Hancock Wildlife Channel

Flying with the Fastest Birds on the Planet

richardpitt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:49:35 -0800

Some of you may already know this, but some may not. Back quite a while ago, David Hancock raised falcons and in fact was instrumental in re-populating some of the areas in Eastern North America with birds captured here in the West.

In fact, two of his birds were presented to Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth, with David personally handing one to the Queen.

Here is a wonderful video showing what can be done with tiny cameras - and showing just how incredibly fast these birds are. Enjoy

Reward offered for Eagle Feather thief

terrytvgal — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:54:36 -0800

Source: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9920246

March 6, 2010

(Photo: Southwest Wildlife Foundation)

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Humane Society of the United States has put up a $2,500 reward to help find the person who plucked out an injured golden eagle's tail feathers after it survived being hit by a car in Utah.

According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, a car struck the golden eagle on Highway 50 near Salina on Feb. 27. After the crash, someone plucked out the bird's tail feathers with pliers, possibly causing permanent damage.

The eagle suffered additional bumps, cuts and bruises from the initial crash and is currently in the care of the Southwest Wildlife Foundation in Cedar City.

Workers at the wildlife center will try to rehabilitate the bird but say it's unclear if its tail feathers will grow back and whether it can be released to the wild.

The golden eagle is a protected species, and the person responsible for the attack could face up to a year in prison and fines of up to $100,000.

Anyone with any information should call the Division of Wildlife Resources poaching line at 1-800-662-3337.

To Lay or Not to Lay -- is that an Imperative?

davidh — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:33:42 -0800

What can Stop an Eagle Laying?.

Interesting question. The process of laying an egg is not without some considerable preparation on the part of the female. Probably some months -- maybe a few weeks in eagles -- the body begins to prepare for the egg. The pair bonding, the hollering, the courtship flights, the intimate moments including frequent mating, has already stimulated the flow of hormones and started the process by which the ovary starts to develop minute eggs into full sized yolks that will erupt the body.

So for a few months the development is within the ovary but there are simultaneous changes taking place in the oviduct. It is growing the different areas where the protein and.....

...... shell layers will be secreted from. Then when the moment is right the ova bursts out of the ovary into the body cavity and is hopefully caught up by the enveloping infundibulum and transported downward into the oviduct.

Now in this total process where is the "disruption" of the cycle about to take place? Is something going to interfer with the female's development to stop the ova development before it is shed into the body cavity? If so then the various ova that are in the ovary will simply be re-absorbed and the ova reduced in size. That will probably result in no further breeding opportunity that season for that eagle. Some very prolific smaller birds, even after being sufficiently shocked to cause the above absorption, might have time to re-start the whole process. Not likely in eagles!

If on the other hand if a sufficiently harsh disruption occurs during the transport of the fertilized yolk down the oviduct, I believe there can be re-absorption but more likely there will be an abortion -- the delivery of an imperfect egg. I have seen distressed birds, not an eagle, produce eggs without shells, without the white albumen etc. Sometimes we get distressed birds that produce only tiny eggs, miscolored eggs or even misshapen eggs.

If the disruption happens when the egg is nearly at term or the disruption is not necessarily terribly great, yet the bird is not able to lay the egg in the nest, then the bird may simply lay the egg somewhere else. We have two pairs of geese that lay here each year but the dominant pair doesn't tolerate the second pair very much. The result, since the second pair always want to hot-nest, that is drop their eggs in the same nest as the first pair used but only the day after the first pair leave, the second pair have to wait for that first goose to leave with the goslings. Some years we find a "first egg and sometimes the second" lying around the pond or in the fields. The second goose could not hold the eggs so dropped them nearby. As soon as the first hen left the second finished her clutch in the nest.

It is possible an eagle could "not have the nest ready" or it "not be satisfactory" and she could drop the egg elsewhere. The same might happen if a nest was disturbed and considered unsafe by the female between laying the first egg and being ready to drop the second egg three days later.

Lots of options -- re-absorption before ovulation, absorption during passage down the oviduct or dumping of the egg. It often seems that success is so much less likely than failure. Let's face it. Birds have been practicing this routine for millions of years, even the bald eagle has been around over 100,000 years and the end result is that they have evolved a working system. Wouldn't it be nice to think we humans could be that well adapted. I doubt our few thousands of generations have had time to so effectively evolve solutions. We can't even evolve how not to soil our own nest! Sorry about that -- i'ts hard not to get upset when talking about humans. Eagle are so much more relaxing.

David Hancock

Dedicated Viewers Witness the first Sidney Egg being Laid

terrytvgal — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:42:00 -0800

The light was all but gone at the Sidney, BC bald eagle’s nest at 6:38 PM Thursday, March 4^th 2010. It was inconvenient but it didn’t stop many Hancock Wildlife Foundation members from staring at their computer monitors in anticipation.

By 3:00 PM Ma Sidney’s behaviour had begun to hint that an egg could be laid soon. As they watched, viewers wrote notes and posted screen captures documenting what they were seeing to the discussion forum for the Sidney bald eagle nest on the HWF website.

“14:52 Ma and Pa back on nest one after the other. No food seen. They're both picking at the nest, digging around beside the bowl.”

”14:54 Ma just chest-planted in the bowl. Both looking around now. A bit of beaking, then more picking at nest materials.”

When she left the nest at about 4:50 PM hopes began to fade. About an hour later Ma was back in the nest and things seemed to be getting serious.

“6:07
Ma sitting in nest bowl and getting up to dig”

6:30PM
”Ma's making a lot of funny little moves.”

“6:35PM

hi Rose and everyone, yes, many funny moves, like from one foot to the other, over and over. talons crossed for egg by am”

“7:00PM

Soaringeagle, I saw the white object at 6:36.....close enough to your 6:35”

Then came the screen capture… mark your calendars, folks, a chick should hatch on the Sidney, BC eagle’s nest on or about April 9, 2010.

First Egg at Sidney Bald Eagle Nest - On CAM

davidh — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:39:40 -0800

What a week in the life of HWF:

A "First Egg at Sidney" and a "New Executive Director"

A big week for the Hancock Wildlife Foundation!

I must speak to Sidney Ma & Pa -- we always count on them being precise. Delaying laying this year by 3 days from last year is just not the preciseness we count on! ((Officially the first egg will be recorded at 6:38PM March 4, 2010))

But let's rejoice in "An egg at last". Let's hope two more follow. There is data that many species can adjust the quantity, and certainly the schedule, of eggs laid. Will this mean that since the Sidney pair have done so well the past few years that they will rest this year? I doubt. Two or three young seems to be the Sidney production. And more importantly, the Sidney environment is very productive. The shoreline, the fields and the road kills keep generating volumes of food.

What sets the egg laying date?

The timing is of course quite variable ....

The timing is of course quite variable ....in some species, generally locally determined by weather or particularly weather that migrant birds are subject to just before arriving at the nest territory. Do they get delayed by cold fronts, frozen lakes, no insects?   Of course our eagles have been on the breeding territory for some months and are perhaps more keyed into the preciseness of the light cycle than to weather. The length of daylight drives their biological clock. Hence, our eagles generally lay their eggs in the same week every year. If not so, this is a very good clue to the possibility of one of the pair being new.

Each individual can have a different but consistent biological clock. The pair bonding, with a lot of mutual behaviors, is designed to bring the pair into a common cycle. But as we have seen, neighboring pairs can be a month apart in their laying the first egg.

The bonding process is directed to bringing both members of the pair in synchronization. The building of the nest, the territory calls and defense and ultimately the matings need to drive that egg from the oviduct at the right time for fertilization, for laying and incubating during reasonable weather, for hatching when food is available to feed the voracious appetites of young, and to fledge the young when they can reach the easy-to-catch dying salmon.

I have not seen any evidence that our Sidney pair has changed one of the partners this season but many of you will have had more intense viewing than I. And of course, this season being almost, within 3 days of last year, the same timing really confirms this. I joke about their imprecision. But 3 days out of 365, without a calendar to check off, does imply some biological clock is working very precisely.

Historically of course our eagles were pushing their nesting season to coincide with the short season associated with the melting of the ice as the glacier retreated and salmon began to populate newly available stream beds.   The glaciers are now many miles north. The season of course is still tied to how the main food supply is seasonally available to feed their newly fledged young. For our coastal bald eagles the availability of easy food is absolutely tied to the dead spawned out salmon carcasses. These carcasses are available in the more northern rivers first. Then as the northern rivers freeze up the carcasses are only available farther south. Hence the natural movement of juvenile and adult eagles coincides with these basic salmon spawning runs.

Then at the other end of the season, our locally breeding pairs end up coming back to their nesting territories very early in the year to both defend their territory and start the cycle over again.

This seasonal movement pattern, at least in broad sweeps, means that our south coastal bald eagles arrive back on the nesting territory as early as October, stay in residence all fall and winter and then of course through the spring nesting and summer rearing season. In fact our resident eagles are often only away from the nesting territory about one to two months.

The more northern nesting birds, even those of central BC or SE Alaska, are not all on their territories until as late as late February or even late April. This is indicated in this area by the late winter departure of a large percent of the wintering birds -- juveniles and adults. The few thousands of adult eagles still occupying the southern BC rivers and coastline over the New Year only begin to really thin out in late January and February as they depart for their northern territories. The local birds are intensely into nest repair and even egg laying by the end of February.   Of course those residents nesting near herring or oolachin spawning rivers have an extra feasting bonus. Others passing north to their nesting ground get to share this bonanza as of course do the juveniles who are not territory bound.

So back to our Sidney Ma and Pa. They have started another year for us to follow. Will this season provide the excitement and potential heartbreaks of last? Will this year again show that the Sidney pair are among the most productive of the North American bald eagles? Will they again be attacked at the site by other eagles about to visit the area to work the herring spawn of Patricia Bay -- their hunting grounds? Or will we again be privileged to witness a whole new set of insights? Our eagles never fail to excite me with new lessons -- and lessons to be re-learned.

Our moderators are on watch and waiting to assist the newcomers with instructions on how the access the site, insight into the eagles life, and how you can provide us all with new images and stories of the eagles in your area -- become one of our Content Providers -- use our site to tell us about your local eagles.

Best of luck to Sidney Ma & Pa -- their challenges are great.

David Hancock

PS: OH yes -- Richard Pitt is now officially our Excutive Director