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Well, not quite like clockwork, because this year one pair of Pied Oystercatchers on Cable Beach laid their first clutch of eggs a bit earlier than normal. This year the first clutch was laid at the end of May and this is the first time we have had eggs laid in May along Cable Beach since 2000. Pied Oystercatchers feeding alone.
En route, the teenagers were chatting away when suddenly I screamed “Eagles!”, Bald Eagles ,” I said encouragingly/defensively/lamely. A half-hour boat cruise around Eastern Egg Rock gave me a glimpse of seabird paradise, then yanked it away. There are boat trips to Eastern Egg Rock, as well as to other small islands.
I have encountered a few of the more quirky members of the family, including the brilliant and aptly-named African Emerald Cuckoo, India’s ultra-shy Sirkeer Malkoha, and the fascinating Lesser Ground Cuckoo in Costa Rica. It reminded me of a Roadrunner, which is, of course, also a member of the cuckoo family.
Booted Eagle by Kostas Papadopoulos The next morning was a lazy one, a late breakfast and even later excursion. Later in the day, roadside birds included a Booted Eagle and a Levant Sparrowhawk. What amazed me is that, instead of the usual 6 or 8 slices, this pizza was cut into tiny, bite-size slices!
Shorebirds – or “shorbs” for the cuteness factor (as if that needed any enhancement) – remain one of the most fascinating families of birds for me. Obliging species like Grey-headed Kingfisher , Long-crested Eagle , and even a pair of Greater Blue-eared Starlings ensured we didn’t get anywhere quickly.
The first eggs were laid in the first week of July, which is the case each year. The eggs take 28 days to hatch and it is then at least 35 days before the chicks are developed enough to fly and there have been problems with predation as in other years. Pied Oystercatcher sitting on eggs in the nudist area of Cable Beach.
White-tailed Eagles normally take flight silently, yet, while checking some Common Starlings and hoping for Rosy Starlings , I heard a few noisy wing-beats, enough to turn and see a young eagle flying with a wing tag. To prove more how young and inexperienced it was, the eagle even landed on the ground a mere 15 metres behind my car.
The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. Another member of the stork family, the African Openbill , looks like it is could benefit from a good orthodontist. Ostriches originated in Asia.
Regardless of the temperatures I got out and about both mornings on my own and in the afternoons with the family. Not the best shot but this Bald Eagle was distantly digiscoped as it circled over Willow Lake. The Snow Geese at Big Egg Marsh were fun to photograph as they landed on the field on Saturday.
There are five families: Stilts & Avocets (Family Recurvirostridae), Oystercatchers (Family Haem), Plovers (Family Charadriidae), Sandpipers and Allies (Family Scolopacidae), and Jacanas (Jacanidae), with Family Scolopacidae representing the bulk of species (as it does worldwide).
If you have always wondered what the minimum anesthetic concentration for isoflurane and sevoflurane for the Crested Serpent-eagle is, science has an answer. While serpent means large snake, the Crested Serpent-eagle also eats frogs, as this video shows. Apparently, if exposed to sunlight, the green of the magpie plumage may turn blue.
Not a great place for a family vacation, though I think Duncan will disagree. Species Accounts are grouped by family, following what appears to be Sibley and Monroe’s 1996 taxonomy. (I The plates show differing plumages as required by the individual families and species. Artwork is by Karen Phillips.
As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. While hoopoes are in their own family, DNA studies suggest that the hoopoe diverged from hornbills, and the wood-hoopoes and scimitarbills from the hoopoe.
I saw two Pitta species at Hongbenghe, both among the slightly less glamourous among the pitta family: The Blue-naped Pitta … … and the closely related Rusty-naped Pitta. The Crested Serpent Eagle is another species bound to suffer from a naming error in perpetuity. “It is not deep enough yet!
Using the icons to locate specific bird families takes a little getting used to, but if you do it often it works well as a finding tool. The topics range from basic concepts like “Molt” to essays on specific species and bird families: “Plunge-Diving Behavior in Seabirds” to “Corvid Intelligence.”
Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh.
The proprietor of our ecolodge guides my small group of birders up a steep slope where we see, just at the point where a scope view deteriorates into pixels, a huge bird—a Chaco Eagle, also known as a Crowned Eagle—on a huge nest. We are cautioned to keep the location of the eagle a secret. Author Joshua Hammer.
Young raptors like the above Bald Eagle chick are a different matter. If you find a young hawk or eagle out of the nest and it is covered in down and is unable to stand on its huge feet, it needs to get back in the nest. Try to get it too another family group or contact a wildlife rehabber.
At mid-life crisis, the mother, Lili, decides to leave her husband (Gabe’s father) and return to take up farming on her family estancia in eastern Uruguay, far from the delights of Montevideo where most of her rambunctious, rollicking family resides, overseen, not always approvingly, by Gabe’s quirky abuela.
Firstly I would like to just do a little update on the Pied Oystercatcher family that were a large part of my life for the last few weeks of 2014. The adult Pied Oystercatchers were still at their non-breeding site at Gantheaume Point and will no doubt lay their first eggs for 2015 in the first week of July.
The species are taxonomically divided into two families: Tytonidae, Barn-Owls, and Strigidae, Owls, encompassed in one order, Strigiformes. When you look at Clements latest taxonomic spreadsheet, you get a sense of the depth of their relationships to each other and the world. This is a great summer read.
ospreys are mostly right-“handed,” and carry their food, while flying, in one foot only, to fight off kleptoparasites like bald eagles with the other), and of detail, as well, of the process involved in taking that particular photograph. Each image is accompanied by a page of prose detail on the bird (e.g.,
Can the whole family live together in harmony during the school holidays? Black Eagle – Ictinaetus malaiensis. Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle – Nisaetus alboniger. Crested Serpent-Eagle – Spilornis cheela. Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle – Hieraaetus ayresii. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh.
Orlando is so rich in roadside and overhead birds that I kept a list of species seen from the car which ran to 30+ on the first morning and included a Bald Eagle nonchalantly sitting on a street lamp by a Target store. Boat-tailed Grackles count eggs and chicks as part of their diet and they were well represented here today.
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