Computer Dive

Wowie zowie, mom has brought a black snake home for dinner. I always think of Western Red-tails as the snake eaters but here we have a midwestern mom serving up reptile. Adaptable eaters these hawks . I could tell from the ground that she was having a much harder time than usual in tearing bits off. Fresh raw snake must be decidedly tough.

Hi Folks,

My computer seems to be in the midst of a serious dive. Things are getting extremely wonky. I am putting up Part 1 of the May 4th/5th sequence of photos without commentary as I don't know how long I have before everything goes poof. You will have to scroll down below the Hawkeye and Rose post to see Part 1

Will also put up some of today's feeding photos if there is time. (Above.)You will not believe how much bigger the eyasses have gotten. (No eyass shots from yesterday as it was raining and when I dropped by the eyasses were deep in the nest with Dad hunkered down on the rim of the nest looking semi-miserable. I would have as well. It was chilly as well as wet.

Hope I don't need a new computer--that could take a good while so be fore warned. DRAT!!!!

D.B.

P.S. Anyone up for taking over for awhile?

CONFIRMATION! It IS Hawkeye and Rose! And They Do It Again!

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAT GONZALEZ
Just in from intrepid contributor Pat Gonzalez--
Donegal:
Yesterday, Wednesday, May 7th around ten a.m, I was photographing my new friend at the library building of the NYBG when I noticed that he/she was fussing over something inside the nest.
Look at the attached photo. Is that a little head I see?

Let's zoom in...

Absolutely Pat you got a picture of an eyass. She is very young and not yet up off her haunches. The black spot is her eye. Also look at Mom's stance, that too is a hint that there is something in that nest beyond eggs.

Pat continues--
Later, I saw a gentleman taking photos through a large telephoto lens on a tripod. He said his name was Richard and that he did see at least one chick inside the nest. I asked him if he had a website and he said I should look up Fordham Hawks as he has taken lots of photos of the pair at Fordham University. I believe that this is his page.
http://www.fordham.edu/politicalsci/profs/fleisher/fordham_hawks.html
He also said that this WAS the SAME pair. Look at the photos on his page and tell me what you think.

Please let me know if you think there is a fuzzy head in my photo or if this is just grain. Sorry for the bad quality. In order to get the close up, I had to set my camera at lower pixels.
Pat

Pat,
You have the best luck. You ran into Richard Fleisher, a prof over at Fordham and one of the chief watchers of Hawkeye and Rose. If Richard says it is Hawkeye and Rose it is definitely Hawkeye and Rose.

I can't tell you how relieved I am to get the news that all is well with them. And not only that but once again they have had breeding success. They're good at this!

Donegal Browne

The Ms are Caught in the Act, Part 1

April 4, 2009, 8:12:50 am

This post and the one following are the activities of the Ms, that I observered on the days of April 4th and 5th.

I believe this is the the Mom of the pair. I mentioned that I thought their technique was to feed one eyass a bite and the next bite went to the second eyass. It turns out that seems to be Dad's technique. (How many times have Red-tails made a liar out of me?) Mom on the other hand seems to feed one a meal and than the other.

Visible above is Pinkie. Why Pinkie? Possibly because that eyass is in the sun and therefore her pink skin shows through her fluff. Or because she is the younger her fluff hasn't filled in as much as the other, older, eyass. I rather doubt she is actually pink.

Pinkie is the one who was being fed as I set up my equipment.

From Robin of Illinois--

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/

"Google trades lawnmowers for goats:

Google announced on its blog that it has traded in lawn mowers for grass-chewing goats at its Mountain View headquarters in California. A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the sametime. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawnmowers.

The city of Los Angeles hired goats to gnaw down some of its brush. The goats don’t burn fossil fuels and, as Google says, don’t cost too much either. Google is renting the goats from a company called California Grazing. Apparently, every so often a herder will bring about 200 of them to the campus and they’ll roam around for a week eating the grass. Not only that, these goats will fertilize the land at the same time — yes, that way. "

Kate Hogan a co-worker of our favorite Squirrel rehabber, Carol Vinzant at People Pets has sent in a question--

"I’m trying to track down the origin of a baby owl webcam, and Carol thought you may be able to help. Are you familiar with the website Sportsmans Paradise at all? They have this up, and we’d love to cover it."

Does anyone know?

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Wildlife_Cam.html

Check it out, it's great--