Radisson - 2008 / Trey & Princess

[Mother Hen]

I watched the osprey video and that was something! amazed they let people that close to them. Do you think the peregriens would let people that close?? Curious. Wild life is something else!! All I have at home is a ferrett and two dogs to amuse me......Oh that is not including my husband.  Later

[Three]

Thanks Liz. I am very fortunate to have an abundance of wildlife in my immediate surroundings. Below is a video of a juvenile osprey at a rescue. I haven't been able to find a video that does justice to the hunting/diving we see here by the ocean. Most of the videos show opportunistic osprey sitting in a tree and dropping to a lake for an easy kill.

Birds: osprey, bald eagles, red-tailed hawk, morning doves, seagulls, cormorants, a variety of ducks and geese depending upon the time of year, hummingbirds, finches, bluejays, robins, canaries, swallows, crows, and ravens.

Critters: raccoon, porcupine, fox, rabbits, an assortment of amphibians, and deer...lots and lots of deer. Last week the mother & father of twin fawns brought their babies out and presented them to us. We had about five minutes of viewing 15 metres (roughly 40 feet) from our fingertips - thankfully the dog was snoozing and totally oblivious.


Juvenile Osprey (orphaned and at a rescue in Georgia)
The markings on this bird are somewhat different from those here in the East, but close enough for comparison sake. Notice the vocalisations, too, they change as they mature.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6PzMMrvjhMQ

[bcbird]

Don't worry Mouse.  We have all had to learn.
Try the Technical section, I think Deedream had some questions answered there.

[Mouse]

Sorry.  I messed up with the quoting.    I'll have to go back to the lesson that I saw somewhere in the forum.  But where oh where! 

[Mouse]

Here in the East we do not have peregrines, but we do have osprey - a fishing raptor (http://www.avianweb.com/ospreys.html). Within a few minutes' walk of where I live there are two nests. This year's babies have recently fledge. They can be distinguished by their colour and their vocalisations - they chirp rather than screech.



Thank you for the link and description, Three.  What a fierce looking bird! It's hard to imagine such a large bird diving into the water like that (a city girl am I).  It much be an amazing sight!

[Liz]

LOL!  No worries, bcbird or Lorian.  I'm begging off and TPC can smack you two with her shovel!  "I was just trying to remember!"  LOL   

[bcbird]

Sorry, Liz, I think I brought up the whip thing.  I was confused about what kind of thongs Loriann had in her Headbanger closet.

[Loriann]

yes it does. but i was trying to be gentle on our younger members..lol..  ( I'm not going to be the one to explain the whips and leather connections.. hee heee).

we're going to be banished to the punishment closet when tracy gets back. lol

[Liz]

LOL, Loriann!! 

(And doesn't it actually have a large connection?     Ya know, the whips and all.  Or was a whip just in my head and it really didn't come up in conversation??  Maybe it was just my imagination from thinking about leather!  lol)

[Loriann]

Liz.. go to the closet and face the corner. (this is the PUNISHMENT CLOSET ( which has a small connection to the FETISH closet) ).

 

[Liz]

Three, thank you for that amazing description!  I could totally imagine it.  You should be a writer.  Maybe you are... 

And if we haven't said it already, welcome to our little den of kookie-ness!  Oops (Loriann smacked me with her wing), I mean -- closet of kookie-ness! 

[bcbird]

We watch Osprey fish on Shuswap Lake.  Just as you describe, Three, the spectacular catch is followed by that juggling of the fish before the flight back to the nest.  Last summer we saw one osprey, possibly a juvenile learning the technique, lose the hard won prey during the foot flip.  It's quite a show!   

[Three]

Hi TPC and all,

Thanks for keeping those of us outside Winnipeg up-to-date on Princess and Trey's daily activities. Though I have not been logged in, I have been lurking about the forums getting my fill of sightings, gossip, peregrine health reports (I was very worried about Princess after what she weathered trying to protect her chicks), and the related links - loved the National Geographic speed video.

Here in the East we do not have peregrines, but we do have osprey - a fishing raptor (http://www.avianweb.com/ospreys.html). Within a few minutes' walk of where I live there are two nests. This year's babies have recently fledge. They can be distinguished by their colour and their vocalisations - they chirp rather than screech.

We have also been witness to some wild fights between the osprey and the bald eagles in the area. The eagles will steal osprey babies form the nest. Barn owls are another predator, but we do not seem to have them in this area of NS, though they have decimated nests within an hour's drive.

Watching osprey fish, like watching peregrines hunt, is fascinating. They glide over the water looking for schools of fish and, once spotted, start doing tight spirals upward to gain altitude and select their final target, and then they dive. Just like the peregrines, it is a bullet-like drop from the sky to the water and an incredibly loud smack when they hit. They stun and grab their prey, rise to the surface, and do a "flutter" a few feet above the water where they flip the fish from a horizontal hold to forward-facing to make flying more aerodynamic, and they are off.

Hope you are all well. Thanks for keeping me in the loop (and entertained). Cheers.

[Mother Hen]

Not raining as yet today.......I think my toes are starting to web........OH NO! Supposed to rain later today,my what a surprize! No sighting as yet today and I didn't see them at all yesterday. Any one on the East side spot the peregrines? I wonder if the noise from the hydro building scares them? Every now and then I can hear the banging myself. Should be over soon enough. Talk to you later

[winnipeg_gal]

ROTFLOL!!!! right mouse forgot that... see we have one more day to look forward to before the dreaded four letter word shows up again.!!!