Mar 4, 2009: Cold Eagle
 

Everyone should be pretty much aware of the winter storms that blew up the Eastern U.S. these past few days.
They dumped snow from Alabama to Maine, and a tornado in I think Georgia.
Windy, snowy, cold, and unless you're as crazy as winter camping BigV, you certainly want to be indoors. :D

But what about our furry and feathered forest friends?
At the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland, Mom Eagle is sitting on two eggs.

http://cellar.org/2009/eagle1.jpg

By yesterday morning she was wearing snow, and had to be hungry.
After all, she couldn't pop down to Dunkin' Donuts or the Quickie Mart.

Fortunately, Pop Eagle showed up... didn't stay, but brought sushi for brunch.

http://cellar.org/2009/eagle2.jpg

Poor Mom Eagle, I wonder if she knows when those eggs hatch, her troubles are just beginning.

At least if she doesn't have an appetite the fish will keep for a few days.

She's probably bored just sitting there. Maybe Pop Eagle should bring her a movie, too.

I've always been amazed at the dedication animals have for their offspring. The humanoid could learn a lot from this. Most fowl will die before they let you take their eggs. And there are humans who will toss their young like so much trash. Very sad.
Great IoTD.
psssttt..... lets just eat the fish and leave the bird alone this ONE time.

And the baby's name will be Swanson.

and then there are the humans who adopt and the cuckoos who deposit their eggs elsewhere....

I'll take my eagle eggs over easy, thanks :p

Ummm, no? This is squishy anthropomorphic hooey. Eggs are a fungible commodity. That is, new ones can be created to replace the old ones, albeit at considerable cost to the parent(s). But a dead parent can no longer reproduce.

The determined set of her snowy head let's us know that she will be a good mother!

I was under the impression that the males camped with the eggs and the female was out hunting, but that might just the penguins...

Feathers are great insulators, but that beak is probably really cold.

Infrared Zoo:
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/i...zoo/eagle.html

that's cool, Janet!

wanna see how hot my cock is?


eta: hot pussy

This seemed pretty early to me, but some research shows that Bald Eagles lay eggs all the way from December in Florida to May in Alaska.
Our local ones in Northern California are just finishing nest building.
Both these eggs have now sucessfully hatched after about 35 days of incubation.

I forgot to ask if it is now the Xe National Wildlife Refuge.

:haha:

OK. I give. Sure it's cold eagle.

But we can warm it up.

In a nice broth with some carrots, onions and asst other veggies.

There is an eagle's nest along the GW Parkway just south of the main part of Alexandria. Very public; easily visible from the highway. The food should be good in the area, but I am sure there may be car accidents because low-flying eagles are pretty spectacular. The fledging might be a problem as well. That nest got 6 ish inches of snow on it on Monday. I didn't know eagles had their young so early.

... and don't forget the human children stolen by the faeries to pay their tithe to Hell!

Do you know how to spot a changeling? Boil an egg and put the egg in one bowl and the shell in the other. The changeling will be unable to resist the eggshell, and having been tricked it must return the child.

So you see, we have a very good reason for needing this bird's eggs!

2nd good reason... Bacon. :D

The Eaglecam at Norfolk Botanical Garden had 3 eggs laid between 2-11 and 2-19.

The Eaglecam in Gorham, ME is still waiting. In past years they've had eggs laid as early as mid-February but it's usually March. In winters the lakes are frozen over until April, the Eagles seem to wait for the thaw. Probably to insure a food supply for the nesting Mom Eagle and the hatched chicks.

The Sutton Center Eaglecam near Stillwater Lake, AZ, had 3 eggs laid between 2-6 and 2-13.

Both the Kent EagleCam, and the Lake Washington EagleCam , both in WA state, report no eggs yet.

The Platteville, CO, Eaglecam, has 3 eggs laid between 2-17 and 2-24.

I'm also surprised the start so early, but I guess that gives the fledglings a better start before next winter.

Damn bruce - thats some really cool shit right there. You have way too much time. srsly, thanks that is very interesting.

I've seen so many bald eagles in the last couple years, it's amazing. I love the comeback they have made. I saw one flying over my neighborhood a couple years ago. Last summer, I was sitting on the balcony at a pizza joint by a river in Maine and one flew to a tree right nearby. You go to Mason Neck about 10 miles away from me and with a decent pair of binoculars, you can see about half a dozen within 5 minutes. Just flying around over the river.

I have a friend who used to go down to the Conowingo Dam in Maryland (where Route 1 crosses the river) every January to see eagles. They and other unusual birds would look for fish below the dam where the water was too active to freeze and warmer because of having gone through the turbines. One year she counted 50 eagles. This was probably in 2001 as the parking lots have been closed since then due to fear of terrorists so that it has been too difficult to get a vantage point to see the birds.

It's a great sign for the whole ecology. The birds of prey can't come back unless they have enough prey to feed on. The prey fish are strong because the waters are full of insect larvae. The insects and larvae are there because the waters aren't choked off with algae and poisons.

I see more hawks in Valley Forge. I think the Schuylkill River has improved.

Southern Ontario must be doing pretty good then, we have hawks everywhere, including our really populated urban centres.

http://jane.burger.googlepages.com/Dscf0510_sm2.jpg

This one caught a seagull in mid air and landed in the middle of the road to eat it while I was waiting for the bus. I have two other regular hawk visitors to my backyard and I've seen about 5 others while driving highways this week.
It is hawk week and someone forgot to tell me?

Hawks and particularly Peregrine Falcons can thrive in urban settings. Pigeons, Seagulls, squirrels and rats are plentiful in many cities. The air is getting cleaner too. Thanks for the picture Leokins.

Pigeons, don't forget pigeons, the ultimate food!

Yes'm. :D

Since moving back here my Dad has pointed out a lot of Kites to me. I'm used to seeing Kestrels, but these are new. Then again, as a child we didn't have a car, so unless they were over our field they wouldn't have been a familiar sight. They are mostly carrion eaters, so they are common on rural roads.

I do worry that we are losing natural hunting grounds though. You have to walk far futher out of Aylesbury to be in the proper countryside now. There used to be an uninterrupted line between the Bierton farms and our house 20 years ago, so we saw foxes, badgers, hedgehogs etc regularly. And the cat brought in fieldmice, voles and shrews. Now all we have is the occasional urban fox and rat. That we see I mean, not that the cat brings in :)

You can actually find hedgehogs in the wild? I thought they were all converted into furry little pets with spikes? Or at least have had running shoes strapped on them.

You're right they've all gone Hollywood, becoming the darlings of the internet, but SG was talking about 20 years ago. :haha:

Nope, they still live wild here.

My sister lives in a damp area (everything on the outskirts of this town is built on land that was previously flood plains) and they have hedgehogs in their garden.

"When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up!"

My sis and I kept saying that while we were in New Orleans.

All this talk of wildlife has encouraged me to go buy a fieldguide to back yard birds. I have the binox (russian military surplus, natch) and a primo view from my kitchen table.

And the birds I see perched on the lightpoles most days on my way to work? Peregrine falcons. Very cool!

Peregrine falcons on light poles, very cool, sure, great, sitting up there all pretty and shit, wonderful... until you have to get out and change a flat tire.
Then they swoop down and mug ya... carry ya off to their lair, and strip the flesh, your flesh, from your bones to feed their young.

Ever think of that? Betcha didn't did ya? Hah, I thought not. :headshake

I need to get a guide too. My brother can name any bird, by sight or sound, any time. I love birds.

Coming this spring to a computer near you, watch the peregrine falcons nest, pop out babbies, and nurture said babbies at the Boonshoft Museum webcam in Dayton OH.

http://www.boonshoftmuseum.org/index...sk=view&id=249

I bought some Eye-Spy books when I lived in Leicester. Because I wasn't confident that what I so confidently identified was in fact correct.

They were written for children, with very high grade illustrations. We were bought them for journeys/ holidays (they had points you ticked off, making a competition of it) but could easily have been used at home - except that then your parents were assumed to have educated you, as ours did.

The ones I bought originally cost something like 25p and sold for £1.20. Well worth it to realise I knew my trees and birds pretty well though. And let me know the ones I didn't. And to confirm that the ubiquitous trees on my walk into the city were limes. I thought I knew, but wasn't positive. After all I'd seen plenty of roads called Limes Avenues and I don't think I'd ever seen a lime tree in my life!