Bird Cams Around the World

Oh Jazzel I cant wait! and yes im sure I will learn tons more.my neice told me that I would be taught what their mannerisms are if they are nesting on eggs and how they will act and then I will have to determine which ones are doing that and record the data.Some places i will need a scope some i will be able to see into the nests from certain vantage points.But the man doing it has always done it alone and he needs help.Last spring he asked if Id be interested in volunteering my time to help him on this big mission and i said "for sure!"
I plan to make the call today and hopefully go scout out some nests this weekend.Fun!

Migration up date from Rob

"I've just finished updating the maps and narratives for Mr. Hannah's 3,793 mile trip from the Jurua River in Brazil to Nantucket. http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm
On the Westport River in southern MA, Hudson and his mate already have eggs, apparently. The experienced pairs waste no time getting down to business!
Looks like we lost another bird at a fish farm. Ozzie, one of the Westport birds, started fishing at what I assume to be a fish farm west of his main wintering area near Cienfuegos, Cuba. He made it about a month and then dropped off the radar screen.
Buck, our SC youngster from last year, has settled down on the shores of Lake Maracaibo. He'll be there for another year before his first trip home.
On the real good news front, Penelope, our Vineyard youngster from the class of '08 is heading home. I haven't gotten to her maps yet.
In about a month I'm heading up to RI and MA to tag some more adults. We'll put Katy's transmitter on a male on Jamestown, RI, and Hix's on a male on the Westport River. (Both these were recovered from young killed by Great-horned Owls last fall.) Additionally, we hope to retrap Hudson and move his transmitter to a new bird, and I'll put a new transmitter on a bird on Nantucket.
We got Meadow's transmitter back from the D.R. (a year after she was shot). That will go on a Vineyard youngster, as will Bea's transmitter if the guy who has it in Venezuela will ever send it to us! We'll also put a transmitter on a young bird on Long Island this year. That will close out our project of tagging young Ospreys.
And while you're waiting for the next Osprey update, you can watch a Barred Owl nest with 3 just hatched chicks here in Charlotte. Cornell's NestCam program is streaming a live, color, with sound! stream from the nest box: http://watch.birds.cornell.edu/nestcams ... ID=C100192
The young are tiny now, but in a week or so, there will be some pretty neat stuff going on in the box."

Enjoy,

--
Rob Bierregaard
Biology Dept.
UNC-Charlotte


JAZZEL

Migration update...just in from Rob Go Penelope, go girl


"Penelope has begun her first trip home from French Guiana and is providing some interesting insights into how these birds find their way around the world on the first attempt. She is about to, or may already have begun the crossing of the Caribbean. Next data download is tomorrow."


JAZZEL

This is wonderful her first return trip this is very exciting can't wait for an update

Rob has a great photo of "HUDSON" back on his nest with his mate. It's at the end of Hudson's migration page.

DIRECT LINK TO HUDSON'S MIGRATION PAGE



JAZZEL

Now isn't that a wonderful sight?

Rob updated Penelope

"Sorry for the long delay in updating maps. Thing is, Penelope hasn't been doing anything--other than making me nervous, but I think that has to do with her transmitter being a bit old (another bird wore it for a migration), so we don't get as many locations as we do from the newer transmitters. That, along with a couple of absent-minded mistakes in downloading the data, have had me convinced a couple of times that we'd lost her. But, she seems to be doing fine, she's just not moving. She's settled down in a giant expanse of mangroves on the Gulf of Paria (NE Venezuelan coast, facing Trinidad). Been there 2 weeks. Details: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm

The owl nestcam is really good now. The 3 young are really active. From now on, instead of "more fun that a barrel of monkeys" I'm going with "more fun than a box-full of baby owls."
http://watch.birds.cornell.edu/nestcams ... ID=C100192

--
Rob Bierregaard"


JAZZEL

NEW UPDATE FROM ROB

"Good news! Penelope has crossed the Caribbean: http://bit.ly/cotYOw
Now we just have to hope she doesnt' linger in the D.R or Cuba.

I forgot to mention in my last email that Alan Poole and Becky Cushing successfully trapped Hudson and removed the transmitter from him. There was no need to ask him to carry it around any more, so we're going to put that transmitter on a new male on the Westport River and put the transmitter we got back from Hix up in Maine last fall on another new Westport River bird. This is on the schedule for next week. Also, I'll be putting Katy's old transmitter on a Rhode Island adult and then heading over to Nantucket to tag a new bird there and, if all goes well, move the transmitter from Mr. Hannah to a new bird. It will be a busy week!"


JAZZEL

Rob's migration and tagging update

"Greetings,
I know when I've been away from the maps too long when I start to get emails asking where one of the birds is. Penelope has pitched camp for a while in northeastern Hispaniola (the D.R. side). Given our poor history of birds surviving in the D.R., we hope she gets a move on soon. Next "text message" from her with her GPS data will be on the 10th.
I've just finished the spring trapping run through southeastern New England. I tagged an adult male on Conanicut Island (Jamestown), R.I. When we took this bird out of the trap, we saw that he was banded. Checking the Bird Bandling Lab records, we learned that "Neal" (he was trapped on the Neale family farm), was banded as a youngster in 2006, somewhere in Rhode Island. (I'll get the details later). This transmitter was the one we put on Katy, a Jamestown fledgling, last year. We recovered her transmitter in Delaware, where she was probably killed by a Great-horned Owl.
I then moved up the coast to the Westport River, where I redeployed Hix's transmitter on an adult male on the east branch of the Westport. His nest is near Gunning Island, so we've dubbed him "Gunny."
Later that afternoon, I put Hudson's transmitter on an adult male nesting up the west branch of the Westport. This bird has been named Sandford. His nest was near the Sandford flats, and this is a name with deep roots in the area.
The next morning it was an 07:00 flight to Nantucket to outfit a new bird with a transmitter. We couldn't catch the bird we wanted, so we moved on to Plan B and caught a male at the nest neighboring Mr. Hannah's. This bird, named "Sr. Bones" (I love it) by Nantucket's 1st grade, was banded by Bob Kennedy back in 2005. Sr. Bones was born only 4 miles from where he is now nesting.
We tried to retrap Mr. Hannah to remove his transmitter, but he was wise to our tricks! He saw the trap we used to catch him a year ago and opted out of messing with us again.
There are 4 eggs in his nest, which tells us that the fishing has been good so far this spring. I was particularly unimpressed with nest construction by the Hannah family. There was hardly any depression at all. Usually at this stage of the process there is a cup in the middle of the nest where the eggs nestle. It's usually lined with grass or seaweed and helps shelter the eggs. As they season progresses, the nest becomes completely flat.
I'll work on new maps next week--26 finals and term papers to grade first!"



JAZZEL

UPDATE FROM ROB

"Good news from Map Central. Penelope is in South Carolina (at least). I've updated her maps and begun working on the 2010 Migration page: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm

My trip to New England last week was pretty successful. We tagged a new adult male (Neale) in Rhode Island. This bird is a 4-yr old banded as a nestling on Block Island. On the Westport, we put Hudson's transmitter on a new male, named Sanford, and put Hix's recovered transmitter on an east-branch male, Gunny. Over on Nantucket, Bob Kennedy and I were unable to retrap Mr. Hannah, so he gets to wear the transmitter for another year. We were able to catch his neighbor, "Sr. Bones" (named by Nantucket's 1st graders-best Osprey name ever!).

No new maps for the newbies yet, but Penelope is up to date and I finally put the last few maps up for Ozzie, whose freeloading at a Cuban fish farm proved fatal."

JAZZEL

Jazzel
you always seem to know when I need a good pick me up
Thanks for the updates

The latest migration update from ROB

"Penelope is in northern New Jersey. Once again she has made a turn in a surprising direction, turning inland from New Jersey's Atlantic coast, just when it looked like she was really homing in on her final destination.
She moved quickly up the east coast and is only a day or two short of arriving home on Martha's Vineyard. But she seems to have hit the pause button on migration again. So close....!
All the other birds are fine. Buck has definitely settled down in Venezuela. Hopefully, a year from now we'll be watching his homeward bound journey.
Our adult males, Neale, Sanford, Gunny, Mr. Hannah, and Sr. Bones, are all busy catching fish to feed their females as they incubate.
The only new maps on the website are Penelope's."
As usual: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm


JAZZEL
--

Update yesterday from Rob, you'll have to do your homework on this one

"Just finished a marathon session getting everyone's maps updated.
Penelope is in New England. She got to the Westport River Osprey colony, where she could see the Vineyard, but decided to head up to the Berkshires instead of going home!
Buck is hunkered down in Venezuela.
Hudson (no longer wearing a transmitter) lost his mate and eggs to mysterious causes, but already has a replacement!
Gunny's nest on the East Branch of the Westport has failed. Mr. Hannah may also have lost his brood. Both the Vineyard and the Westport colonies have bumper crops of adults, and overall it looks to be a good year for production on the Westport, despite the loss of Gunny's nest.
As usual when I set up all the maps for a bunch of new birds, there are likely to be links that don't work or are just missing. Not to mention typos and editing to the narratives. Please let me know if you see anything that needs a fix--large or small."

As usual: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm

JAZZEL

Rob's latest migration update. Penelope's maps are, to me, amazing!! She's the first young female Rob has tagged, as far as I know, to complete migration.

For those of us on the east coast are staying inside out of the heat, here are a bunch of new maps for all the birds except Buck, who is doing not much of anything down in Venezuela.

http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm

The other birds are providing lots of interesting movement. Penelope continues to rack up frequent flier miles covering much of New England.

Gunny and Sanford (our Westport River males) have very different approaches to life after their nests failed. Both birds are on Gunny's map page.

Over on Nantucket, where we also lost both nests, the two males--Mr. Hannah and Sr. Bones--have VERY different post-failure behavior. Mr. Hannah's really not doing much of anything, but Sr. Bones is all over the place--definitely worth checking out his maps.

In Rhode Island, Neale has a couple of favorite fishing holes, mostly across bay in the Newport area.

Stay cool,

--
Rob Bierregaard
Biology Dept.
UNC-Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte NC 28223


JAZZEL

Rob's migration update today.....Not up to date with LOL

Greetings,
Penelope continues to explore New England. Still hasn't been to Maine or Vermont, yet, but Maine, at least is certainly likely to be visited. She has a bunch of new maps at the site.
All the other birds are pretty sedentary. Only Neale is still feeding young, so he's moving more than the Westport River birds (whose nests failed). Sr. Bones has not made any new off-Nantucket trips for a while.

As usual: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm

Here's a cool story about a 25 year old Osprey that has done more than her share to keep the Osprey population in Scotland growing.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/female ... hicks.html

I'm off next week to tag three young Ospreys--1 in DE, one on the Vineyard, and 1 on Long Island.


--
Rob Bierregaard



JAZZEL

Rob's tagging/migration update....from 8/7....very interesting I'm a little behind on posts But, better late than never...

Lots of news to report!

During the tail end of July and beginning of August I headed northeast to tag 3 birds. The original plan was to tag 3 juveniles, but as it turned out we tagged 2 young and one adult male (on Long Island). One of the young was at the Cape Henlopen State Park nest that has a nest cam. For a while you can catch "Thatch" on the nest and see what a bird with a transmitter looks like: http://www.friendsofcapehenlopen.org/ The camera is a bit sporadic and the bird isn't on the nest all that much, so it's pretty much hit or miss.
On Martha's Vineyard, we put Meadow's transmitter on one of her sisters (I think), Belle, at Lake Tashmoo.
On Long Island we trapped an adult male who, it turns out, was an apparently unmated vagabond who decided to steal the fish we had under the noose carpet at our target nest. Wildlife biology is never short of surprises. DIdn't figure this out until the first data came in.
Among the old birds, only Penelope is doing anything interesting. She FINALLY made it home for a cameo appearance on Martha's Vineyard. She was there about a day and a half, visiting one of the ponds where she learned to fish, and then high-tailed it back up to the Merrimack in New Hampshire. If she makes it through another migration cycle, my money is on her nesting up there.
As always: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Bierregaard/migration10.htm
Please let me know if you find any links that don't work or typos or grammar that needs to be fixed.

Enjoy, and stay cool,

--
Rob Bierregaard


JAZZEL