FLASH! SECOND EGG AT THE FRANKLIN! PLUS AN AUDUBON ACTION ALERT-THE GUNNISON SAGE-GROUSE!!!

 The second egg at the Franklin Institute was laid shortly after 12 noon! 

While the hawks are doing well, other birds are not.  National Audubon has sent out an advocacy alert for the Gunnison Sage-Grouse.  
 The Gunnison Sage-Grouse has been identified by Audubon as one of the ten most endangered birds in the country. With fewer than 5,000 individuals left, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently proposed to list the species as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately—even with dramatically shrinking populations—growing political opposition is threatening the science-based plan to ensure the survival of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse.

It is vitally important for as many people as possible to submit comments in support of protecting the Gunnison Sage-Grouse. The deadline to comment is Tuesday, April 2. Send your comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services TODAY.

FOR THE FULL ALERT MESSAGE GO TO-

https://secure3.convio.net/nasaud/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1391&autologin=true

 MORE HAWK NEWS LATER TODAY!

DB

Pale Male Waits, the Highbridge Red-tail Nest, and the Songbird Nest Report: Robin, Cowbird, Chipping Sparrow, Mourning Dove

 Photograph courtesy of http://www.palemale.com/
 Pale Male as dapper and self assured as usual surveys his domain on Saturday from one of his favorite perches on the Linda Building.  No doubt as usual, mentally absorbing the many prey patterns spread out before him which he will put to good use when the mad rush of hunting for hungry eyasses begins.

 Photo taken on April 28th.  Things have changed since then.
 Just exactly whose eggs are what has become slightly clearer.  This year the Cowbird eggs do not match those of the, I think now, Chipping Sparrow host.  They were the brown heavily speckled eggs as opposed to the pale greenish blue with a few flecks as were all the eggs last season-both Chipping and Cowbird.

 The nestling above with the giant red mouth is a cowbird chick.

It turns out that one of the ways that a parent bird knows who is hungriest in many song bird chicks is that that chick's mouth will have the heaviest blood flow.  Hence another survival quirk for Cowbird young is a constantly bright red mouth.

 

The nest in question is deep inside this clematis.  Early the morning of the 29th I heard an enormous racket and looked out the window next to the trellis. It was a Crows vs every-other-bird-in-the-neighborhood melee.  By the time I got outside the Crows were being chased across the park by a feathered posse of mostly Grackles.  I took a very very quick peek into the nest.  I couldn't see  the chick and it appears to have been predated.  I'm not sure about the status of the eggs, (I got a glimpse of one of the pale ones), as to get a really good look requires a tippie toe stance and some peering as opposed to seeing the red mouth of the chick which really stands out.   I didn't want to be the last straw for abandonment of the nest by gawking  if it wasn't abandoned already.

Later in the day I did see a parent whip into the Clematis and I didn't see it come out again right away so perhaps there is still hope.  I'll chance another look once in a day or two.

THE CASE OF THE EXTREMELY LOW ROBIN'S NEST

 

Remember the nest that we'd decided belonged to a Robin?  Indeed it does.  Note that sky blue egg.  

In fact it appears to belong to a rather human habituated Robin though she will flush out by a surprise thump of the front door. (I've stopped using it for the time being.) 


This is the lowest Robin's nest I've ever seen.  The bush is less than four feet tall besides the fact that if you stand on the front step you could reach out and pull mom's tail without even leaning.  Look carefully near the top of the bush and you'll see her tail feathers sticking out the back of the nest.  Though perhaps the fact that the nest is so close to human habitation may be one of its selling points. 

The nest robbers, mostly Crows here, (The Blue Jays were extirpated from the area by West Nile virus.), never come this close to the front door. 

 I have a feeling that since the township's new garbage collection agency supplies large covered wheeled bins for both recycling and garbage that perhaps any domestic garbage picking, if any, the Crows were doing has been completely eliminated, making nest robbing, once again, an important source of Crow protein.

That is until the softball games in the park with their resultant refuse of hot dog and brat goodies in open cans take some of the heat off.

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING DOVE NEST

 

Remember the dove nest in the tall bush?  Yesterday I noticed that the twigs appeared disturbed and there was no dove eye peering through the greenery.  

The nest has disappeared.   Not to worry too much as  there were no feathers at all to give away the demise or even the disturbance of the parents.

And do check out Rob Schmunk's beautiful photos of Martha and the eyasses at the Highbridge nest on his blog at--  http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/

Donegal Browne

Why Don't Eyasses Talons Poke Holes in Their Nest Mates? Plus Mystery Eggs, the Fascinating Tool Using, Machine Destructing Kea, Cornell Lab Red-tail Hatch and More on Eradibait

   http://www.livestream.com/nytnestcam
 I've always wondered how eyasses on the nest manage not to eviscerate each other with their taloned toed, out of control feet. 

Yesterday Boo and Scout (Yes, the NY Times baby names for the hawks poll has chosen two of the protagonists from To Kill A Mocking Bird.) were napping and very restless.  Obviously their pin feathers were irking them and Rosie was tending to them by preening. They'd finally settled down when suddenly a foot shot out of the eyass pile like a punching fist.  Not that even Rosie wasn't rather surprised herself by the explosive foot appearance and she stared at it for some time.

And that is when I noticed that the "shooting foot", (Ah ha!) had its toes and therefore its talons folded in.  Part of the explanation I'm assuming for why the eyasses don't poke holes in each other while tossing and turning in their sleep on a regular basis.


And for those of you who have written in  asking  about the "hatch window" for Pale Male and Zena of 927 Fifth Avenue-- We have a couple days yet before there will be any possibility of  seeing any signs of a hatch.  

Remember the count on this nest is quite fluid.


We start the count  from the first overnight of the formel on the nest as we've no cam or overlooking window to see the bowl of the nest and whether she is actually sitting on anything.


Also the bowl of the Fifth Avenue nest is very deep.  We won't be able to see the eyasses at all until they are at least upright if not completely ambulatory.  We have to wait to see feeding motions.  Ordinarily these are initially the formel standing on the nest edge making poking movements into the bowl.


By the time that clue is seen sometimes the "hatch window" has been passed but we still haven't been able to confirm a hatch.


Part of the "charm" of Pale Male's nest site is the finesse it takes to confirm eyasses on that nest.

 Photo: Donegal Browne
 Another mystery discovered yesterday, was this nest in the clematis with its seemingly none matching eggs.  The last two years the nest in the clematis has belonged to Chipping Sparrows who were predated by Cowbirds.  But when I accidentally flushed the sitter of this nest yesterday, she took off like a flash, without any real identifying characteristics beyond it was smallish, and for whatever instinctual reason, I doubted it was a Chipping Sparrow nest.


I looked in the nest.  Wow, that's weird.  The Cowbirds didn't match up their eggs with the sitters very well this year did they?   Which made me wonder if the White-throated Sparrows had the nest and the Cowbirds who predate that nest yearly only lay Chipping Sparrow-ish looking eggs.


So what do White-throat eggs like like anyway?

      Photo courtesy of Todd Ratermann 
http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/wildlife/birds/white-throated-sparrow.html
Well it turns out they're greenish with lots of brown speckles.  
Some obviously with more brown speckles than others.  But some of the ones in my nest have hardly any speckles at all.  Time for another look around the web.

 Another nest of mixed looking eggs but still more speckled than the ones in the nest of the clematis.

 http://amityheritageroses.wordpress.com/

DRAT!!!   Perhaps tomorrow I'll be able to try for another look at whoever is sitting on the clematis nest.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Nature/Birds/Parrots/index.html

                                          Kea Eating Rental Car

Contributor Robin of Illinois, with always an eye for avian tool using topics sent in a video link for a comparison of a Caledonian Crow and a Kea Parrot in such matters..
  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzEdi074SuQ&feature=related

Notice that the Kea in the stick test was unable to use her beak to poke the stick horizontally into the hole because of the shape of her beak/mouth. Therefore she got it in the hole with the assistance of her foot and then was able to adjust it to a horizontal position so it would release the food.

 And the text with background of the study:

http://goodnews.ws/blog/2011/06/15/parrots-and-crows-show-their-inventive-side/

Which got me interested in New Zealand's Kea Parrots altogether.  Here are the links for a three part Attenborough piece on the extremely smart, ingenious, havoc wreaking, butter loving,  team working, sometimes predatory, (the only known parrot species to be so) endangered Kea Parrot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twg4Yg4gFoo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpJYrfMEKqM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekGkyC1hDlY&feature=related

 A heads-up from Sally of Kentucky-  The Cornell Lab Red-tails have a hatch!
http://www.livestream.com/cornellhawks

Sally also forwarded the information on Eradibait, the supposedly non-toxic to everything but rodents rodenticide, to her supervisor at the wildlife rehab facility that she works with and below is the response from the folks who make Eradibait.  (It had occurred to me that perhaps it wasn't available as yet in the U.S.)

Thank you for your enquiry. Ilex Enviro-Sciences distribute Eradibait in the

UK & Eire only, however we are aware that although product approval  is not

currently held in the USA the owners of this unique rodenticide, Zea

Sciences Limited,  are working on registration issues with the EPA

[regulatory authority] and hope to offer the product very soon.

Best Regards

Barbara

Therefore, if we believe in the 7 degrees of 

separation theory, does anybody know anybody who 

might know someone who knows someone who

could talk the EPA into putting Eradibait 

onto the fast track for testing?  

No I don't mean skipping

relevant necessary testing but rather perhaps 

putting Eradibait a little closer to the head 

of the line for testing in the first place. 

By the way, check out the comments on the previous post.  Long time blog contributor Betty Jo of California, has a heads up concerning another nursery sold invasive plant that like Garlic Mustard is wreaking ecosystem havoc.

Pale Male, Ginger Lima, Piebald Grackle, Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrel, and 888 Peregrine on Eggs!

Pale Male flies by with prey.

Still copulating! And still with Ginger Lima...

I looked out the patio door today and WHOA!

No, he hasn't been in wet paint.

Wisconsin, capitol of leucistic and albino fauna, has come through again. This is a piebald leucistic Grackle. In other words, the bird has true species colors in the areas that are not completely devoid of pigment. Somehow the streaks and speckles make him look less fierce than your typical Grackle.

This bird happened to be under the feeder alone so I don't know how he gets along with other Grackles. In the past when there have been leucistic birds in the yard they've been treated, at least to the human eye, by other members of their species as if they were true colored. Though I've not watched a leucistic Grackle before. Stay tuned.

I'd noticed that the entrance to Chewy's burrow was open and lo and behold today, Chewy, or a relative was out in the feeding area stuffing those Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrel cheeks.

In regards to a question about a possible nest in Tompkins Square Park, which would mean two urban hawk nests only a mile apart with the addition of the Washington Square nest. A response from Francois Portmann, pro photographer and worldly bird watcher-

There is no RTH nest in Tompkins Square Park. Bird photographer Dennis Edge who visits the park daily confirms: "I saw a squirrel building the nest mentioned, RTHs sometimes sit on squirrel's nest" Hope that helps,
Francois
http://www.fotoportmann.com


Photo by Brett Odom

And from our watcher of the 888 nest site, Brett Odom--

Hello Donna.

Yesterday (April 2^nd. I missed it in my box for a week. Sorry. D.B.) I managed to take a very blurry photo of one of the falcons on the 888 nest ledge. I haven't brought in my tripod to work yet which is why the photo is not in focus. I will bring it in with me on Monday. As you can see, the falcon is not perched, but laying down which is what it was doing on the 29th. I'm not the expert, but I would imagine this is how a bird would lay when brooding (is that the correct term) eggs. This was late in the day and the falcon was still like this when I left for home so I do not know if she, I will use the female pronouns for now, actually had any eggs she was covering. The sun was also on the opposite side of the building so she wasn't attempting to warm up by sunbathing. I would be interested in knowing your thoughts.

I have attached the original size photo so you can zoom in without loosing too much sharpness. Once I have my tripod in, I will attempt to take some better photos. You might not be able to tell, but this is the exact spot where Charlotte and Jr.'s nest is located. It is behind the glass immediately to the left of the falcon. As you can see, the plastic shopping bag I wrote you about last year is still on the nest.

Regards,
Brett

Brett, you are using brooding correctly. I used to think that brooding was only used in regard to hatchlings, as opposed to eggs, but I looked it up and it's both sitting on eggs and/or sitting on eyasses. :-)

It looks to me that she is sitting on eggs. As Peregrines don't really have much in the way of nesting materials usually, the nest is called a scrape, I'd suggest that her rather mantling stance is her way of sitting eggs in chilly weather.

I love the fact that the plastic bag is still there.

Wish I knew where Charlotte and Junior have gotten to.

Keep it up Brett, I can't wait to see what happens with the Peregrines next!

Best, D

And last but not least, the link for the now famous Iowa Eagle Cam

http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-eagle-nest-cam-watch-040111,0,1096929.story

Pale Male and Ginger Look Into the Bowl of the Nest, or are they?

Pale Male and Ginger look into the bowl of the 927 Fifth Avenue nest.

This looking into the bowl stance is often seen when there is a hatch. That isn't it this time.

Are they looking at an abandoned egg?

Though some watchers think that Pale Beauty left an egg in the nest, a good proportion of other watchers don't think so.

I suppose they could be mulling whether there is enough bowl lining. Doubtful.

Interestingly, and somewhat unusual, Pale Male is standing on the same side of the bowl as the prey he'd tempted Ginger into coming to get by flying back and forth in front of the nest. Ordinarily he'd be on the other side of the bowl and she'd be on the side with the gift.

Of course we can't really say that Ginger isn't looking at the prey, can we? Check out the angle of her head. But then again, she could just be full to her eyeballs.

Is Pale Male pointing out where he'd like Ginger to be? I'm thinking that my be closer. He does seem to want Ginger to start sitting on the nest.

Is it just photoperiod that is "egging" him on? Or as Pale Male has trained so many young mates could he be concerned that she might not know it was "time" and just lay an egg any old place? (It does happen in females of smaller species, I don't know about raptors.) Trying to keep an egg from appearing in the wrong place would take some complicated thought on Pale Male's part, I admit. More likely he just instinctively feels like it is "time" and as such she should be on the nest.

And another good sign concerning up coming eggs, during the last couple of days, Ginger has been selecting more materials for the nest bowl.

And what is the business of Pale Male only hunting within sight of the nest for quite some time now? That's very unusual.

STAY TUNED!

Donegal Browne

Pinkie Sits, Star Lays an Egg, and Did Charlotte Think?

Pinkie the Laughing Dove
Whenever I get back to NYC, the first thing that has to be done is a good scrubbing of all the bird cages. Not that the birds aren't cared for, and their cages cleaned by the family while I'm away, they just don't drag the cages out to the terrace or into the bathtub for a periodic scrubbing.

Above is a photo of Pinkie the Laughing Dove. Many will remember that he arrived after I received a call about a white dove stranded in a snowbank a few winters ago. Being a completely domesticated variety of bird, Pinkie is very interesting. When the other birds are out they go about whatever business they feel the need to go about, whilst Pinkie if put on a perch---any kind of perch...

...first checks out his surroundings, mostly for any possible rivals he can beat up on...

...and then he just sits and watches whatever is going on. And I don't mean sits a few minutes, we're talking hours here. As a matter of fact, during my daughter Sam's and my cage scrubbing extravaganza, Pinkie sat on that compote for two and a half hours. We were interested in how long he'd stay before hopping off. He never left the spot so we finally put him back in his cage so we could let the cats back into the area.

In the meantime, Star laid an egg. She had just laid right before the photograph and had been resting with her eyes closed. Laying an egg being very hard work. When I got near her with the camera she opened her eyes and if you know bird expressions you can tell that though she is looking at me she is still focused internally.

Note her body is still cocked in the contraction that expelled the egg and she remained that way for some minutes. Star is unreleasable as she had a shattered wing that could not be mended. No we won't have a hatch. Her egg is infertile. Though she flirts with Blue and Dot the unreleasable cocks, copulation isn't part of the fun.

And just in case...

...you've ever wondered what a pigeon track looks like, take a gander.


Speaking of ganders, Sam came home from college, (She's a Biology and Theatre major) with an interesting behavioral tidbit about Canada Geese. Scientists were wondering if the retrieval of an egg that has rolled from the nest in geese was wired in or whether the goose just understood the situation and rolled it back into the nest.

So they tied a line on one of the eggs. Not an easy task, if you know anything about geese and the wing battering that can dish out, now that I think about it. At any rate the field people would pull an egg slowly out of the nest and then watch to see what happened. The goose would get off the nest, walk over to the egg, and using nudges from her bill, roll the egg back into the nest. Dandy.

They then pulled the egg out again. The bird went to retrieve it, began to nudge the egg back and the scientists while the motion was in progress then pulled the egg another foot away from the goose. The goose though it could see that the egg was another foot away, continued to make the nudging motion at air all the way back to the nest. Then seeing the egg out there again returned to the egg and nudged it back to the nest in reality.

The scientific opinion was that this proved that egg retrieval in geese was a hard wired behavior triggered by seeing the egg out of place. Okay. But also, at least to me, it doesn't discount the goose knowing what she is doing while all this is going on but as it is a triggered behavior she can't stop the motion until visually cued by the nest itself or the other eggs or whatever, that the motion has been completed. What if geese are a species that eventually learn by experience as Red-tailed hawks do?

Keep in mind this only proves whatever it proves in Canada Geese it does not necessarily cross over to all avian species.

Speaking of Red-tails learning by experience, it is believed that an eyass on a Red-tailed hawk nest is pretty much on it's own when it comes to falling out of the nest. And no question this does happen periodically. Most of the NYC hawkwatchers have had some real heart stopping moments as eyasses just off their haunches headed for the edge but then stopped in time without falling out, while their parent sat by seemingly unconcerned.

But then there was this moment in 2005 on the Trump Parc nest of Pale Male Jr. and Charlotte, that made me wonder about hawk parents learning from experience. Good mannered eyasses of a certain age seem to be wired to defecate off the edge of the nest so they do have business there but this was different.

That year we'd nicknamed the eyasses Big and Little.

Well, one day as Charlotte was sitting with the eyasses as they tootled around the nest corbel, Little, recently off his haunches and practicing walking took off toward the edge at a rapid clip. Charlotte got up, made it over to him a few inches from the edge and abruptly sat on him.

Wow. That just didn't happen. Adult birds just don't ordinarily plop down on a running youngster. Or on any youngster. After a certain point of mobility, if it begins to rain or it's chilly it's the eyasses job to go burrow under the tending parent if they need the warmth.

For a number of reason I'd always thought that Charlotte might well have been mated and had young before hooking up with Junior. Is it possible that she'd had an eyass fall from the nest and had learned from the experience? Not having any completely nonlethal ways to keep an eyass from the edge--given the non-choices of a raptor's feet and beak, is it possible she somehow put it together that he should be stopped as he could fall off at the clip he was going and plus that sitting on him would stop him from falling?

Donegal Browne

MORE ON KAY AND THE EGGS IN TULSA

Screen Capture by Bob McCarger courtesy of KJRH TV Hawk Cam
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3657/3349249150_a844973a55_o.jpg

We think the second egg was laid yesterday evening, Wednesday. We saw tantalizing glimpses of what appeared to be second egg during the night, but we were obviously able to confirm it this morning. By the way, those round, brown, thingies are sycamore pods, from what it is apparently their favorite kind of tree, the site of some romantic trysts.


Screen Capture by Bob McGarger Courtesy of KJRH TV Hawk Cam
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3630/3349801071_d6b813da94_o.jpg


Egg One in foreground, with Egg Two in the background, I think, and the brown sycamore fruit, mentioned by Bob, in the far back.



Jackie Dover of the Tulsa Forum, had mentioned that it was cold in Tulsa and Kay was putting her head under her wing. Hence the search for temperature, wind direction, wind chill, and wind gust information.

Weather information courtesy of the National Weather Service

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tsa/cur_wx.htm



Temperatures as of Midnight 3/13/09

Windchill

Temperature and wind direction

Wind Gusts
By the way, does anyone know where Jay is perched so he has a sightline on Kay and the eggs, just in case?

Donegal Browne

P.S. Keep scrolling down for the first post on the second egg.