Our Owls Are a Hoot!
With the launch of two new owl cams—the Barn Owl cam in Texas and the Wild Birds Unlimited Barred Owl cam in Indiana—the excitement is building. Early in the morning on April 8, the first of three Barred Owl eggs hatched revealing a downy owlet (watch the highlight). A second owlet hatched out on April 9, and the third appears to have hatched today. The Barn Owls’ first egg appeared the same day the Barred Owls began hatching, and today they added a second! They’re expected to continue to add to their clutch over the next week. |
Kaloakulua is a Female
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers and scientists, we now know that our Laysan Albatross chick is a female! Scientists visited the nest in mid-March to examine the chick and take a small blood sample for DNA testing. Thanks to the Kauai Albatross Network, the Hawaii Department of Forestry and Wildlife, and Pacific Rim Conservation for making this research possible.
The last few weeks have also seen the young albatross beginning to get more adventurous: meeting nonbreeding adult albatrosses, exploring the side yard, and creating her own nests out of mowed grass. Her gray downy tangles are beginning to show signs of her first white adult feathers, and soon we expect to see the young nestling take her first true steps instead of shuffling on her “ankles.” Assuming all goes as planned, we can look forward to her fledging sometime in late June or July.
Watch Cam
|
Hawks and Herons
Big Red and Ezra are busily incubating their 3-egg clutch (Watch Now). In past years it has taken nearly 40 days till the first egg hatches, so anytime during the last week of April we could see our first nestling!
We are also still waiting to see whether the resident Great Blue Herons will return to breed at their nest in Sapsucker Woods. We plan to reopen chat once courting begins or the male begins more extensive nestbuilding. For now, enjoy the views of the Sapsucker Woods Pond from the pan-tilt-zoom camera operated by our volunteer moderators as we await the herons’ nest initiation.
One of the many screen captures in the Bird Cams Flickr group.
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
Each day viewers help catalog the day’s happenings by taking screen captures of the video and posting them in our Cornell Bird Cams Flickr group. You can browse through the hundreds of photos from each nest or submit some of your own by joining Flickr and taking your own screenshots (learn how here).
|
Students at the Cornell Lab.
A Special Opportunity for Educators
Webinar: Bird Cams in the Classroom.
Bring incredible views of nesting life into your classroom, with birds including Great Blue Herons, Red-tailed Hawks, and Laysan Albatrosses. In this free webinarwe’ll share facts about nesting birds, take you on a tour of the cams, and give you lessons and resources to use with your students. April 15, 8:00 p.m. EDT. Registration required. Free.
|
|
|
