Sigh. It’s been four to six weeks since we had nesting peregrines to watch on the webcams.
Many of us are going through withdrawal, but there’s hope that we won’t have to stop watching yet. There are still a couple of active nests to feed our addiction.
On Friday I got a newsletter from Cornell Lab of Ornithology with a link to their nestcams. Of their six active nests, my favorite is the Chimney Swift in New York state. What a cool C-shaped nest of tiny twigs! Click on the image above to see for yourself.
And if you have another favorite nestcam let us know where it is by leaving a comment.
We have to watch birds on camera!
(Screen capture of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Nestcam home page. Click on the image to go to the site.)
One of my favorites now is the WildEarth.TV site where you cn watch the Hornby Island (Brit.Col. I think) so allow for about 3 hrs. lag time; the one eaglet is over 70 days old, sitting up in a nest next to the cam. site. The chatters said he/she could fledge 10-15 days. Beautiful parents, mates for 27 years. But the site is beautiful. They call the baby Phoenix but it is not known whether male or female yet. They don’t get their white heads until sexual maturity is reached for 5 yrs. approx. But a great site just for the nest. A few times I have been on & one of the actual parents is landing or taking off. Beautiful eagles, good parents, drop off lots of fish. Not a falcon but endangered nonetheless.
My favorite webcam site is View Nesting Birds:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vdziadosz/
There are links to Peregrine Falcons webcams all over North America and Europe plus lots of other species of birds.
Enjoy!
We can soon get out peregrine fix from “down under” ; nesting season starts in August in Australia: http://www.alcoa.com/australia/en/info_page/falcon_webcam.asp
I also miss watching the Peregrins so I have tried to replace it with looking out for Great Blue Heronds early in the morning on the Allegheny River. This is the time of year when you can see young and older Heronds fishing in the river. Most of the time you will see only 1 but, 2 days ago just north of the 40th St. Bridge I saw an adult with two younger Heronds. My rowing partner and I were surpriced to see 3 together. We have never seen that before. It made our day.
The closets nesting area for the Heronds on the Allegheny is on 12 mile iseland up river.
I also watch, with Faith Cornell, the Hornby Eagles webcam….terrific views, awesome education, and great chat… I have learned a lot about eagles, and met a lot of great “chatters” who share a love of all nature. BTW, Phoenix is a boy!
Love your site-so full of great pictures and information. I am originally from Pittsburgh, so have enjoyed the falcon cams. My favorite camera for the last three years has been the Barn Owl Trust site in England. They have wonderful information on the Barn Owl and right now have three growing owlets in the nest. They should soon be attempting to exit the box and that is always fun to observe. The nest box is located in a barn and the early morning color shots from the “Barn Cam” are so beautiful. Once the owlets exit and roost on the tray, you can follow their attempts to fly around the barn. At present the parents usually roost in the barn and only visit the nest to deliver food. Hope you enjoy this nest.
Thanks for info Dotty on sex of Phoenix. Not that it really matters. What is important tho is that he meet up with a miss in five years & live long like his parents.
Thanks for the links everyone and Tap, especially thanks for the heads up on the Barn Owl Trust in England. The site is very informative and the 3 owlets are adorable! Here’s the cam link http://www.thewebbroadcastingcorporation.com/barnowlcam_nestcam.html
Still miss ‘our’ peregrines however, not sure anything can completely take their place!
Glad you are enjoying the barn owls. Because of time difference we get to see more activity at the nest as evening falls. They will soon be trying to leap out that window-not an easy task!
Here’s another favorite barn owl site in a natural setting with younger owlets here in the US.
http://www.starrranch.org/blog/?page_id=2
Another favorite of mine with lots of drama this year-so much so that they did not ring the osprey or place transmitters on them this year to follow their flight to Africa is:
http://www.thewebbroadcastingcorporation.com/swt/swt.php
The two young osprey just fledged yesterday. The scenery and camera work is outstanding.
tap – more thanks… yes, I had heard about Lady the Osprey in Scotland… coming back from near death just to care for her chicks! Such a moving story of a mother’s devotion and of the inexperienced father stepping up to care for his young!
A little like our Green Boy… Tap mentioned the Owl Trust in England… well one of the owlets somehow managed to get out of the box and was accidentally knocked off the perch to the barn floor by one of the parents! Trust employees had to rescue the owlet and have returned it to the nest box safely. And talk about noisy!!! Yikes these owlets have really good voices! They are cute too.
Unfortunately, the eaglet Phoenix in the Hornsby Island nest, passed away. They have retrieved his body from the nest and will be doing a necropsy to determine why he died. It is very sad news to all of us who have been intently following his growth and progress.