Purple Grey (Parrot, That Is)

Went walking on the beach and had to stop to chat to this woman who took not only her dog out for a walk but her African Grey Parrot, in this super-cool little backpack.

The handsome devil was as enthralled with me as I was with him,

and bent down to get a better look at me and my camera as I snapped away.

I know Greys are a handful, having essentially the mentality of a 4-year-old 

 who will outlive you. That's a big commitment, of both your time and patience. 

But how cool would it be to enrich the little guy by taking it out to feel the wind 

and see and hear the surf?

What a Bird Will Do for a French Fry

Have you heard the phrase, "happier than a bird with a french fry?" I've seen many a grackle outside of McDonalds and like establishments, willing to get run over to peck at one or three smashed into the street... and once in awhile have witnessed a lucky bill clamping down on a whole fry, flying gleefully from the scene, with several other birds in hot pursuit. 

 This is a great shot that someone must have taken on some little jaunt out to sea. 

I hereby announce that I am going to try this next time I am on the ferry heading to the Vineyard...

No idea who's photo this is to give proper credit.

Foggy Morning Sea Gulls

I never have a clue what they're really thinking.

Animal Holiday Cheer - Times Ten!

Well, if you want to grin, and have that grow bigger and BIGGER into a huge SMILE, showing ALL your teeth, then turn into a chuckle to boot, press PLAY. This is sure to cheer you up. The fish, parrot, turtles, the ferret, the shark and a few of the dogs and cats -- their voices, the little pranks that creep into this will make anyone who is the least bit stressed or blue cheer up INSTANTLY!!!

PRESS PLAY - AND SHARE THIS LINK ON YOUR WALL to pass all that goodness along.



***There is a second of a squirrel***

Eagle Babies Cam

It's Spring again, and that means babies.... certainly baby birds. There's not much as special as being able to watch them in their nests, which is made possible by technology.

I am watching two adorable fuzzy bald eagles and a very good mom who tucks them under her when the wind blows... And the babies make sweet little chirps back to her.

MUST LOOK. So easy to keep open on one corner of your desktop while you TRY to concentrate on other things...

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

Another Good Day

I stopped by The Center Wednesday in the middle of the day... now that I am working full time, and was packing/moving/unpacking in every spare second for the last 8 weeks, AND have had the absolute worst seasonal allergies ever for months, I have not been able to physically volunteer there. I have been doing other things for them and I do miss being hands on.

But I found a juvenile blue jay floundering in the middle of the road with two cars speeding toward it from opposite directions. I thought someone had hit it or it'd fallen out of a nest or had crashed trying to learn to fly. I leapt out of my car, stopped the traffic, grabbed some cloth from the backseat, slowly approached the bird, and it allowed me to pick it up ever so gently.

The mother was doing all kinds of kaw-ing and fluttering from branch to branch overhead. I did follow her onto someone's lawn and held the baby up to the mother, who definitely turned her head so that one eye could fix on the fledgling. I was hoping the bird would just fly up to mom, after being stunned in the street. It's mouth was wide open, and while there was no blood, it's right foot was crunched up beneath her and her right wing was askew. There was no flying to mom, and mom eventually flew further away, though still sounding distressed. I was thinking, broken wing, and was hoping it didn't mean internal injuries instead. So I put it in my carrier and called work.


My fabulous boss suggested I indeed go ahead and take it to the Center, which fortunately was only about 12 minutes drive (with me speeding a little, of course). I noticed that the bird seemed quite calm, and had shut it's mouth, and was not seeming stressed. That was good. When I dropped the bird off, no sooner was it put on triage row that it suddenly came to life. Both feet and wings seemed to work okay! And it was tapping it's beak against the glass, like let me out. I asked, "Do I take it back then, and set it free?" The answer was no. There could be injuries, it could have been a stroke... better to be there where it could be observed and treated if so, and well fed and protected from predators, leading to being set free in a few weeks anyway. Win/win.

So I went to leave, and one of the volunteers happened to walk by holding this:

A most beautiful bobcat. Look at that foot! I'd never seen a bob cat before, and here this little one was, as sweet and docile as any house kitten. I asked if she snapped or bit or clawed and the answer was no... but we all know someday soon, that will be her nature. In the mean time I did have to reach out to touch it's furry head and take hold of one paw, just because...

I'd read on their website about this one who was brought in by a hiker who said it had followed her around the woods for over an hour, no mom in sight. I thought, darn, I will not be able to see something so extraordinary, because I'm not able to be there as much right now. And lo and behold, I got this little blessing.

Add that to the fact that the blue jay did not meet her end on the hot concrete and has another chance to grow up and live and fly, and it was a damn good day.

It's Baby Bird Time!

Baby birds start out as small as this. The first time I saw one -- with such thin skin you could see all their blood moving through their veins, with eyes undeveloped, and the tiniest little half limbs -- I didn't believe it could possibly eat or live.

But even in such a vulnerable state, that little rim of bright school bus yellow opens wide as soon as food it put near and every morsel delivered is consumed with great vigor. It's flabbergasting, and only reinforces what miracles of nature go on every day, all around us, all the time.

As they grow, the little half-limbs I mention become strong and feathered wings, their eyes mature and finally open, their little legs get strong enough to shoot their growing bodies straight up when I walk by because I MEAN FOOD (and they want it every 15 minutes it seems, except at night, when birds settle in for sleep) and their little yellow beaks open to reveal the brightest pink and red mouths. Here's what I see when I walk by a tank:

Now once the bird gets to a beginning fledgeling, we move them to bigger tanks and put them in a room that's enclosed in netting, as when you open the lid, often a hungry baby now can flit up and out. Here is one who did just that but simply perched close to me on the lid of the tank next to it. Generally speaking, it's often the babies who are most aggressive get the most food in the nest -- though some experienced mothers make sure everyone gets enough. But this little guy kept hopping out to beat out his or her two siblings who stayed in the tank.

Fledgelings add flapping their wings and making much noise, squawking "SEE ME, FEED ME, ME ME ME mom!!!!" Now when I'm out in late springtime I can make out fledgling squawkings. If I take a second or two to look, and indeed I do, I manage to find a nest and a mother nearby.

At some point, that turns into the babies taking their first tentative steps out of the nest, so you may see them actually sitting on a branch next to it, looking all fluffy and even a little like their molting as bigger feathers begin to replace their baby fuzz. Soon they begin flying lessons I think, since I've seen them trying to hop to nearby twigs following the mother who hops ahead of them -- I assume she's showing them how it's done.

I think grackles must be like those kids who never stop going to college, or come home to live after... they look fully grown and still hop after their mothers flapping their perfectly competent wings, insisting loudly that their mother give them half of whatever she's got. The more you observe, them more you realize that animals are really not that much different than us in so many ways!

He Be a Fly Boy

Normally I only post my own movies, pictures and personal experiences, but when someone sent this to me, I thought you all would want to see it.



It's your guess whether or not this bird is groovin' on it's own or there is a trainer who's egging him on. Either way, it's a damn good song.

Lotsa Action on the Hummingbird Cam!!

On my last post I gave a link to a hummingbird cam.... please scroll down to check it out!

Here though, is some true drama that happened yesterday. These are clips of about 2 hours long, so once you press play you can drag the counter to :57. (It's very sensitive so move it a nanometer as it jumps greatly in time otherwise). At that marker, you will see a lizard approach the nest in the rose bush in which it sits. The mother bird, Pheobe, attacks a lizard who comes looking for lunch. By about 1:06 you will see her remove one egg, which apparently is the size of a tic tac. The people watching can chat about this and apparently are thinking it was not viable so the mother removed it or she put it somewhere for safe keeping. I would assume the former.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5495849 or CLICK HERE

Or here where you can watch her building the nest!

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3540265 or CLICK HERE

Every Day a Miracle

OK, if it's daylight where you are (and we now have an extra hour of it, thank you DST), you MUST drop what you're doing right now and go to this link!!! IMMEDIATELY!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Hummingbird-Nest-Cam or CLICK HERE

Ms. Kelly sent this to me and I have been utterly enchanted ever since. You will find a tiny and perfect deep cup of a nest holding at least one tiny egg.... and the mother whizzes off and back with that lawnmower-like buzz that only a hummingbird's wings can make. She quite is beautiful -- ... takes my breath away with her big, dark almond shaped eyes, her delicate, slender blue beak, her iridescent green body, and her red throat.

She pokes at the egg, sits on it, flys off and flies back. Lots of action. The sun is bright wherever this is, at least today it's been. And knowing how small they are, I have no idea how this camera blows them up to fill the entire screen.

Why are you still reading this!! Hurry toward delight!!

This is from the website of the people who film this nest, in their back yard in CA.

Phoebe is a non-migratory Channel Islands Allen's Hummingbird (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen's_Hummingbird). She builds her nests in a rose bush, and the nest is about the size of a golf ball, with eggs being about the size of a tic-tac candy. The season for nesting is October through May/early June, and Phoebe will lay four to five clutches per season. One or two eggs are laid per clutch, they hatch after 17 days, and the chicks typically fly three to four weeks later. Phoebe will sometimes build a new nest, but frequently repairs old nests. For more information, please check out our Frequently Asked Questions (below).

Photo credit: Thank you to

www.flickr.com/photos/richarddumoulin/3558263504/

And while I'm ordering you around, lol, please come back if you can to tell me what you think.

If You Just Want Endless Distraction

So if a Black Bear Cam and a Bald Eagle Cam aren't your cup o' feathers/fur, how about a Peregrine Falcon Cam???

There's a nest box with a camera in it in, of all places, Boise Idaho, atop One Capital Center. Last year two chicks successfully fledged from this very site! Wonder what can happen this year.

I am not going to get much writing done at this rate!!

CLICK HERE to see or go to http://www.peregrinefund.org/falconcam/

We will get back to those three squirrel babies shortly!

Watch the Eagle Cam -- 3 eggs!!!

Thanks once again to commenter Suzanne who has sent me the link to the Sutton Center Eagle Cam. Last time we watched a lone eaglet grow and wait for his mother to fly up to the nest with fish. We watched him eat, and doze and pace the edges of the nest day after day, until he started to flap his wings and test them out. Then one day, he actually flew! So cool to watch!!

Now the patient, majestic bald eagle mother is sitting on THREE eggs and noses them under her with her beak, waiting for them to hatch. Hopefully all three will survive. There is a separate camera that shows how high the nest is, up in a tree. It's right by water so she can go fishing.


CLICK HERE to go to http://www.suttoncenter.org/pages/live_eagle_camera

You can keep the link open on your desktop and work on another server and watch them from the corner of your eye all day!

Marvels and Ingenuity

I've begun to look in trees now that I have raised baby squirrels. I wonder how they possibly survive out in the wind and the rain when they are so little and fragile. I have seen a few squirrels peeking out of a rare cubbyhole in a tree trunk, though they probably had to fight a pileated woodpecker for the real estate. But I learned that squirrels usually make a nest (called a drey) of leaves and twigs positioned between two sturdy branches... high enough to be safe from predators but not so high that they will fall victim to high winds, pelting rain and such. The nests are lined with soft things like feathers and moss. I would love to see one up close someday, or find a film of babies nursing from their mother in the nest. Having fed them myself, and watched them sleep and grow, I have wondered many times how it occurs in the wild.

Back to nests---

I thought this was a squirrel nest when I took it... though it's pretty big. This is what it looks like from the ground:

Then closer:

And closer.


This looks so big that it may be some kind of larger bird's nest. It's a marvel in any case... how is it balancing? While it may be in the fork of two branches, it's extended so far out into space, so far from the trunk of the tree. Considering whatever made this has to carry the materials in their mouth or beak, to get something this big had to be made of many many small deposits of found stuff. How does that first little pile of leaves or twigs stay in place while the critter scurries or flies to find more?

Do any of you know? Have you seen a nest being built by any species? Any related stories or tidbits on the topic? Oh please, do tell!

Really!

One morning I was at the zoo and I actually caught an early bird getting a worm (and if you look closely you'll see her snatch a little insect or something as an appetizer just before digging for larger fare).

Looks like a Robin Red Breast to me, though I am not a birder. Anyone know if I'm right or wrong on that one?

Mr. Personality

I have mentioned someone who I volunteer with at the Rehab Center that we affectionately call Uncle Bill. Not because he is like an uncle to us... no, to the animals he cares for.

I adore Bill myself. Just took an instant liking to him. He comes in and works hard... took on the outside stalls called mews where we keep all the little ducklings that come in, the songbirds that are transitioning from fledgelings to adulthood, gulls, herons, geese, etc... and further back in the yard there are a few fenced in pens, that can have anything from the baby goat and little pigs to alligators. Uncle Bill cares for them all no matter how scorching it is, no matter that he is sloshed in duck poop and slimy fishy water. He takes his time and he is gentle with the animals. We are not to treat them as pets, so as not to imprint them to humans... but Bill spends time with each animal as he goes about his chores. He delights in them -- as many are quite amusing... like this black crown heron that he named Mr. Personality. There are 5 in this pen, but you'll know which one he is.




Before I knew of this name, I had gone in to help clean up the fish they'd had for lunch, and had no idea why that one was going on. I mean, I heard him going on while I attended to the ducks in the pen close to this, so he's not reacting to a person in the pen. At some point I thought to myself, maybe he fell or flew into a window to get to us, and he has suffered some kind of brain damage, lol.

We figure the other ones have no idea what he's going on about, and possibly want him to just STOP. The poor guy to the left is not related to him, but they came in together. We figure he just thinks: "Somehow I got stuck with wacko over here."

If you view it again, U.B. also named the three who stand regally at the top left as the Three Magi's because they stand so stoically, looking upon it all. I think the names are perfect.

What a crack up animals can be. Have you ever seen a black crown heron? And why, I wonder, aren't they black?

Bits and Pieces

BUSY LITTLE HANDS:
A little video I forgot I shot -- oh these little digital snap cameras with their mini movie capability. When I zoom in it takes it's time to focus and makes a strange noise at times. But I get the shot -- there are countless numbers of antics going on every day that I don't catch. I can hardly post the ones I do, so filming quality gets pushed even further down the list...

That said, I still hope to brighten your day. I am finding lately that when I give a squirrel a hard nut, like an almond, 3/4 of the time they bury it. When I give them something soft like a pecan or a walnut, they stay close and chomp it, keeping their eye on me, hoping for another as soon as they can chew it up.

I did catch a little one hopping around to find a spot, digging, pushing the nut in with his mouth and doing a very hearty job of packing down the soil, with one last whiff to either be sure where it is, or maybe be sure no other squirrel could detect it and steal it away....

BIRD UPDATES:
Also -- a vulture update. I told the story of the baby black vulture HERE. Last week I learned he'd gotten so big he was transferred to a big boy cage. Another woman was taking a quick pic so I joined her and did the same. This is for the Grilzzled

Scribe in particular.

In other news, the Chimney Swifts I guess got big enough to be returned to the wild. I have not yet found out how that happens... but I am so glad I got the pictures I did. Don't know when I will come across those again.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN:

And I have gotten my sub-contracting license that allowed me to take home a very sick baby squirrel who came in to the Center Thursday near closing. I had just managed to get a cc of lactated ringer’s solution down him (the fluids that they give for dehydration) and asked who was going to take him home for the evening feedings. The answer was -- you are!

I drove home probably with more care than I have in years, as I had very precious cargo. I am happy to say that he has gotten stronger with each passing day, and watching his progress on an hourly basis, for several days has been an amazing and most rewarding experience. I got him at 55 grams and unable to eat and now he's 73 grams, and quite a joyful eater. I hope to raise him just until his eyes open. Then I feel I can turn him back over with confidence that he will live.

He completely cracks me up, as he conks out in the craziest positions. I will do a little photo post of some of them in the next little while. Until then, here's the little munchkin. I swear these little guys just KILL me! Click on it to see it bigger. Those feet! So CUTE!

We're coming into baby squirrel season so I will have a lot more to feed when I go in to the Center. I just hope nothing happens like last year, where we were struggling to feed over 1200 of these due to Hurricaine Ike. Are you a fan of squirrels?

Every Day, Something New

After a fair amount of experience feeding baby birds, I was asked to go to the area what we move them to once they become fledglings and clean and feed those in there. It turned out to be a most enjoyable task. There were only about a dozen tanks in there, filled with birds unfamiliar to me, save the few Blue Jays. The last one on the end held a group of half a dozen soft ash-y black birds, who were making the biggest racket!

I opened the top of the tank and was greeted by an unusual sight: Instead of perching on a branch or standing on the ground, these guys were vertically clutching on to fabric that had been placed along the left side of the tank wall. Their chirps swelled to a crazy cacophony and their mouths opened as they vied for position when I came at them with their soaked science diet cat food on my fake mother's beak -- the kind of scissor handled tweezers I've mentioned in previous posts.


As soon as I was done with this feeding on the end, it was time to replenish my coffers and start a second feeding on those in the first tank. By the time I got to the Chimney Swifts again, one who'd been stuck lower down last time flew forward and attached himself to the pocket of my apron, much like a woodpecker would, where he apparently felt nice and comfy because he was very well behaved.

When I came at him with the food he began flapping his wings to get "Mama's"attention... but otherwise, he sat very patiently and in truth it made it much easier to feed him and the others in the tank.
Just adorable these little beings! Maybe not when they are squawking in your chimney. But when not being fed, you might never know they're there.

These little guys are the color they are to obviously blend in with their environment of choice... the smoky ash-encrusted inside of your chimney. They obviously breed at a time of year when there are no fires burning, and this explains why they grip upright. Yes, they make some noise but they are there for such a short time. And they do you the favor of catching thousands of pesky-to-humans insects.

They used to build in hollow trees but they now choose chimneys due to loss of habitat... and with all the new gas fireplaces, that alternative is also dwindling. If you have any in your chimney, please think twice before you hire someone to shoo them out. They usually just remove the nests and discard these helpless babies! Oh no, that just won't do!

If you click HERE, you can read more about that. Among other useful info it says: "Chimney Swifts are protected by Federal Law under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act." and if you hire a company to clean your chimney, you need to find a reputable company whose policy it is to protect the little dears.

I am very curious to know if any of you have ever had or seen them before.

A Vulture Is Born

As promised, and especially for my friend the Grizzled Scribe of Riverdaze, here is the story of the little vulture I've had the chance to care for at the Center.

Three weeks ago a man's doggie brought him something in his mouth, which he was holding very gently. The man was quite surprised to see an unusually large egg -- cream colored with a few spots -- and something was trying to poke it's way out! He rushed it to his vet, a vet who happened to know one of the women who runs the Rehab Center I volunteer for. The kindly vet dropped the egg off at the rehab woman's home. At this point, all she could see was a little beak through the cracks in the shell.

Well, the baby bird spent an exhausting night trying to get out, which was accomplished by 5 AM. What a night that must have been! While the Rehabber discerned by the color of the egg and it's markings that it was a ground nesting bird, she was delighted and surprised to discover the wet little chick that appeared was a baby black vulture. Cute as could be! She brought it in and we've been feeding it rat pups in spades, which he gobbles up with great glee!

Thanks to a long line of caring humans, not to mention one remarkable dog, this little life was protected and now he's thriving.

Here is a top view... he's dozing as it's early in the morning. But once he's up, he's literally bright eyed, eager and just plain adorable.

And yes, his "nest" is a little soiled... 'Twas first thing in the morning and I was opening the top precisely so I could clean it out for him when I snapped this picture. It was squeaky clean moments after, as I am a good housekeeper, if not for myself, for these little animals we care for. When he's awake, he sits up and is very attentive, following our every movements with his eyes. And he's quite responsive -- when I open the tank, all he wants is FOOD FOOD FOOD! I took this on Sunday and when I was back in on Tuesday it seemed he'd grown a third more.

What I think is funny is the little guy in the tank next to him, who appears as a ghostly (if not a little startled) apparition in the window!

I always think of a vulture as big, black menacing, not so pretty bird. They look more like a pet of the Adams Family that this little one. Who knew they started out in life to be so fuzzy, sweet and cute?

Bye Bye Birdie

Since Spring hit, more and more when I go into the center, this is what I see: A big healthy pink mouth opening wide, as if I were mama. About 200 of them, on any given day....

I can't believe that before 2 years ago, I'd never even seen a baby bird before, even a bird nesting in a tree, or babies in that nest, and now I'm FEEDING baby birds of all size and species --all the time. Some eat about every 20 minutes!

We feed them Science Diet cat food, which come in perfect sized pellets, soaked in water to make them the right consistency. It's packed with nutrients. The tiniest babies can swallow them whole, though I do break them apart and make sure to swish them between my fingers so it's more like what their mother might bring. Depending on the species, we may also feed them bits of berries and/or crickets (some with legs, some without), and meal worms. All of these are extended via a kind of tweezer that replicates a mother's beak, which we sterilized between uses per bird.

Here's a peek at tiny new born chick and two different sized mourning doves that someone brought in. I was transferring them from Triage to a nice, warm "nest" in tanks holding others of their own kind. Once settled, I'd start their feedings.

This was the first time I'd ever seen this sight, so I took a split second movie of it for my own memories. My camera could not focus when I zoomed in on the pinkie.... BTW, that is a healthy newborn -- a believe it's a Starling. At first glance I thought, oh no, this one does not look too good. He is a little more purple due a bruise from falling out of it's nest. But when I went to feed him his head leapt up, little yellow mouth popped open wide and he eagerly gulped down the morsel I offered. And the second and the third! Within a week he had beginning feathers and was strong as an ox. In another week, he was standing on the edge of the fabric stuffed tupperware cup that had been his nest fighting to get food before the others. A week later, he was testing his wings within the tank.



There are many mourning doves in a long row of tanks and those need to be tube fed with a liquid mixture that resembles more how their own mothers feed them. I'd describe it better, but you might be checking this over lunch or with your first cup of coffee and, well, it's better left in these terms.

When the birds are ready, they get transferred to the mews we have just outside, where we have propped branches and put in a bird bath. There they have lots of company and can get used to short flight and fresh air and community. After that, they go to a rehabbers home, where there is the acreage to build a flight cage. They can catch insects and hunt on the ground for food, learning from the other birds. It's the last step before the birds are released and fly free to enjoy the lives that were saved by these Centers, and go on to have babies of their own.

Name that Colorado Bird

Here's a little taste of the many visitors we had at the cabin in Colorado. I was amazed as we were only there about 4 days, and are not there for months. If you put out seed, how do birds suddenly see that food source and start coming daily? I thought it would take a while, but there they were.

We do have a metal fire pit on the porch and it was filled with water and a few rocks to keep it held down and when we arrived the mountain birds were in it, using it as a birdbath and water fountain, though there is a small lake just at the end of our long drivewat -- but it is about 20 acres away. Maybe that gave us a leg up.

When I get back I will post some mini-movies I took of these guys and more. Until then, can you identify what kind of birds they are? If you click each photo, it should enlarge for you and give you more detail.

Number One: Plump and tame.


Number Two: Orange breast


Number Three: Brilliant Blue and aggressive with a chipmunk


Number Four: Red head

Number Five: Yellow Orange but look at the shape of his beak (with sunflower seed in it!)