed to her reaction to her cubs...

The whole situation is so sad-sounds like the mother was probably stressed to do such a horrific act. Thanks for the update and info, Carly.

The surprise birth of three polar bear cubs at the Toronto Zoo Tuesday night turned ugly when the mother lashed out, leaving one cub dead and two clinging to life.

Aurora, one of the zoo's two 10-year-old female polar bears, gave birth more than a month early to two male cubs and one female cub. It's one of the earliest recorded births of polar bears in captivity, zoo staff said.

But the bear attacked her cubs shortly after the birth. Zoo staff intervened and managed to save two of them.

According to a Toronto Zoo press release, the two surviving cubs are recovering in intensive care, receiving “round the clock care� by zoo veterinarians and wildlife care staff.
 
“We are hopeful that they will both get stronger but they are far from being out of the woods at this time,� the release said, adding that both cubs will be “hand-raised.�
 
Mother bear Aurora, a main attraction at the zoo, first appeared in Toronto in 2001 after she and sister Nikita, both baby cubs at the time, were found wandering the wilderness alone.
 
According to earlier reports, the cubs' mother was killed by a hunter in a provincial park near Hudson Bay. The Ministry of Natural Resources contacted the Toronto Zoo and the orphaned cubs were taken to the city.

The sister cubs were loaned out to polar bear habitat in northern Ontario in 2002 because the Toronto Zoo didn't have enough space to keep them but, in 2009, the bears returned to the zoo.

Little is known about what prompted Aurora to turn on her newborn cubs Tuesday night. One source told the Star that she ate one cub and skinned another.
 
According to University of British Columbia zoologist Wayne Goodey, stress in captivity could be a factor in the attack.
 
“It's not uncommon in captive, stressful situations,� he said, pointing to experiments where lab rats and mice ate their young when placed in stressful situations.

Goodey also said he had never heard of a mother polar bear eating her cubs, with most situations involving male bears eating cubs as a source of food in the wilderness.

                     

Still a lot of lurkers to come out yet!  Where are you???