Buster Is Back! The OTHER Crane Nest, a Decorah Eaglets Update, and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak Interlude

 As I hadn't seen Buster the Black-chinned Hummingbird for several days, I thought he'd traveled on but to my surprise this evening about 6:30PM there he was in the little mulberry tree next to the magnolia and its feeder.

Remember I'd found another Sandhill Crane on a nest while I was watching the one in the middle of the pond? 

 The "Just Try It" Crane?  The grass very soon obscured this nest so my main focus switched to the nest in the pond.  Though I still attempted to see this one periodically, and each time  I stopped, instead of seeing the crane, on the opposite side of the pond a goose head popped up above the grass each time.

It was 7:15PM, so the light was already fading but today when I stopped...

Instead of the goose head popping up, two crane heads popped up instead.

Then the right head disappeared, but the left remained.

Then she stood and looked down.

And the male stood and suddenly the female's  head goes down as a Red-winged Blackbird goes for it.

An Aside:  Red-winged Blackbirds appear to be a situational hazard for any creature who frequents wetlands at this time of year.  Yesterday I  watched two cranes walking across a marshy area and every ten feet or so as they passed from one Red-wing's territory to the next, the previous bird would ease the attack, while the next attacked afresh.

The female begins to browse and the male stands guard...and remember the goose head I kept seeing previously when I stopped?  Look at the left side of the photo.  There she is.

Goose withdraws slightly.  The female eyes her and the male continues to stare at the Red-wing.  Then the light fails enough to make even a weak focus possible.

I do hope there is a colt or colts in that long grass.  I'll keep checking.

A pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks also stare.  A disagreement?
The finale of a discussion about nest placement?

And last but not least...

 The Decorah Eaglets
Just in from Jackie of Tulsa-
I'm glad to know that after the 2 electrocution incidents last year, there was a huge effort to retrofit all the hazards before this season rolled around.

Octavia and the "kids", Prescribed Prairie Burns, and Vince of Fordham, his New Girl, and the Bad Choice Location

 

 photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/

 Octavia feeds the eyasses on Pale Male's Fifth Avenue nest.

From Chris Lyons, major watcher of the Fordham Hawks currently nesting on Webster Avenue-

Just saw one of those little white blobby things with a black spot in the center--from quite a good distance away, through binoculars, on the top floor of the building I work in, but I've been doing this a while now.  Popped up, looked around, settled back down again.  The female is sitting at the edge of the nest, looking down,  seemingly quite pleased with herself.  She is mercifully spared anticipation of the difficulties yet to come.

So normally joyous news, but now our preferential option--no hatch, and our new queen decides this nest site sucks, and goes somewhere better next time (like back to the campus) has failed to come about.  So we're stuck with option 2--search and rescue.  We don't even know the apartment number belonging to that window yet.  That's where the search part comes in.

Like I just told Bobby, I'm even concerned about the PRE-fledging stage, since you know that as they get close to taking off for the first time, they like to get athletic, and move around, from branch to branch, or ledge to ledge, and that's really not a good idea in this case.  I hope that rather narrow metal structure is going to be enough space for their pre-flight workouts. 

I've got a potential contact number for the building management--may be a false lead, but I'll pursue it.  They have got to know what's going on.   More as the story develops.

Fingers crossed Chris, keep us posted!

Sorry about the lag in posts, for the last seven days I've been doing prescribed burns of prairies and wetlands. It has been a trip.  

And nearly every burn had a Red-tailed Hawk nest on the periphery.  These areas were Red-tail hunting ground which included a copse of trees for a nest and hunting perches with a prairie spread out before it


The latest was a prescribed burn of 125 acres of wetland prairie. One doesn't want to burn down anything accidentally of course but this particular wetland had a four million dollar house in the middle of it.  

Photographs of rural Red-tailed Hawk nests and  aforementioned burns will have to wait as the photo transfer function of blogger is down.  Sigh.

And lest I forget, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak pair who stopped in for a bite at the feeder. 
 

From Robin of Illinois by way of Jackie of Tulsa--

 A BEAVER CAM!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ellis-bird-farm-far-beaver-lodge

It's inside the lodge, and a beaver has been on and off the screen.

MUCH MORE TO COME, PARTICULARLY WHEN THE PHOTO FUNCTION IS BACK UP!

Donegal Browne