Crows vs Snake

Backyard birds have been pretty scarce. But the crows are ever-present. Today I saw a couple of crows wrestling a snake. The crows won. I don't like that they harass my hawks, but they can catch and eat as many snakes as they wish!

A montage of the fight. Click to enlarge.

Nature: Earthflight

TV ALERT: Tonight at 8 (EDT) on PBS—What would it be like to see the world from a bird’s perspective? State-of-the-art technology and sophisticated camera techniques have now made it possible to do just that and more as EARTHFLIGHT, A Nature Special Presentation takes viewers on a breathtaking aerial adventure over six continents. Check out a preview here.

UPDATE: Didn't realize this is a six-part series. Should air every Wednesday. In case you didn't catch it or record, first part is already available online at the PBS site.

WE KNEW THAT!  Read an interview with the filmmaker. Love the last question and answer:
What do you hope EARTHFLIGHT viewers will take away from the series? 

I hope that people will discover that birds are clever and adaptable creatures often with a complex social life not so different from our own. They have an unrivalled knowledge of the life of the planet and through their remarkable journeys they bring countries and continents together in ways that are constantly surprising.

Migration Musings

I read a nice editorial in the New York Times this morning: Empty Barn-Rafters 

Phoebe this morning

As if on cue, shortly afterward my Phoebe made a rare visit to my backyard (she usually stays in the front and side yard, nearer her nest). Perhaps she was saying ‘so long?’ But not yet, perhaps. The phoebes are one of the first songbirds to return in the spring and the last to leave in the fall. Cool fact: In 1804, the Eastern Phoebe became the first banded bird in North America. John James Audubon attached silvered thread to an Eastern Phoebe's leg to track its return in successive years.

And, this afternoon, the sun finally came out after a gray, rainy weekend. I spotted both Desert Hawk and Sky Hawk (my neighborhood Red-tails) for the first time in a long while, soaring on the thermals. I wonder if “our” hawks (NYC, Philly, Cornell) have begun their journeys south?

A not-very-good photo of my hawk!

Hawk Mountain, in eastern PA. conducts annual raptor migration counts. To date, they have spotted 466 raptors, 47 of them Red-tailed hawks. Interesting site. http://www.hawkmountain.org/

The beautiful and mysterious monarch butterflies also make an incredible migration each year. I noted that on the Hawk Mountain site, they cancelled a program, “Tag your own monarch,” due to the lack of monarchs this year. 

Butterflies on 9-13-2012

I’ve observed this in my own yard … have seen only a few, while last year, my butterfly bush was inundated with them. You can find many articles on the Web on the sharp decline of the monarch butterfly. Click here for one. 

(Click to enlarge photos.)

 

In Case You Missed It

WSP Hawks: NJ30, a banded juvenile, showed up at the park. Many assume it is one of “ours,” possibly Kiku. Stories and photos at Roger_Paw and Urban Hawks. Also, a lovely essay by BrightWings may be found here. (http://carolesbooktalk.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/kikus-journey-ii/)

FI Hawks: Peanut was successfully rehabbed and released away from the nest area. Read about it at Sunnydixie’s excellent Hawkwatch blog.

Cornell Hawks: Sadly, two of their fledgings have died. Read about it here (http://rth-nestcam-cu.blogspot.com/) and here (https://www.facebook.com/birdcams) The third fledgling is fine, hunting and soaring around campus.

PaleMale: One of his fledglings had a collision with a rooftop pool dome on the Upper West Side. Cathy and Bobby Horvath rehabbed him and released him back to the park. Video available on their WINORR site. (And a photo of the kid catching his own meal the next day!)

Calgary Falcons: I don’t have much news, but as far as I know, all 3 fledged successfully and are well. Let me know if you have any other details or updates.

Sydney Sea Eagles: This lovely pair had two eggs, but both seem to be unviable. The researchers there plan to remove the eggs on Monday and perform tests. (There are toxins in the river where they hunt near the nest.) I have been hoping for a “miracle” hatch (like our dear Pip) in vain. It is unknown if they will have another clutch.

Black Eagle

Speaking of second clutches, I just heard about an African Black Eagle cam. The pair — Emoyeni (mom ... believed to be over 40 years old!!) and Thulane (dad, her third mate), laid two eggs in late April. The eggs were unviable and Emoyeni eventually removed them from the nest , which sits on the edge of a cliff, near a waterfall in Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Johannesburg, South Africa. After a few week’s absence, she returned and it has been confirmed that she has laid two new eggs. The outcome is uncertain, as it is very late in the breeding season, and the new chick will endure hot summer temps and may not have the required time to learn to survive on its own before being chased out of the area.
Watch the cam at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/africam-black-eagle

Emoyeni’s nest in the botanic garden

      

Bad Summer in Philly / New Kestrel Species?

• The two oldest hawk siblings in Philly have died from window strikes. (Both flew into windows at Moore College.) The third juvenile, Peanut, was found injured on Tuesday next to the Ben Franklin Parkway. Read a story on Philly.com here.
Update: Peanut is at Schuykill with rehabber Rick Schubert, and is "resting, eating mice and staying quiet; waiting for an x-ray appointment. Sunny has just updated the Hawkwatch blog with more details on all the fledglings. Read it here.

Falco tinnunculus (roboticus var.) Click to enlarge.
(Photoillustration by Tablet Magazine)

•  From tragedy to comedy: A kestrel suspected of being Israeli spy by Turkish authorities turns out to be just a bird! Read the story here. And another story looks into how “Bird-brained conspiracy theories keep a tenacious foothold in the Arab Middle East, where science lags behind the West.” Read it here.  

Other News from Cornell and Down Under

Perfect Broccoli. A plant scientist at Cornell University is trying to create a perfect broccoli that will thrive in warmer climates, improving freshness and taste for many. His methods do not include genetic modification, but his research is still tinged with controversy, as he has partnered with Monsanto. Read the article in the NYT here. (Thanks, eliotts, for the heads-up on this!)

Sounds of the Saxophone. Researchers at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, are studying how a leopard seal named Casey responds to different sounds. It's believed that these seals “sing” to attract mates and perhaps to establish territories. Among other audible “environmental enrichment activities,” a zookeeper there plays jazz to him. Watch a short video here and read about it here.

More nest updates

Peace and Harmony have either fledged or are practicing advanced branching. Read the blog at http://mnbound.com/bald-eagle-blog/

Sad news at the Franklin Institute. The female hawk crashed into a window and died. Read Sunny's blog at http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

Not a lot of news on our WSP fledglings. Roger_Paw has some great pics from July 8. Bruce Yolton (Urban Hawks) has not been to the park much.

The sea eagles’ nest in the Sydney Olympic Park, which Paula introduced us to two years ago, is back in action! The first egg was laid on July 6 and the second on July 9. Watch the sea eagles here (pop-out view): http://www.ustream.tv/seaeagles/pop-out . Or at the Sea Eagle cam site, which hosts the chat, here: http://www.sea-eaglecam.org/video.html


My eastern phoebes have fledged!
Did not get to see any of them make the leap. :-(
Hope they are doing well.

And also back: The Decorah eagles have fledged from their new nest, but are branching in the cottonwood that houses their old nest! Link is listed at the right.


And now for something completely different! Just found a Coopers Hawk nest cam (from Canada). View it here: http://www.livestream.com/coopershawkwebcam?utm_source=website-channel-page&amp

Eastern Phoebe nest update

About a month I ago, I chatted about a nest under the deck of my house, which has been there for at least 10 years, being washed out by the heavy spring rains. The eastern phoebe who built it lost 3 very young chicks. I reinforced the support under the nest and gave her a copper roof to prevent the rain from getting to her nest. She rebuilt in a jiffy and I believe has a new brood! (click on the pics to enlarge)

It's very dark up under the deck where the nest is ... peering up there the past few days I thought I saw one beak. Today, I went down to the basement door, camera in hand, with flash engaged. Imagine my surprise when I downloaded these pics and saw four babies!! Phoebe is awesome. She was quite mad that I was near her nest. (And I hope I didn't freak out the babes too much.) I calmed her down by sprinkling some mealworms between the bushes behind "her" bench in the garden. I love to watch her grab them up, fly up to the bench to check for intruders, and then fly into the nest.

Two nest updates

The Calgary falcons have fledged! Only a little more than 2 weeks after their banding ordeal (they are pictured here getting a meal soon after the trauma), one left the nest on July 2 in the evening, and the other two followed sometime in the morning on July 3.

As of yesterday (July 5), Peace and Harmony are still residing at the MN Bound nest, spending much of their time up on the tree trunk near the camera mount. In the late afternoon, Dad brought a fish, and the two eaglets returned to the nest bowl to tussle over the food.

Keeping Up with the Birds

Okay, I have to have one of these! Read “Twigitecture: Building
Human Nests” in the NYT. Click here.

Jayson Fann, a nest maker, artist and musician, has built
some 30-odd nests. Three are in Big Sur, including a
meditation nest at the Post Ranch Inn. Photo by
Drew Kelly for The New York Times

Another Season of the WSP Hawk Cam Is Over

NYU has dismantled the cam for the season. Id3Ego2 has a rerun playing and will work to show videos or a slideshow instead of the dreaded rainbow bars.

In the meantime, please sign a "virtual thank-you card" that I created. http://bit.ly/13KUYrg

Animal Sex: The Cloacal Kiss — and the Snapping Turtle

In “The Sex Life of Birds, and Why It’s Important,” appearing in The New York Times Science section on 6/6/13, Carl Zimmer says research on the vanishing bird penis is important. Click here to read.

Meanwhile, at GhentArt’s “wildlife preserve,” another interesting animal reproductive event is taking place. A snapping turtle has decided that my gardens are a good place to lay her eggs. I discovered that these turtles will venture over a mile to find a suitable spot to lay; my garden is about 150 yards from a pond across the street and 300 yards from a pond behind my property. I also learned that female snapping turtles have a special duct that can keep sperm alive for up to three years, which allows them  to fertilize their eggs at any time, with or without mating. They lay up to 80 eggs at a time! Perhaps I'll have a bale of turtles heading to one of the ponds in nine to 18 weeks.

All Three Kids Have Left the Nest at Bobst

Rosie & Bobby's kids all made the leap from the ledge last weekend. Keep up with reports from the ground (and find videos and photos) on the google docs page at http://bit.ly/11pafiO

Kiku left Friday morning, 5/31/13 st 10:34 a.m. Video is here and here (more vids on the google doc page, too). 

Judson left before first full light on Sunday morning, 6/2/13 at 5:23 a.m. It seemed no cameras were rolling at the time. But a chatter stepped forward and said she was trying out her recording software for the first time that morning, set it up to record, and then left on a walk. Annalia relates that she “kept waiting for another video to surface, never imagining that hers would be the only documentation of Jud's big moment.”
Her recording can be found here.  

Archie was the last to go on Sunday afternoon, 6/2/13 at 6:03 p.m. Watch it here

Fun with Birds around the Web

Fun stuff and beautiful footage of birds.

From Arkive: a short video of a red-tailed hawk nest from hatching to fledge, in high-def. Click here to view.

A "trailer" of a program on Birds of Paradise, a research project by the Cornell Lab, filmed in the remote rainforests of New Guinea. Click here to view.

The full length show from Nat Geo, Winged Seduction: Birds of Paradise, is here.

What State Birds Should Be is a somewhat humorous look at the unimaginative designation of state birds from Slate Magazine. (Seven cardinals, but no hawks? Come on!) Click here to read.

A Child's Wild Kingdom

In the New York Times Sunday Review, Jon Modallem explores how our culture connects kids and wild creatures. He cites Edward O. Wilson's theory of "biophiia" — a theory that human beings are inherently tuned to other life-forms. As children grow up, the animal connection seems to recede. Are we hawkwatchers tuning into our inner child? Click here to read.

A Different Kind of Smart

An interesting article from Science News on animal cognition. Click here to read. 

(Wow ... a related "experiment" going on here! As I was posting this, I heard rather loud noises outside. (Some animal...I thought perhaps a squirrel... had recently figured out how to knock over the locking garbage tin where I keep my bird seed. My defense strategy: I put the tin in a large plastic pot that was wide and low, so that the tin can rock, but not be knocked over onto the stone patio. I also placed two large rocks on the top, on either side of the handle that locks the lid in place.) So, I heard these noises and figured I've caught the thief going after the seed. I peeked out my door and saw a raccoon wrestling with the tin. S/he had knocked off the rocks. But so far, has not figured out how to tip the tin over! To be continued ..... can the raccoon figure a way around my defenses?

And then there were three ....

Soon there will be three new chicks at the Franklin Institute.

Two hatched today, one early and one late. And according to reports, the third has pipped and may hatch in the morning. Amazing! That's really close together!

Here is a pic I took late afternoon ... New baby lifting head, huge pip in second, and Mom who had just flown in with food for her new, suddenly huge, brood.

Ezra Protects Big Red

I captured an unusual sight at the Cornell nest yesterday. It started to hail and rain. Ezra, who was on the nest, walked over to Big Red (sitting on her brood, including an hours-old eyass), and sheltered her for the entire storm. Amazing! Click here to see a short video of it.

And here is a video of the WSP kids in various cute poses. At about 3 minutes in, however, I caught the hatching of the 3rd eyass at Cornell. It's also a bit unusual because D1 was "biting" her sib, D2, and the newly emerging red-tail.

Comic(al) Birds

S_Marie (PipSquawk) shared this comic she created about the NYU Hawks and their messy nest. Very cute and clever. Click here to read it.

Cornell RTH Hatch video

Neat video showing newly hatched eyass and emerging eyass. Click here to view.
And a photo of the two with their egg teeth. Click here.

What Do the Birders Know?

Interesting opinion piece in the NYT Sunday Review. Click here to read.

Fun videos

Caught these links in the chat. Short fun videos:
Ducklings Fledge. They leap from their nest high in a tree! Click here to view.
Robins: 4 Eggs, 4 Weeks. Mama bird’s expression at the end is great! Click here to view.

Can't get enough of Bobby, Rosie, and the kids?
WSP Videos. GhentArt captures highlight videos from the nest. Click here to view the video channel.

Backyard Hawkwatch (Country Hawks!)

Padding into my office early this morning, cup of coffee in hand, I did a cursory check on my bird feeders. Usual suspects were there: a couple of finches and mr. cardinal. I sat down to check on the NYU Hawk Cam. Rosie was sitting and Bobby stood motionless on the edge of the nest. (He stayed that way for 25 minutes, until finally Rosie got up for a break.)

All of a sudden, in the corner of my eye, I see a flash of brown and red, and then, rising up not more than 6 feet in front if me, is a red-tailed hawk, his wings filling my entire window. He had swooped in on a bird! I grabbed my camera and ran to the back deck to find him. I saw him in a tree not far from the house with his prey. From the color of the prey in his left talon, I would say it's probably one of the doves who frequent the ground below the feeder. :-(

He came back about a half hour later, perched on a dead tree on the edge of the lawn and continued to hunt. (I refuse to remove this tree because I've often seen the hawks there.) In my mind's eye, I pictured his nest, with mate and chicks to feed. He's been here all morning. All morning, I've had one eye in my camera viewfinder, the other on the Washington Square Park nest! Snap, snap, snap ... camera whirring; click, click, click ... computer video streaming.

Hawk with its prey.

Hawk eyeing my backyard (or me in my office). Click to enlarge.

Winorr has some success!

The Horvath's met with the town supervisor and reached a compromise. Read about it here.

The Hawks’ Gift

A chatter at NYU Hawk Cam, Brightwings, posted this on her blog:
http://carolesbooktalk.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/the-hawks-gift/

Beautifully written, it captures some of the emotions we went through yesterday, with many of our thoughts turned abruptly away from the nest toward Boston and our own Oemurr who was bravely helping those in need. You are awesome, Oemurr!

WINORR in Trouble?

Nice article in the NY Daily News  (with great photos!) Click here to read.
UPDATE: Someone started a petition for the Horvaths. Click here to sign.

I caught a brief conversation on the NYU Hawk Cam. Apparently, local authorities are giving the Horvath's trouble, saying that the neighborhood is not zoned to have "dangerous" animals in residence. I'm guessing some (ignorant) neighbors complained. Click here to read an article on DNAinfo.com. I hope the Horvath's can work something out! ____________________

Birds, Birds, Birds!

• MORE eggs and birds! Zuzu and Margarida, the falcons who have a nest in a window box outside a Lisbon apartment have four eggs so far. (Last year they had 6! Well-fed city falcons.) That camera is live: http://www.livestream.com/janelafalcao
• Mama hawk at the Franklin Institute layed her third egg on Easter Sunday! Click here for Sunny's great story and pix. • There are reports that Callie has been seen at the Calgary scrape. That camera is now on. • According to a story in NYU Local, we'll be voting on names for the chicks when they hatch (no info on how that will be done).  Click here to read. • There is a cool bird sculpture installed in the Madison Square Park area. Click here to read. • Both eggs hatched at the Duke Farms eagle nest on March 25! Click here to go to their eagle-cam page. (I wonder how unusual it is for eggs to hatch the same day?) • Phoebe, the hummingbird, has been working on a new nest while still teaching her new fledglings the ways of the world. UPDATE: She has laid an egg! It's about the size of a tic-tac .... hatch date is about 17 days.

Updates

As most of you know, Ida Suskind (aka Kiku) has died. An obituary appears in Cincinnati.com. Click here.

The SW Florida eagles, Hope and Honor, have fledged. They still visit the nest occasionally. I came upon this link to a database of videos for them: Click here to view

The hummingbirds, Fleur and Pip have also fledged.

To date, there is one egg in the Franklin Institute ledge.

Controversy still abounds over Roger_Paw's assertion that Octavia is "fooling around" with the Plaza male hawk. I don't know, but I looked at a picture of Octavia from Palemale.com and compared it to Roger's pics of Octavia, and they look the same to me. Fascinating! ____________________

Cornell Red-tailed Hawk Nest Update

Like the Decorah eagles, it seems Big Red and Ezra moved their nest this year. They are on a different light pole on the athletic field. So Cornell has been scrambling to get the cam going. They have it set up now, though it may have some glitches and no chat for the next few days. It's now hosted on their All About Birds site, where they also have video of Big Red revealing her first egg. They'll also be featuring links to all their cam sites there, as well as twitter feeds, highlight clips, and more. The new link is http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/16/Red-tailed_Hawks/

We still love the New York Times

From articles on the dwindling numbers of bees (due to pesticides?) and a decrease in butterfly numbers (due to gmo crops and herbicides?) to several on species on the verge of extinction, the New York Times Science Section on the Environment looks at disruptions in the food chain that have ramifications for insects, birds, and humans. And there are more worthwhile articles there as well.

Hoping to Save Bees, Europe to Vote on Pesticide Ban

Monarch Migration Plunges to Lowest Level in Decades

Endangered or Not, but at Least No Longer Waiting

WSP Hawk Cam 2013!

I just received this email from Pondove. Good news — But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this will happen!

Dear Hawk Friends,
As you may have heard, the NY Times will not be hosting the NYU
hawk cam this year. John Blakeman, 14th and I have been working with
NYU to try to find a way to keep it going. There is one egg since
Wednesday and I am awaiting an update, as eggs are laid every 2 or 3
days.

The good news is that NYU has decided to put a camera up! I didn't get
a specific date but will know soon...all I was told was that a week or
more. Not that much to see while Rosie is incubating for the next
week, so that's OK. The important thing is that they said yes!! So
stay tuned and John Blakeman, 14th and I will keep you abreast of the
date as things progress.

Thanks to everyone for being part of this amazing cam! It will be
great to see everyone again from the past 2 seasons! I am so thankful
to President Sexton for once again allowing us to share this wonderful
experience. Maybe triplets this time?! We'll know soon! Love, Pon

Viewing Birds on Cams and in Galleries

While the fate of the cam on Bobby & Rosie's nest is uncertain, there are places to view birds. The FI cam is up and running, but there are no eggs yet. The Minnesota Bound cam is also live and there is one egg there. The Southwest Florida cam eaglets are starting to branch.

And there is a new famous "Pip" in the Hummingbird Nest cam. Apparently, one of Phoebe's eggs hatched but the other was not viable. It was removed and the homeowners placed an orphan hummingbird into the nest. There is a fantastic video of the baby being placed in the nest and Phoebe's immediate acceptance of her on YouTube here. Links for all these cams are at the right.

For those in New York City, the New-York Historical Society is featuring “Audubon’s Aviary,” with more than 200 watercolors of birds, in their galleries through May 19. (Parts 2 and 3 will be shown in 2014 and 2015.) An article about it, featuring a slide show and bird calls, is in the New York Times. Click here to read.

Nesting Behavior

Sunnydixie has just updated the status of the Franklin Institute nest on the Hawkwatch blog. As you may know, the Decorah eagles have built and chosen a new nest out of camera view this season. Even Bobby and Rosie flirted with building a new nest on the NYU campus last fall; and thus far, there have only been a few sightings of Big Red and Ezra at the Cornell nest. So the FI Hawkwatchers were understandably worried when their hawk pair showed no interest in their existing nest and were observed bring sticks to new sites.
Click here to get the update from Hawkwatch

The Owl Comes Into Its Own

The Science section in the New York Times features this article on owls. Though owls date back at least 60 million years, only lately have scientists begun to understand owls in detail, and to puzzle out the subtleties of behavior, biology and sensory prowess that set them apart. This excellent article includes a podcast, a related video, and owl calls.
Click here to read

Live Cams! (x-large, medium & x-small birds)

Anxiously awaiting spring bird cams? I've added three live bird cams to the Web Cams list at right.
MMThe first, FeederWatch Cam (medium), comes to us from our neighbors to the north in Ontario. This is a stunning, high-def site with many winter backyard birds. Thanks to GG for finding this site!
MMThe second cam, Southwest Florida Eagle Cam (x-large), is live from Ft. Myers, Fl. Parents Ozzie and Harriet are raising two bald eaglets, Hope and Honor. The chicks are about 7 1/2 weeks old and should fledge sometime in late March or early April.
MMThe third cam, Hummingbird Nest Cam (x-small), streams from southern California. It features Pheobe, a Channel Island Allen hummingbird. Her nest is located in a lovely backyard garden.
MMHappy viewing!

More Interesting Hawk Behavior

This just posted by the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah (WRCNU): During a recent release of a 9-month-old Red-tail, the staff  believes they witnessed a mother-daughter reunion. WRCNU is an excellent organization that came to my attention last summer when they rescued, and continue to rehab "Phoenix," a golden eagle who was severely burned in last year's wildfires.
Click here to read the whole story.

Intriguing Post by Roger_Paw

Be sure to check out Roger_Paw's blog: Yesterday’s post was most interesting! She has a theory that the female hawk she's seen mating with the Plaza Hotel male is actually Pale Male's mate Octavia. Talk about drama! If true, she could be documenting some never before recorded hawk behavior. Congrats to Roger_Paw!
Click here to read the post.

Two Bald Eagles Rebuild After the Storm

An interesting article in today’s New York Times City Room blog: two bald eagles whose nest in Hillsborough, N.J., was destroyed during Sandy are rebuilding. Cheers to the resilience of raptors! The piece also includes a link to the nest cam there.
Click here to read: http://nyti.ms/15yNfPF