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16  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Peregrines in Fellbach on: 29-May-10, 04:58:20 PM
Hi Folks,

Orville and Wilbur fledged yesterday and I could watch them flying today between their "homebase" and adjacent buildings. Wilbur - who is about 3 days older than his "little" brother Orville - had already managed short flights onto higher structures on the roof where their nestbox is and yesterday morning I received a report that he did his first witnessed flight over the rooftops with a successful - if not perfect! - landing back on the roof.

But, this week also came with some excitement for humans and peregrines.....

On Tuesday - the day in the week I usually work from home - I got a call at 9:15 in the morning from Michael, our "liason" at the nestbox's building: somebody had allowed a worker from a phone-company to go up onto the roof to fix something or other at one of the antennas. Needless to say, this shouldn't have happened and Freya and Lorenzo were in a frenzy (I guess the technician hadn't realised what it meant when he was told that "birds were nesting up on the roof!"). Unfortunately, one of the eyases was spooked and jumped from the roof. Luckily enough, he apparently was already able if not to really fly to flutter down and land on a carport's roof above streetlevel. He stayed there for a while and I was in phone-contact with folks working at the nestbox's building and the building across the street. The "jumper" didn't seem to be worse for wear and was looking around. After cancelling a call I would have had at ten I took the car and drove over to the nestbox-building. When I arrived, the first thing I saw was Michael and some other people with a cardboard-box and a blanket, so it looked as if the eyas had jumped down to street-level. And he had! He was already backed against a smaller building sitting - protesting! - next to some plants. I had a lighter cloth with me and used that to distract and then grab him and he me (no gloves, unfortunately, and the scratches to prove it!). He didn't look hurt, had a firm grip with his talons, was looking around (still protesting) and also tried to beat his wings. Reading his band, we learned that it was Orville, the younger of the two brothers. We put him in the cardboard-box and Michael and I used the elevator to carry him up onto the roof again. After a final check of his wings, we set him free in the middle of the roof and he hopped/walked quickly away to the edge of the roof where he stayed put.

We quickly left and went down to the street again to see if everything was okay. From there we only saw Lorenzo on the antenna of a neighboring building, Freya on the rooftop and one of the eyases. By the time we came back from checking the other side of the roof (no falcon visible), Bianca had arrived (she works in an office on the opposite side of the street and has a great view on the happenings on the roof and keeps me updated via email). Bianca and I went up onto the balcony in the building she works in to see if we could spot both eyases from there....and, we could! Orville was standing close to his older brother Wilbur and both were watched by the still agitated Freya who kept kaking at everybody she could see (including most likely Bianca and myself). After a while she calmed down, Lorenzo flew off to get something to eat for his family (I guess) and we left the falcon-family after being as sure as we could be that everything was okay with everybody.

Later on Tuesday, I got another call from Michael, that the antenna was apparently still acting up and that technicians would need to go up onto the roof again and what we could do to prevent that. Some phone-calls later - on Wednesday - we had the reassurance from a civil servant that the phone-company would just need to wait with the repairs until the peregrines had successfully fledged regardless of any econmic damages they might incur due to that (I just love our strict laws when it comes to endangered wildlife!).

We have some picture-galaries up on the homepage http://nabu-fellbach.de:
 Bildergalerie - Beobachtung am 29. Mai 2010
 Bildergalerie - Beobachtung am 25. Mai 2010
 Bildergalerie - Beobachtung am 24. Mai 2010

Cheers
Baerbel
17  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Peregrines in Fellbach - Update on: 19-May-10, 01:23:20 PM
Hi Folks,

I'm sorry that I'm still not able to participate more, but there just isn't enough time to check out everything I'd like to!

Just a quick update on the peregrine family in Fellbach: Freya and Lorenzo (yes, we named them!) have two eyases and last week on Friday we went up onto the roof to have them banded. As the weather was wet and dreary, the eyases were taken from the nestbox to be banded inside of the building. We have two boys and after the banding we decided to name them Orville and Wilbur after the brothers Wright.

Before the banding, their father Lorenzo was kind enough to have his picture taken when he was sitting on top of the nestbox. He didn't seem to mind as he stayed put!

For more pictures and some videos, please visit our homepage at http://nabu-fellbach.de or try the direct link to the banding-report.

Cheers and happy watching the third egg hatch hopefully soon!
Baerbel
18  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Slideshow of Oil disaster: Poor birds/Poor Ocean on: 12-May-10, 04:35:17 PM
This is so sad (and yet not really surprising, it was yet another disaster just waiting to happen).

I happened upon video footage posted on treehugger.com

The Gulf is bleeding


Baerbel
19  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Gulf Oil spill - maps on: 01-May-10, 05:02:29 PM
A picture says more than a thousand words - how much do these 32 pictures have to say?

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/oil_spill_approaches_louisiana.html

Baerbel
20  Rochester Falcons / Rfalconcam Website News / Re: The Quest Tour Merchandise Has Now Been Added to the Rfalconcam Store on: 28-Apr-10, 03:09:45 PM
The Rfalconcam Merchandise Team has been hard at work, coming up with new ideas.  Our newest design is the "Quest Tour", made by Lou.  On some items, we've included a list of places visited by Quest through March, 2010 (the Quest Tour), which will be on the back of the shirt.  You can also get a shirt with nothing on the back.  Quest is definitely living up to her name.  This is by no means a complete list.  We may have to update the list in the future.   happy

Please consider ordering something from the Rfalconcam Store to help support this site.  Now that Archer and Beauty have 4 eggs, it won't be long before young eyases will make an appearance.   clap  Keep watching!

http://www.zazzle.com/rfalconcam 



Hi Carol,

thanks for the heads-up! I definitely need some more shirts with peregrine-falcons on them! I notice that zazzle.com is also available as a German shop and that I can order the items from there. Do you know if these purchases will then also help to support Rfalconcam or does that only apply to orders going through zazzle.com?

As an aside: they seem to be using some translation-automation: the "Quest Tour" merchandise shows up as "Suche Ausflug" (very literal translation for "quest" and "tour").

Cheers
Baerbel
21  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Whales under threat - commercial whaling looms ahead on: 23-Apr-10, 02:31:18 PM
Hi Folks,

I received an action-alert from Avaaz.org today :

WHALES UNDER THREAT!
The International Whaling Commission has just unveiled a proposal to legalize commercial whale hunting for the first time in 24 years.

Now, countries are deciding whether support it -- or push back. Already, New Zealand's Foreign Minister has described some provisions as "unacceptable," "inflammatory," and "offensive."

A massive global outcry is needed now, as other key countries choose how to react. Avaaz will deliver this petition to the Commission delegates each time it adds another 100,000 signatures -- sign below and spread the word!

To parties of the International Whaling Commission:
As citizens from around the world, we call on you to retain the international ban on commercial whaling as the core policy of the International Whaling Commission in its pursuit of conservation of whales.


To sign the petition, please go here:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/whales_under_threat/

Thanks and Cheers
Baerbel
22  Anything Else / Totally OT / Re: Where are you? on: 12-Apr-10, 12:07:16 AM
Is Baerbel still around?

She sure is and she is one of the MODS!

Yes, I'm still "around" but don't have much time to actually post much or read everything. For one, I'm spending quite some time watching our pair of peregrines regularly (we recently named them Freya and Lorenzo) and I'm quite heavily involved with climate change discussions and activities via the internet like for example helping with translations into German of all the Arguments found here: SkepticalScience.com

On top of that I'm still volunteering at the Wilhelma (Stuttgart's zoo) and maintaining our local conservation group's homepage. So much to do, so little time!

Cheers from Fellbach, Germany
Baerbel
23  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Peregrines in Fellbach on: 27-Mar-10, 11:25:10 AM
Hi Folks,

our local pair of peregrines is "at it again" this year and from observations we are fairly certain that they have already started breeding last week or so. A couple of weeks ago we got some cameras installed in the nestbox but unfortunately don't yet have them connected to a computer and therefore still lack access to them. Even if we get them connected I doubt that they'll be "fully fledged" webcams right away - but we'd for sure like to be able to get a look into the nestbox at least every once in a while just to satisfy our own curiosity!

During the last week we didn't see much activity at the nestbox. From street-level it often even looks as if the nestbox is empty but it usually isn't. The peregrine (mostly the female) is just lying down low, hopefully on eggs and the only thing we are able to then see is perhaps the upper parts of a peregrine's back or head, but it is easy to miss that type of movement.

There is however quite a good chance to see some activity in the evening, sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 pm when the male goes hunting to get some dinner. He has been fairly consistent with that and "drops by" the nestbox or somewhere on the building nearby calling for the female who then leaves the nestbox, takes the food and flies off to a nearby warehouse's roof to eat her meal. The tiercel takes over in the nestbox until the female returns a short while later.

It is definitely reassuring to see the two together at least once a day!

I'm keeping a little peregrine diary on our nature conservation's homepage: http://nabu-fellbach.de (all in German, though).

Cheers
Baerbel

P.S.: the kestrels where I work are also active at their nestbox again!
24  Rochester Falcons / Rochester Falcon Offspring / Re: Seneca Sighted at Brookpark Road Bridge with a Mate! on: 26-Mar-10, 03:54:39 AM
Wow! A couple of days late to the party (that's what happens, when I'm not reading the posts regulary!), but this is such wonderful news as I'm "somewhat" attached to Seneca from 2008!

I've created a little collage showing pictures from Seneca at banding day 2008, finally (f)ledging and now as an adult in Cleveland. She really grew up and is now a beautiful falcon!

Cheers
Baerbel

25  Member Activities / Birthdays / Re: Happy Birthday Baerbel on: 10-Feb-10, 11:57:21 PM
Thanks for all the birthday-greetings!

And to answer Aafke's question: yes, we also had snow yesterday (as well as today) - the one thing I had wished for NOT to see on my birthday  laugh !

Cheers
Baerbel
26  Anything Else / Totally OT / International Horseshow in Stuttgart on: 21-Nov-09, 03:55:43 AM
Hi Folks,

I'm currently having fun watching many German and international riders at the Stuttgart German Masters close to where I live (I have a ticket for all days, so am watching most of the events and shows). If you like horses you can watch online: http://www.cpm24.tv/index.php?lang=en

They don't just broadcast the competitions but also the shows in between and some of them are sure worth watching mulitple times like when drivers come into the the hall with four carriages drawn by 6(!) horses each.

Just thought I'd share.

Cheers
Baerbel
27  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Oct 24 is the International Day of Climate Action on: 24-Oct-09, 03:40:24 PM
Hi Folks,

if anybody is interersted, I've posted several pictures of our event in Fellbach on our NABU homepage: http://nabu-fellbach.de - just click on the picture of our 350 to see more.

Cheers
Baerbel

P.S.: it's also worthwhile to check out http://www.350.org again for really great pictures from all over the world
28  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Oct 24 is the International Day of Climate Action on: 23-Oct-09, 01:04:39 AM
This is really unbelievable - a week ago there were 3422 events planned in 160 countries. These numbers have gone up to 4594 events in 175 countries since then. This will be huge!

The 350.org website has a lot of examples of what all is planned for tomorrow.

Cheers
Baerbel
29  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / An Ocean of Plastic .... In Birds' Guts on: 20-Oct-09, 11:29:53 AM
I just happened upon a slideshow with some interesting but not easy to stomach pictures. But see for yourself, where a lot of our plastic ends up....in the guts of birds.

Baerbel
30  Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Oct 24 is the International Day of Climate Action on: 17-Oct-09, 09:44:35 AM
Hi Folks,

just in case you haven't heard, Oct 24 is the International Day of Climate Action and it will be huge! As of right now, 3422 events in 160 countries have been registered at http://www.350.org and the numbers are still climbing.

This Day of Climate Action is one of the reasons why I haven't been posting much in the forum lately as I'm organising an event in my hometown, Fellbach (http://www.350.org/de/NABU-Fellbach). Obviously, most of you will not be able to join that event but there are bound to be several near where you live.

There are for example several events planned in and around Rochester - just check this interactive map:
http://www.350.org/map#/map/43.12153496408083/-77.596435546875/11

or this one for the larger area:
http://www.350.org/map#/map/43.12153496408083/-77.596435546875/7

or, the map for the U.S.:
http://www.350.org/map#/map/40.04443758460856/-94.306640625/4

Events come in all forms and guises, some with just a few people others hoping for hundreds of participants, there are events planned spanning multiple countries (eg. on the shores of the Dead Sea), events at Mt Everest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Opera in Sydney, the Maldives (where the cabinet met today for an underwater .meeting!)... The common deminator will be that each event creates a picture with the number 350 in it. This is the important number as it marks the safe number of ppm (parts per million) of CO2 we need to get back to in the atmosphere to avoid catastrophic climate change. More and more climate scientists agree with this evalution. For more information about this, check out the FAQs at http://www.350.org/understanding-350

Cheers
Baerbel
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