Bald Eagle, Great Blue Heron, Mystery Bird, and a Pile of Pelicans All in One Place.

I got a call from old school chum Mark Scarborough, currently a reporter at the Edgerton Reporter newspaper, that some folks had come into the newspaper office and said there were a whole lot of pelicans, yes you read it right, pelicans over in Sheepskin Pond, (see the little pale spot on the far side of the pond) and he should go and take their picture. In fact they were way way over on the other side of Sheepskin Pond and he wasn't at all pleased with his photo.

WAIT!

Pelicans in Wisconsin? Isn't that weird?

Well actually no, as it turns out. The American White Pelican, Pelecannus erythrorhynchos, does hang out in Wisconsin. Who knew? I obviously should spend some time reading the state bird list.

And not only had Mark seen the pelicans he's seen a Great Blue Heron and an Eagle all in the same area.

Gosh, guess I better get in the car now.

And there they were-- a great pile of preening pelicans.

Fascinating. And besides that...

Closer but not close enough a beautiful pair of somethings....

And look carefully where the green goes to beige on the far shore and it is a Great Blue Heron cruising past.

I get back to the pelicans and one of the big guys behind the bushes does a stretch.

See the varying degrees of dark patches on some of the pelican's heads? Those are the immature birds. Were they even younger their beaks would be grayish as well.

Now and again during all this busy preening, a wing pops up. Their wingspan is huge-8 1/2 to 9 feet.

The Eaglets are off the nest and I got several reports, one sighting myself above, of smaller birds giving chase after the fledglings where ever they are and whatever they do. Somehow the smaller birds always know a young raptor when they see one and mob them mercilessly and constantly in a way they wouldn't with a mature bird.
(I know, I know the eagle is teeny but she is there heading into the trees.)

Back to the pelicans and the beginning of a pouch flap...

and there it goes.

One of the previous pair at rest. Any ideas out there as to what this is?

I missed it today but White Pelicans don't do the dive and retrieve of Brown Pelicans, these form a big U, swim along with their pouches in the water and scoop up minnows that have been concentrated in the area by their swim pattern. Maybe I'll catch it tomorrow.

Just goes to show, you never never know what any given day will turn up.


Donegal Browne

A Bald Eagle in NYC, and Yes, African Grey Parrots Can Speak in Context

A photograph by Eddie Yu of a juvenile Bald Eagle carrying a gull. There was some thought that this bird might be the one recently released by wildlife rehabilitator Bobby Horvath. But this bird has a blue DEC tag which Bobby's release didn't, therefore there are at least two of these youngsters around.

Eddie's note follows--

Hi Donegal,

My name is Eddie, and I am a birder in NY. I captured a Juvenile Bald Eagle at
FlushingMeadows Corona Park yesterday ( Dec 21, 2010 )
This was a rare capture of a Baldie in NYC. Below is the link for images and info.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eddie_nyc

Next up, blog reader Jeffery Johnson, comments on my conversation with Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot who lives with me.

Ms Browne,
That Quicksilver is such a handful of delight ! Thank you for continuing to share his and your daily interactions with us...it's fascinating that you have so much rapport with him. Verbal exchanges that are not just speech mimicking but actual communication...if I hadn't met you at Wild NYC, I simply would think you are crazy or equivocating about his squawking. Carry on bravely you two!!!
Jeff J

Thanks for the vote of confidence Jeff but for those of you who still might think I'm a wacko imagining conversations with an animal who only mimics speech, check out Alex the African Grey Parrot, at his untimely death at 30, he'd been taught phonetics and he was learning to read. (Yes you read that correctly, READ!)

Here is a video of Alex answering questions about objects asked by Dr. Pepperberg, the scientist who worked with him --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6KvPN_Wt8I&feature=related
(Get more by just typing Alex the African Grey Parrot into Google)

And for more about Dr Pepperberg's work with parrots--
http://www.alexfoundation.org/index.html

As to "What's wrong with Alex's feathers?" He began to pluck his feathers out when Dr. Pepperberg was away on a long speaking tour. He missed her, became anxious, and whereas humans might bite their fingernails and then find it hard to quit, parrots sometimes pluck out their own feathers and find it hard to quit.

By the way, Greys don't always speak in context, sometimes they are just mimicking sounds to amuse themselves or to get attention.

In Silver's case, he's been known to mimic me calling Pyewackit the Cat so that when she appears he can throw parrot toys at her.

Just a little example of parrot humor.

Donegal Browne

John Blakeman, Video of Charlotte and Pale Male Jr., An Eagle's History

Photo by Donna Browne
02-28-2010 Lola stands in the bowl of her nest, the sides of which appear more substantial this season.

John Blakeman, on this season and Pale Male and Lola's nest on Marie Winn's blog-

http://mariewinnnaturenews.blogspot.com/

And John identifies the mystery hawk in yesterday's NYBG post--
Donna,

The hawk in the photo is almost surely a sharp-shinned hawk. It's size, coloration, sitting posture, and outline are pure sharpie. And hoards of sharpies are now in migration northward.

--John Blakeman

The amazing history that can be tracked from a numbered band on a bird's leg!

From Robin of Illinois--
http://raptoreducationgroup.blogspot.com/2010/02/bald-eagle-caught-in-wolf-cam-is-regi.html
T>From a reference on the Blackwater Eagle Cam Web Log.

I emailed Brett Odom, he of the ringside seat on the 888 nest, asking how things were going with Charlotte and Pale Male Jr. Here is what Brett had to say and he even sent along a video---I just love the way Charlotte walks!

Hi Donna.

Charlotte and Junior have been very busy at the nest. I see them both every day that I am at work. I have attached a video that I took of both Charlotte and Junior back in January when Junior first showed up from his "vacation".

Charlotte is the obvious hawk on the left while Junior is behind the glass. You will notice a twig move on the right side of the nest at about the 4 second mark and you can faintly see him back there rearranging the nest.

According to my records, the 2007 egg showed up on April 1 and the 2009 egg appeared on March 24. So we are getting close to brooding time.


Regards,
Brett

The Piggley Wiggley Red-tails and Jane and Rock Bald Eagle

It all started in the Piggley Wiggley parking lot.

For those not familiar with Piggley Wiggleys, they're a chain of grocery stores. I'd gone in, gotten some groceries, including some frozen items, when my cell rang as I was crawling into the car and I began having a heated discussion.

Suddenly a Red-tail winged through the parking lot heading west. I thought, "Hmmm, where is he going?", while massaging my neck from the whiplash of jerking around to see whether that really was a Red-tailed Hawk. My discussion had degraded by then into the fact I should be heading west on Park View Drive for some shots of the foliage.

West? Hmmm, that's the direction the Red-tail went. It's quite cool outside-- the groceries can live through a few minutes before being put away, right?

I head west.

Scanning the treeline far, far across a very large field, I spy them. And it's a pair! Why are they here in particular?

Then I realize there is a combine clearing the corn field on my side. RODENTS! As a field gets cleared eventually the rodents get spooked and make a break for it and that is where the Red-tails come in.

The male takes off.

Landing in a nearly naked tree a couple of trees over from his mate, north, and looks fixedly into the far field.

About then a station wagon pulls up beside me. A voice says, "What are you looking at?" I turn around and there is a very large friendly man sitting in said station wagon. It turns out that he's a painter. The kind that does bridges, and all sorts of outdoorsy kinds of things that raptors hang out on. He begins to tell me about the falcons in Milwaukee and that leads to the pair of Eagles that nest in Janesville, the next town to the south.

"WHAT?", I squeak, there was an eagle's nest just a few miles away and I missed the whole thing? "Where?"

Then, John and I, we're on a first name basis by then, begin the dance of---"Well just go down to such and such Lumber Yard..."

"Wait, wait, I'm from out of town..." To make a long story short, he volunteers to take me to where the eagles hang out in Janesville by the Rock River, right that minute. (Now there's a real temptation, but I've got all those perishables in the car...)

John turns out to be a very nice man, all 6 feet 9inches of him--he'll wait while I go home and throw the groceries into the fridge and freezer and then he'll show me the way.

I do it and we're off!

And there they are just like he said they'd be. That's Jane on the bottom, named for the town of Janesville and Rock, as it is the Rock River they nest by, on the top.

About then, John, he's the human, remember, gets a call from a friend with car trouble and has to go. But he also says he knows where some Screech Owls roost, I should call him, and then he's gone.

Wow, John is turning into the gold mine of Wisconsin raptor finding help.

By this time Rock has headed out to his usual evening roost tree but I stick with Jane.

Jane is looking down rather fixedly at a group of Geese that are swimming by. I wonder if an Eagle can take on Canada Geese? Most likely as they've been known to go for swans in the air anyway.

Jane then stares at me. Thank goodness, finally some human habituated birds, bless 'em. She at least doesn't mind the scope. Whether Rock minded or not I'm not sure as John says he often goes to the other tree about this time in the evening.

And that's when I realize I can't read an Eagle's face. My face experience with Red-tails doesn't cross over at all, at least not yet, with an Eagle's face. I'd have been able to tell whether it was the scope or just time to move perches were it a Red-tail. Drat.

I then have another thought. To me, an Eagle's face always seems to be expressing fierceness, with a good helping of grumpy thrown in. I'm going to have to work on it.

I realize it is beginning to get dark and this is a rather deserted section of town down here by the lumber yard.

I then see this "thing" at the base of Jane's tree. What it that?

Well? What do you think it is? It's hard to judge the size from across the river, but somehow it seems to be almost human sized. A giant stuffed seal who wears a hat? A bizarro disguise for duck hunting?

Jane is giving me the eye in a way that tells me she's about had enough of me. Or is that just the "grumpy" I see in Eagle faces. At any rate, it is time for me to head out. I'll definitely be making some more visits to the eagles before they take off for the winter. Maybe I'll even be able to see "cheerful" in their faces before they leave.

This is where I had placed the photos for Cheryl Cavert's of Tulsa's update for this evening. Blogger ate them. Not that blogger has eaten he's now become tired... so more from Cheryl in the next post.

Donegal Browne

Saturday Miscellany-Sutton Eagles, NYBG Great Horned Owl, Blackwater Osprey, and Hilary's Canada Goose Nest Problem

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAT GONZALEZ
Pat is referring below to the photographs of the newly fledged Great Horned Owls in the New York Botanical Gardens posted yesterday. This is Mama Owl looking at Pat look at her newly fledged Owlets.--

Pat said, "I meant to include this photo with the others in my last email. This is the momma owl watching me rather intensely as I photographed her offspring. Her ear tufts are rather flat. Is that a bad thing?"

I answered, "Well as she is looking at you look at her babies, it likely isn't a good thing. In fact I suspect that had you gone a few steps closer to her progeny, she might well have gone for you."

And a Great Horned Owl going after you is no joke. When I was in training, I met two ornithologists who had lost eyes to Great Horns while attempting to band the young on the nest. (I don't remember them wearing hard hats way back when. They've wised up since.) I don't want to scare you, particularly as you've done just fine so far and this Great Horned Owl is undoubtedly somewhat habituated to people being closer then would be normal, or she wouldn't be in the Gardens, but I suggest that you wear a hat from now on.


Supposedly, I was told this anyway, in an Owl attack if you are wearing a hat and the owl goes for you, you grab off the hat and pitch it at the owl. The owl will then go for the hat, sink her talons into it, take off with it, and shred the you-know-what out of it... instead of shredding your head. So you loose a hat, no biggie. Better than the alternative.

And like I said this owl is no doubt much more used to people being around than your usual wild owl who nests in the countryside and sees people infrequently therefore don't make yourself crazy over it. Just a suggestion for a rather far fetched possibility.

Great Horned Owl video also from Pat--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBcVMzOGF5I&feature=channel_page


Screen Capture Courtesy of Jackie Dover, KJRH TV Tulsa, and
http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html
A thunderstorm rolls into the Sutton Bald Eagle territory. Wonderful stuff from Jackie Dover of the Tulsa Hawk Nest Forum--


Jackie, Bville of the Tulsa Hawk Forum
Screen Captures courtesy of Jackie Dover, KJRH TV Tulsa, and
http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html
These are screen capture sequences featuring the Sutton Avian Research Center's bald eagles at Sooner Lake, near Stillwater, OK. This nest is on an artificial tower built after the original dead tree site fell down. Here's the live cam link, from which folks can also explore the Center's website. http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html


This series of captures is from the evening of April 18. Some nasty storm clouds reached the lake around 8 p.m. One eagle parent flew off the nest, the other immediately calling vigorously after it, it seemed.


The first quickly returned. The rain and frequent lightning lasted at least a half hour.

(Did it occur to anyone else that though it was grand that they put up a substitute nest stand for the pair, as they've made it out of metal, they have contrived for the Eagles to nest on top of one giganto lightning rod?)

Screen Captures courtesy of Jackie Dover, KJRH TV Tulsa, and http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html
The parents sheltered the eaglet the entire time, huddling together in the same pose. In all these captures, the birds are revealed only by the lightning flashes, in both the wide and close shots. It was quite the display.


Screen Captures courtesy of Jackie Dover, KJRH TV Tulsa, and http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html

I will shortly send you another series of captures at the same nest.
Jackie, Bville of the Tulsa Hawk Forum

Now there is parental protection for you. I suspect that the female is closest to the eaglet and dad is slightly sheltering mom while protecting little eaglet from the storm as well. Good luck Eagles!

Screen capture courtesy of Robin of Illinois and

the Blackwater Osprey Cam.

From Blackwater Watcher and long time blog contributor Robin of Illinois--

Posted on the Blackwater cam site: "We have our first egg of 2009! We could see one or two more, normally coming about three days apart."
(Interesting that a Red-tail usually can create an egg every other day while an Osprey takes 3 days.)

**************************************************************************

Next up an email from Hilary Sortor, a New York City college student concerned about a possible disturbance to a Canada Goose couple's nest down near Pier 64 on the Hudson--

Hi Donna,

I hope you are well! I met you last year up at the Fifth Avenue nest and you subsequently helped me learn what to look for when watching the red tails nesting at City College.

I haven't seen much of them this year, sadly, although I had a really good look at one of them eating a pigeon in a pocket park on Broadway a couple of weeks back - drew quite a crowd and was subsequently chased off by the pair of kestrels that live in that area.

I continue to enjoy reading your blog and wish there was more time in the day for birds and other creatures... maybe when school is out.

I'm writing because I thought you might know who to contact about this: Pier 64 has been under construction up until three days ago, and is now open to the public. While it was closed, a pair of Canada geese felt it was sufficiently free of humans (and probably more importantly, dogs) to construct a nest on the lawn at the far end of the pier. I did not realize that's what was going on until I walked out there this evening with my dog and saw the female on the nest and the male standing guard (I moved my dog well away as soon as I saw the female wasn't getting up and the light bulb went off in my brain).

Hudson River Conservancy has roped off the area, but it's not much of a buffer - maybe 20-25 feet. The male was surrounded on three sides by people as he tried to keep an eye on everything - I try not to anthropomorphize, but both geese seemed very worried.

There were a lot of people out there this evening with dogs, etc. getting much too close.I'd seen them out there a couple of days ago, but the male was in the water and there weren't any other people around, so I wasn't sure there was a nest until tonight, or I would have contacted you sooner.

My fear is, that area will be packed over the weekend with the good weather, and I don't know how good that will be for the geese.

What can be done? Who should I contact? People around them tonight seemed pretty oblivious to the situation, or hopefully, they would have backed off. If you have any ideas, please let me know.Thanks for any advice you can give, I appreciate it, and enjoy the weekend!

Best,

Hilary


I forwarded Hilary’s email off to Park Ranger Andrew DiSalvo who has been helpful in the past. Though the pier is not within his current area, I’m hoping he will be able to point Hilary and the Geese to the Ranger or Rangers who may be in the Pier 64 area or as an alternative-- in whatever correct direction will help them.


Donegal Browne

Proof of the Chelsea Red-tailed Hawk, Bald Eagle Rehab, Audubon Says-- Species Wintering Ground Is Changing, and Koalas!

After many an effort, NYC Hawkwatcher Brett Odom gets the goods, if indirectly, on the Chelsea Red-tailed Hawk!

Hey Donna.
I now have some photographic proof, albeit fuzzy since it was taken with a camera phone, of the Chelsea red-tail. A coworker's husband works near 23rd and Broadway and was eating his lunch in Madison Square Park this past Tuesday when he saw a crowd gathering. He went over and realized that it was a red-tail also enjoying his lunch in the park. So he took a photo and shared it with me which I have attached. The white behind the hawk isn't snow, it's the feathers of the white pigeon that was lunch.

Regards,

Brett B. Odom

From Easterner Karen Anne Kolling with some tips on the video player--


Wow, Bald Eagles are big. This is a video about one being treated. The video player is odd, it doesn't seem to have a way to tell how far you are thru the video and it stopped in a couple of places without any indication of if it was done or not. You have to wait for the reporter to sign off to know it's over. KAK
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=6654132

Photo D.B.
Wisconsin and March snow with a Robin flock passing north.

Robins have been overwintering in Central Park for years.
From Catbird, a Midwesterner on the Tulsa Hawk Forum--
"I've not seen any robins over-winter here but friends have seen them."

In Illinois, robins no longer reliable sign of spring
By Michael Hawthorne Chicago Tribune staff reporter

Once a harbinger of spring in the Chicago area, the American robin increasingly hangs around for the winter, too.

Their familiar dawn-to-dusk caroling might not be as prevalent when snow is on the ground. But robins are among scores of bird species that are steadily moving northward as average temperatures across the United States get warmer according to an Audubon Society study released Tuesday.


More than half of the 305 species in North America are spending winters at least 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago, the study found.During the same period, the nation's average January temperature climbed by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit.


The purple finch moved the farthest, adopting wintering grounds along the latitude of Milwaukee, more than 330 miles north of the edge of its former range. Robins are wintering about 200 miles farther north than they did four decades ago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-robins-spring,0,2518174.story

From contributor R. of Illinois--
It has been so hot in South Australia for over a week…40+ degrees Celsius everyday, very dry also. (Anyone detect a global warming thread here? D.B.) A guy at work lives at Maude. His wife sent him these photos of a little Koala which just walked into the back porch looking for a bit of heat relief. She filled up a bucket and this is what happened!

What a face! And this little guy is only having to deal with severe heat, that kind humans have turned into a day at the pool, unlike some of his relatives...

Bush fires are raging across parts of Australia, decimating everything in their paths, including wildlife. From R. of Illinois--

Picture of hope ... CFA officer David Tree stops to give Sam the koala a drink of water. Picture: Russell Vickery

Sam the Koala holds hands while having her water, in fact she has three bottles of water.

Courtesy of The Australian, Online Newspaper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xVKxRYuAbU

INSPIRING LOVE STORY

Sam was taken to the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson. Her story was reminiscent of a koala named Lucky who survived the 2003 bushfires that destroyed about 500 homes and killed four people in the capital of Canberra. Lucky became a symbol of hope.

Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter that is caring for Sam and Bob said both koalas were doing well while other animals like possums, kangaroos, and wallabies were also starting to emerge from the debris.

She said Sam had suffered second degree burns to her paws and would take seven to eight months to recover while Bob had three burned paws with third degree burns and should be well enough to return to the bush in about four months.

"They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs.
They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all
this. It's been horrific," said Wood.

Story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090211/od_nm/us_fires_koala_1

Donegal Browne

London Plane Fruit, Tulsa Nest "ingredients", Horvath Eagle Creance Flying, Sadie Kisses Henrietta Hen

Photograph by Sally of the Tulsa Hawk Forum
These photos are important further down.

Photograph by Sally of the Tulsa Hawk Forum
London Plane Fruit, naturally dried


Jackie of the Tulsa Hawk Forum has done some sleuthing about the materials in the Tulsa nest--

Hi, Donna:
I will put your query as to the potential sappiness and/or fragrance of sycamore pods to the Forumers. I do not have an answer without researching it. And maybe then, there is no information on the Web. Who knows?

I can say that the pods have not supplanted the use of evergreen boughs. We have photos showing pine or some such evergreen in the nest (both this year and last). AND, this year we have just detected a pussywillow branch! Talk about soft--I'd be plucking the catkins, were I a hawk, and lining my nest with those beauties. :)

I'm attaching a few photos of nest materials we've seen so far this season.
1. 2. pussywillows
3.fluff and feathers
4. JAY bringing sycamore fruits to the nest!
5. Jay in a sycamore tree
6. misc. nest materials
7. pussy willows circled in the foreground; and see evergreen in the back

All photos from KJRH Hawk Cam, except the two of Jay, which are by Russell Mills of KJRH.

Jackie (Tulsa Hawk Forum)

Pussy Willow twigs

The fluff, the way the seeds of London Plane distribute themselves to a larger area, that extrudes from the dried fruit.

Photograph by Russell Mills of KJRH.

Jay checks out the London Plane.

Photograph by Russell Mills of KJRH.

Jay with his clipped twig, which bears Plane fruit. It is possible that the fruit is just an appendage that arrives with the twigs and has no significance whatsover.

And from Sally, also of the Tulsa Hawk Forum--

Dear Donna,

As if you don't have anything else to think about, here's a question.

I was wondering if you might know of any medicinal value of the plane tree bark or fruits that might make it useful for the RT's to take to their nests? I have been trying this morning to research this but found very little, except to have mistakenly read about the anti-parasitic properties of the Egyptian sycamore fig tree, a ficus I find out, not related to our sycamore platanus family. With your interest in the medieval arts and pennsic war I thought you might have some unique references to call upon! According to Wiki the Roman Pliny the Elder documented medicinal uses of the plane in
Naturalis Historia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanus_orientalis

Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia written circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder.

I am going out today and if I see any wayward sycamore branches with pods that have fallen in our recent ice storm I will pick them up for touching and feeling

Sally

And here are my gleanings--
Platanus x acerifolia., is the scientific name for the hybridized tree found on city streets. Below are folk uses for the indigenous species.

The sugary sap has been tapped from the occidental plane and used for human consumption in North America.

A number of medicinal uses are known in folk medicine for the plane trees. These include some medicinal preparations made from the leaves and the bark of the oriental plane. A range of external and internal medicinal uses have been described for preparations made from the bark of the occidental plane.

Dyes have been prepared from the roots and stems in Kashmir.

In the Far East it is believed that Plane fruit has an insecticidal quality that restrains Plane lice—a group of insects that frequent plants. (Wood is from a plant and nests are made of wood.)
I found only one reference to this belief, nor could I find any information as to whether anyone had tested it to see if it were true.

I did find an extract that posited that tetramic acid derivatives controlled insects from the genus of the plane lice. (sternorrhyncha)

A stretch but here’s a hypothesis that could be tested as a possible reason (if there is one) for the stashing of Plane fruit in nests. The plane fruit has a high tetramic acid content (or other insecticidal quality) which might help keep wood loving insects under some control.

And Sally's secondary report--
(Her photos head today's post)
I did go out and get some sycamore fruit pods, they are dry and rough, and several were beginning to open to reveal their tiny golden brown hairlike seed pods,covered in pollen or some kind of dust. It reminded me of shorter little dandelion puffs. Inside those there is another round hard thing that the hairy achene attach to, like an actual seed perhaps. There is an order to the pods, perhaps a bit bitter sweet but not like a pine scent nor like a grass scent, and no sap or substance other than the powdery stuff in the fluffs.

More of Bobby Horvath and creance flying of the young Bald Eagle that had been saturated in mystery gunk that ruined her feathers.

While her parents creance train raptors---

Photo by Horvath

Sadie Horvath favors kissing her friend Henrietta the hen.

Photo by Horvath

Photo by Horvath

Hey, I want a nice chicken in my kitchen too!

Donegal Browne