Nongame Bird Blog

I regularly receive calls from people that have observed dead birds. They are often seeking guidance or being good citizens by letting someone know.  More often than not, though, individuals have observed the outcome of a normal or natural death as birds die all the time, everyday.  However, it can be valuable to be made aware of a bird mortality if the cause of death is not obvious in case there is another report and a pattern begins to emerge.  …

Dominate may be a tad strong, but the Lincoln Journal Star has a nice article by JoAnne Young about the Capitol’s Peregrine Falcon chicks featured prominently on their website today (27 May 2014).  In fact, it is running in their website’s top header this (Tuesday) evening.   The article can be found here. It is always a good day when (nongame) birds are in the news.

On this rainy morning, Lauren Dinan and I, along with our partners from Fontenelle Forest’s Raptor Recovery, trekked up to the Woodmen Tower to band Peregrine Falcon eyases in downtown Omaha.   The banding went off without a hitch and below are a few photos from event.  Also, here are links to stories from Omaha media. KETV Channel 7 WOWT Channel 6 KMTV Channel 3 Omaha World Herald Many thanks to Woodmen of the World and Fontenelle Forest’s Raptor Recovery.  Sorry …

First, apologies I have not kept up on the Peregrine Falcon action and drama.  I was in western Nebraska, where the people are friendly and the internet service can sometimes be difficult to come by, the past several days.   Even though it is not necessary to tell you what has transpired at the Capitol, it is probably worthwhile to make note of it and take care of any loose ends. As Peregrine watchers know, the hatching at the Capitol was …

Two chicks or eyases have hatched, which is good news.  There is also bad news.  One eyas apparently hatched  (from what I have been told) but did not survive.  There are still two eggs.  We should know their fate within the next 24-48 hours.  Stay tuned and to go to the LIVE! streaming video click HERE.

Updated 11:25 a.m. The female allowed brief views of what she is concealing and protecting this morning.   There is now (finally) at least one chick, or eyas.  The female was observed eating the shell of the egg that hatched, which is typical.  To go to the LIVE! webcam, click HERE.

The American Kestrels here at the NGPC headquarters are busy welcoming fluffballs into the world on this hot and windy day.   Late this afternoon, two of the five eggs hatched.   The kestrels, which are small falcons, can be viewed HERE.  Click on the still shot and the LIVE! video feed should begin playing.   As I stated in an earlier post, Internet Explorer sometimes does not work.   I suggest using either Firefox or Chrome as your internet …

As the days warm up everything seems to move faster, including time.  A little less than a month ago the Peregrine Falcons completed their clutch of five eggs.   We are now close to the time when eggs should begin hatching.  The average incubation period for Peregrine Falcons is approximately 33 days.  This is nature so there is variation.  Nevertheless, we could possibly see our first “fluffball” over the weekend, but perhaps more likely the bundles of joy will appear early …

I blogged about hybrid ducks on a couple occasions during the past few months.  First there was a Mallard X Pintail hybrid near North Platte and then the Mallard X Gadwall hybrid at Lake Ogallala.    On Saturday, 3 May, I observed yet another  hybrid puddle duck at Hansen Waterfowl Production in Clay County.  Luckily, I got decent documentation of this bird.  Take a gander at the video. Gadwall is clearly one of the parent species and this drake appeared …

One of the pleasures of experiencing the outdoors is making observations and learning something about the world.  The great thing about birds, birding, and bird study is that there is no end to learning.  Occasionally observations from the past are lost in one’s mind to the point where they are essentially forgotten.  In other words, I am getting older and recently I had a refresher course in Long-billed Curlew courtship behavior. Over the past ten days I’ve been roaming the …