Sad news to report from the eagle’s nest. Older eaglet pushed younger brother out of the nest. Younger bro fell 75 feet. As soon as it was reported, the Raptor Center sent out a team to retrieve younger bro. He had too many injuries and was humanely put out of his misery.
Now, what were you saying about fighting in the bird world?
In another aside, a friend who lives in Kansas got some fantastic video of a tornado that did quite a bit of damage. I’m unable to share it, but his other friends are beating him about the head for not taking shelter. I trust his ability to understand when he is in danger (he’s another racing volunteer). May the community recover quickly from the damage.
More peaceful bird news - we saw our first cygnets of the year yesterday on (no joke) Swanbourne Lake in Arundel. Perfect nest site on the lakeside, protected by trees and a small cliff, so we couldn’t take photos. Sorry!
You should keep your distance regardless, but a baby raccoon being out during the day is a lot less alarming than an adult. Sometimes little guys wander off while mom is sleeping.
Today at St Pete beach I was meandering around in the shallows when a stingray (cownose?) swam past me. Hoping to get an underwater photo I tried to follow it but it was a little too fast. It glided away and past another swimmer, a young girl. She looked down, did a double take, and instantly made a beeline back to the sand.
When we had our first apartment, more than 20 years ago, we lived near a very large group of geese. They always looked out for the goslings collectively. Eiders do the same.
At our cabin in the Shenandoah Valley this weekend, I saw a juvenile red tailed hawk eating at our bird feeder, all the other birds cleared right out. I had no idea they would eat at a feeder, it’s just a mix of seeds, not suet.
More to the eagle story. The male parent had been missing for a while. I had wondered about that because I wasn’t seeing him and mama eagle would sometimes abandon the chicks to go hunting. After not eating for two days, the older eaglet pushed the younger one out of the nest. We’re being told that fratricide is not unusual when there is hunger stress in the nest. When I last looked, the remaining one was being fed.
On Reddit “whatsthisbird”, it seems like any picture of a bird doing something goofy is either a juvenile red tailed hawk or a Canada jay.
We were sitting outside at a brewery last year and a juvenile red tail landed on an empty table, looked around a bit, then flew off. We were six feet away but too stunned to get a picture.
I had a cool opportunity the other day to visit with a couple who breed reptiles.
This is a Louisiana pine snake (albino):
A super friendly red bull snake:
I got to hold this Hermann’s tortoise. Look at his happy lil’ face!
I forget the name of this one, a red faced turtle maybe?
Also saw several of these large tortoises. They were all rescues from situations like being hit by a car, or raised by people who didn’t know how to take care of them. They’re pretty much in turtle paradise now.
I miss daily driving by a swampy area in central Ohio on my way home from work at night, during the period in March-April when there is a deafening frog chorus.
Finally! We broke into the high 50s yesterday. I think it was even 60 for an hour or so! One of my favorite things happened yesterday. I was walking the dogs in the woods and finally heard the frogs singing. Oh, my heart! Because of the crummy weather, they’re about 3 weeks late.
I have only ever heard frogs singing like that once. Cycling past a farm pond in the middle of nowhere, I heard a cacophony of what I thought was ducks quacking, but I couldn’t see any ducks. I scooted over to investigate and… man, I had no idea frogs could be that loud. Amazing.
Anyways, today I was working on the allotment and heard some shrieking above - and saw two crows mobbing a buzzard. I’ve see it before, but this was by far the longest and most intense mobbing I’ve seen. It wasn’t just airborne interference - I swear that one of the crows was diving into (and bouncing off of) the buzzard. It went on for several minutes. Fabulous,
Yesterday I saw a hawk of some type, probably a red tail, descending perfectly vertically while remaining in a position that looked like it was in a glide. From my vantage point it appeared to be motionless and not making any adjustments, although I’m sure it was. I watch hawks, eagles and osprey at every opportunity but have never seen this. It went from 100’ or so to below the tree line without lowering its head or rocking or making any forward progress. It was strange to see.
If there was sufficient wind (preferably steady) then the hawk actually could have done what you described. It’s kind of advanced flying in some respects, but then, hawks fly for a living so I’d expect them to be good.
How does it work? The bird glides forward into the wind at the same speed the wind is pushing against the bird. I used to do the same trick in small airplanes when conditions were right for it and I’m just a fumbling human.
