Forham Hatch! News from the Franklin Institute, a possible John Blakeman Seminar and Now-Teeny Bunny and Bread-eating Robin

Remember the Robin caught eating cracked corn?   Well Corn Robin has now taken to eating bread.  Strange, very strange.


It appears that Tiny Bunny has a sibling--Teeny Timid Bunny.

Can you see him?  He's near the inside rim of the Big Nest.

                                                 There he is.

Teeny Bunny flattens his ears, hides his eye, and I go away.

There's a hatch at Fordham!!!!  Here is news from the two main watchers of Rose and Vince!

Christopher Lyons wrote: I've been seeing both adults together away from the nest for a number of days now, so I figured there had been a hatch, but didn't spot any young until this afternoon, heading back from lunch.   Saw Rose feeding the smaller of the two chunks of pigeon, while the larger looked on.  Possible there's more--Rose hasn't had fewer than three in quite a long time now, and she managed four last season, but maybe food is less abundant this year.  I'd say the elder was maybe two weeks out of the egg. 

Fordham Commencement is this weekend, so the babies will have quite a show going on around them.  Then a nice long calm quiet period in which to mature. 

Then  the news from Rich Fleisher-- There is at least three eyasses. I posted a picture on my flickr page.
  

Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

 Every wonder where the rats were coming from that helped Franklin Institute Mom feed the eyasses upon the the demise of their father, and even now supplement  what Franklin Mom and the New Dad (T2) bring to the nest?

Some interesting goodies, complete with a John Blakeman teaser,  collected  from the Franklin Institute Chat Room by Jackie Dover of Tulsa and passed on by Robin of Illinois.

Some informative background information from the Franklin chat which Jackie collected this morning:

Apparently Franklin is still making at least 2 rat drops a day, morning, & ate afternoon. "carditoo" and less frequently, Della (who writes the Franklin blog), are the rat droppers.

T2 (step-dad) brought a huge brown rat this morning.

7:51 carditoo: I do most of the drops, but Della (sunnyDixie) spells me when I have to be away for the day

7:51 carditoo: she does some of the late afternoon drops

7:52 carditoo: Della and Kay Meng (photog) have been up to the boardroom on many occasions to prepare special blog entries

7:53 carditoo: it is because of Della's link to the FI decision makers that they knew they could count on us to help w/the food drops.

7:55 carditoo: it helped that I had started volunteering at SWRC (Rick's rehab) and knew where to get rats and was comfortable handling them

7:58 carditoo: I order the rats on line from a company that supplies all sorts of things to folks who need to feed wild animals/pets/etc. Rodentpro.com

7:59 carditoo: the rats are delivered by fed ex packed in dry ice

8:00 PeggyPenn: Do you have to thaw them first?????

8:00 carditoo: yes thaw them first

8:01 carditoo: my freezer is interesting; rats on one side, ice cream on the other

8:02 buckaru: ROFL!

8:02 bobkat13: ratcicles in the middle

8:03 lnphilly: give a whole new meaning to rocky road ice cream

8:04 carditoo: look at the size of that brown rat T2 dropped [in addition to the white rat already there this morning]

8:05 carditoo: we'll do a blog entry; ratdrop 101

8:05 lnphilly: after seeing Mom at the window yesterday when you were doing rat drop, my appreciation of all you do increased

8:05 bobkat13: I really think that's a good idea, Cardi. Your tales of "Rat Droppings" would interest many

8:07 buckaru: Birthday gift ideas for Cardi: body armor, face mask, helmet, falconry glove?

8:08 lnphilly: we're trying to figure out what she's going to do when they fledge

8:08 aimbomb: get on the roof cardi

8:08 buckaru: Hot air balloon?

8:08 carditoo: I think drops if necessary will happen in middle of night when they are all in nest asleep

8:09 buckaru: Inphilly: Excellent way to stay in Mom's good graces.

8:10 reikiferret: Is this his first large catch?

8:10 bobkat13: He brouht wabbit the other day

8:10 carditoo: and maybe a pigeon and a squirrel

8:18 carditoo: JBlakeman thinks 98% chance they'll be back next year

8:19 bellabell01: excellent news

8:19 lnphilly: JB was great

8:19 bobkat13: Yes, he's always very patient with us, and has been keeping us informed for years

8:19 lnphilly: He was talking about coming here to give a seminar

8:19 carditoo: JB says T2 bringing food and sticks, feeding kids, means it's his nest now



Donegal Browne