Barn Owl Update

[drz]

Besides enjoying the live feeds on the internet I have enjoyed watching the mama duck sitting on her eggs in window well in another part of our building. The diamond doves in the aviary in the nursing home section have also hatched two babies this spring. So have some of the finches. The babies all seem to grow up so fast but the busy parents seem to deserve awards for their diligence and non stop efforts to keep the babies feed.

I am still waiting for the humming birds to show up at my feeders. The house finches like the grape jelly but no orioles yet? the egrets and geese are also busy on their nests at near by park. Spring bird watching is great time.

[annekat]

Every time I look at the barn owls, I seem to see fewer of them. Today I've only seen three. There could be some small ones hiding behind or under the big ones, but I have a hunch at least one or two of them have been killed off. A couple days ago I saw what could have been the remains of one, though it could have been some other bird. But other than that, the visible surviving ones are huge and looking healthy!

[drz]

Every time I look at the barn owls, I seem to see fewer of them. Today I've only seen three. There could be some small ones hiding behind or under the big ones, but I have a hunch at least one or two of them have been killed off. A couple days ago I saw what could have been the remains of one, though it could have been some other bird. But other than that, the visible surviving ones are huge and looking healthy!

It is probably a good thing that we don't witness the fratricide when this happens. i hate thinking about the stats that most likely one or two of the baby eagles also won't survive to adulthood due to predators or death from falling out of nest when they start jockeying for position before they can fly. But then we have seen the eagles feasting on what seemed to be a small heron like bird. I prefer to see them eating the trout instead. i wonder how far they fly searching for food.

[pberggren1]

When we lived at the farm we had orioles....very nice birds. And we had some finches as well and some robins and many other birds. I am not sure if we had cardinals though.

[Al]

It is probably a good thing that we don't witness the fratricide when this happens. i hate thinking about the stats that most likely one or two of the baby eagles also won't survive to adulthood due to predators or death from falling out of nest when they start jockeying for position before they can fly. But then we have seen the eagles feasting on what seemed to be a small heron like bird. I prefer to see them eating the trout instead. i wonder how far they fly searching for food.

It is rare that eagles kill other birds--they are not all that nimble on the wing, and too heavy to raid nests. They do have talons, but they are better scavengers than hunters. Fratricide is common among birds, as the competition for parent-delivered food is ferocious. I, too, am glad that is is unusual to witness this directly; it offends my human sensitivities. But there you go: Who asked me...?

Al

[Sangye]

Al, I've seen a lot of bird corpses in the eagle nest. Mostly babies, I think.

[drz]

Al, I've seen a lot of bird corpses in the eagle nest. Mostly babies, I think.

Eagles could and do take baby birds that aren't so nimble and able to evade them. I much rather see them take fish but dead fish are harder to find. Sometimes they can steal one from an osprey which are more adept fisherbirds.

[drz]

A 3 1/2 time video of robin family from eggs to empty nest.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_...F&fullscreen=1

[Al]

Al, I've seen a lot of bird corpses in the eagle nest. Mostly babies, I think.

It does happen. Mostly, I think, with birds that are large enough so have substantial nests, but not so large as to be a threat to the eagle. A smarter bird might figure a way to shake the baby birds out of their nest before they can fly. I one saw an eagle give chase to a robin-size bird, but was no match in maneuverability. Locally, the main victims of eagle predation seem to be rabbits (and, of course, salmon) but there are several farms that keep sheep. They have to watch carefully during lambing season.

Al

[Sangye]

This morning the baby eagles gave me a fright. One was laying on its side with its leg stretched out for quite awhile. It flapped its wing and generally looked like the leg was broken or something. One of its siblings came over and put some nesting materials on top of the leg. After a few minutes, I noticed one of the other babies was laying in the same position. Then it got up on its feet-- the first time I'd seen it stand fully upright like an adult. It shot one of those high-velocity horizontal poops out of the nest, which cracks me up every time I see it.

After I continued watching, I realized they're stretching their legs out to strengthen them so they can stand. Duh! I'm a first-time bald eagle mom, so I guess it's natural to panic.