Tag Archives: kestrel

More baby critter rescues

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At the end of June I made a transport for Raptor Center of Tampa Bay. Injured or lost baby birds were still coming in and needed to get to a rehabber in St. Pete.  This one was a small load. A baby mockingbird, a sick kestrel and 2 loud baby crows made the trip. Those crows were cawing the entire ride to St. Pete.

The 4th of July was going to be a stay at home and relax kind of day but the call came out for a much needed transport. I left Brett watching sports on the couch and headed to Brandon. Those baby opossums were so cute! She was holding the smallest “runt” of the litter, checking to make sure it was warm enough to make the trip.

Nancy from Raptor Center posted this on the Facebook page with the stories of what happened to these babies.

A week later I was at Moccasin Lake Nature Park waiting to take a baby kestrel to Apopka. The Avian Reconditioning Center in Apopka is a great place for lost baby raptors to grow up and get released. They had just received another young one so the one I was taking would get a “sibling” to grow up with. While I was waiting on the kestrel I walked around for a few minutes and checked out some of the permanently injured birds that live there. The eagle was found with a bad wing injury and is not able to be fully flighted. I was surprised to see the swallow tail kite there sitting on the perch at the front of the cage. There were 2 in the exhibit as well as a Mississippi kite (which is a rare bird around here).

The baby kestrel was ready to go and I stepped in the kitchen for a minute and got to see the meals going out to all of the injured birds. Doesn’t that look yummy (don’t look closely at the bowls if you are squeamish)? I looked away from the cart and noticed an adult kestrel sitting on the desk. I’m assuming he got his breakfast first.

This tiny baby kestrel was making the 2 hour trip to Apopka. This was my first trip to the Avian Reconditioning Center. It’s a huge place with big barn size flight cages on the property. I wish I had taken some pictures but it was so hot and they were busy so I dropped of the little one and left.

And then there was one

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Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? It was the end of March and I was sitting under a big tree at the eagle’s nest in my neighborhood when I thought I saw movement in the reeds under the nest. At first I thought I was crazy but then I saw her move again and realized a deer was watching me. She stood there frozen for about 30 seconds and then moved farther into the reeds.

The kestrel couple were still hanging around and stopped on the wire above me to enjoy a snack.

A few days later I was sitting on the other side of the nest since the babies seemed more visible from this angle. I only saw one baby sitting up but the other one could be sleeping.

Both parents were sitting high up on the other tower. A man walked over to me (I was sitting close to the pool and people stop and ask me about the eagles) and said there was a baby eagle down on the ground by the other condo building. I packed up my camera and chair and ran over.

There it was, sitting under a big tree. Several people were keeping an eye on it. They had tried called several agencies but couldn’t get anyone to respond. I called Raptor Center of Tampa Bay and Louise came out pretty quicky. Louise is our nearby resident raptor rescue expert.

She had her caught in no time and was checking her out to see what her injuries were. There were no injuries that she could see. Louise was thinking she was flapping her wings a little too hard and got some air and ended up landing down near the condos and couldn’t get back up to that nest in the tower. The eagle didn’t fight her at all but just watched Louise.

I helped hold the eagle while Louise put the hood on her (it keeps her calm and quiet) and put her into the crate. Off she went, to the raptor center to be checked out. Since the nest is in a Duke energy tower the eagle could not be placed back up there. Duke would have to cut the power to half of Oldsmar for a while to get her back up and they won’t do that. She spent a few weeks at the center until she was fully flighted and then released in central Florida.

And then there was one. I was glad I was there when the other baby got rescued because otherwise I would be going crazy wondering what happened to it. Now the younger baby will get the full attention from the parents. Louise said that 2 years ago both babies fell off the nest so I hope this last one stays put.

The next morning the monk parakeets were back on bottle brush tree.

A soft shell turtle was at the pond across the street from the nest. It looked like she was laying eggs.

The flapping has started

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It was late February and I was stopping by the neighborhood eagle’s nest every couple of days. One morning I caught the parent bringing in a fish for breakfast. Now they were just dropping off the food and letting the babies eat on their own.

At least one parent was still hanging close to the nest.

At one point an osprey flew close to the nest and the eagle was yelling at him to leave.

One of the babies was flapping his new wings and you could still see the pin feathers.

Finally, I could get a decent shot of both of the babies sitting up. The younger one seemed to sleep a lot and wasn’t flapping yet.

The kestrel couple landed on the wire nearby.

A few other birds that came by the nest was a phoebe and a brown thrasher.

I could see a red shoulder hawk far away on the other side of the field.

A great egret flies right over my head.

SkyWatch Friday

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Hoping for babies

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At the end of January I was still checking on the eagle nest in the neighborhood but still had not seen any sign of a baby with the exception of both adults on the nest most of the time. They are late compared to last year and all of the other nests around the area. I saw one of the parents bringing in food so I’m thinking the baby was still too small to see from here.

I had seen one kestrel a few days earlier but on another visit there were two sitting on the bat box. Looks like a couple. Last winter I only saw one and it was a female.

A few days later I caught him in the middle of eating a bug and then she flew in. He finished his bug and then they both took off.

A dove was watching from the tree behind me.

White ibis flying across the utility field before dark.

The sun was just starting to go down at the eagle’s nest.

BLUE MONDAY BADGE

Out and about

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I found a great blue heron nest in the neighborhood. It sits high up in the pine tree over a small pond. I’ll be keeping an eye for babies but I won’t see them until they are pretty big since the nest sits far back on the branch.

I’ve been stopping by the neighborhood eagle nest almost every day hoping to see a baby head pop up. This was in mid-January and at this point I wasn’t even sure there was a baby although an adult has been sitting here every time I go by. I hadn’t seen anything being fed at this point. It was still early though.

I noticed the kestrel is back. There was one hanging out around the eagle nest all last winter so I wonder if this is the same one.

It’s a few days later and I see an eagle sitting on the nest tower. I couldn’t see another one but the mate might have been laying down on the nest. A turkey vulture flew close by.

I drove by the big open field in front of the utility towers near the back of the neighborhood and I could just barely see movement on a tower far down the clearing. I got my camera out thinking it was probably an osprey on that nest. The top shot was cropped up a little and I can see there’s an eagle on the nest. When I extremely cropped it up I could see a baby big enough to be sitting up on the nest. (There were 2 babies on this nest). I can’t get any closer to this nest since it’s sitting on Duke Energy property.

I could see a red shoulder hawk sitting high up in the tower in front of the eagles.

After seeing the far away nest I turned around and saw white pelicans flying high overhead. I waited a little while hoping they would get closer since they were just circling around. They came a little closer and then took off over the trees.

A few days later I stopped by RE Olds Pier to see if any eagles were fishing along the pier but all I found was a great egret and a spotted sandpiper.

The tide was so low that you could see an old crab trap out in the water. I wonder how long this has been sitting there with all of those barnacles on it.

The vertical oyster garden ropes that are hanging off the pier were exposed and are starting to get covered with barnacles. There may be some small oysters forming on it as well. They placed them here to grow oysters since they help filter and clean the water.

SkyWatch Friday

Color and babies

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Random things at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo.

There wasn’t many birds when I was there in late May. You can always find brown thrashers there but the kestral was the first time I had seen one here.

After leaving the botanical gardens, I headed over for a quick stop at Largo Nature Preserve to see how the flickers were doing. I got there right as Mom was feeding the babies. I love that flash of red on the back of Mom’s head.

Mom left and the babies kept poking their heads out of the hole. This was probably right before they fledged.They looked fully grown at this point.

The red bellied woodpecker was still hanging around the hole in the tree next door. They will probably nest later in the summer.

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My first “Raptor Fest”

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I had heard about Raptor Fest at Boyd Hill Park for several years but never went. I’m not keen on going to big festivals at my favorite parks. I’d rather go when it’s quiet and not crowded. This year peer pressure got the best of me when I had several friends saying you have to go this year. I got there early and got a good spot for the Earthquest program in the open field. Earthquest is a non-profit environmental education program that introduces the public to different raptors, all of which have come from rehabilitation situations that cannot be released in the wild. They gave examples of how we impact the raptors lives and ways to lessen that impact.  Above is a hawk, I think a red-tailed hawk which is not rare here but not as common as the red shoulder hawk. He was to fly into the tree and then fly to the perch in front. He flew to the tree but never made it to the perch and took off across the park. He eventually came back but everybody got a good laugh at the handler’s expense.

Above is a Harris’s Hawk which I had never seen before.

Black vulture and turkey vultures, both of which I see a lot of around here. One thing I learned is that black vultures find their food by sight, which is why they soar high in the sky. They have amazing sight. Turkey vultures (with the red face and big nose) find their food by smell, which is why they are mostly seen on the ground.

The above condor stole the show. He’s an andean condor but we learned about California condors and their brink of extinction as well.This guy had so much personality. He was supposed to hop up on the perch to get his food but he showed the handler there was an easier way (although I suspect it was planned all along).

A golden eagle which you can’t find in Florida.

Several local bird rescue and rehabilitation groups were also there with injured birds to get close to. Most were missing a wing or an eye.

My friends were right, it was a fun morning. Crowded but fun to watch the kids see these great birds up close. It was also a good morning to practice flight photography as some of the birds flew from tree to perch. There were tons of big cameras and lenses there. Can’t wait until next year’s in early February. I also got some good pictures of an eurasian eagle owl in flight which I’ll post later.

Linking to My Corner of the World.

What’s for breakfast???

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Walking down the trail, heading for the owl’s nest, I spotted a kestrel. Of course I had to stop and take a picture of it. Usually they are so skittish but this one didn’t move.

I made it out to the owl’s nest just in time to catch Mom feeding one of the babies. There were 2 babies, one was hiding on the other side of Mom. Baby great horned owls are not cute until their face catches up with their beaks. The baby seemed to be enjoying his breakfast. Mom was eating some of it as well, including that rabbit ear in the last picture above. Yuk right? But an owl’s gotta eat.

Right in the middle of breakfast, a mockingbird flew in and was brave enough to pretend he was going to steal a bite. Mom chased him off with just a look.

Mom tucked away what was left for breakfast, to be finished at a later time.

She had already fed the younger one before I got there so after feeding the older one they all sat up looking content.

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Little critters at Rocky Mountain Arsenal Park

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These little prairie dogs were so cute. I know, they are just cuter gophers or maybe more like meerkats. We just sat in our car and watched them run around for a while. These shots are all extremely cropped up. They were pretty far out in the field and if I opened my door they would all scurry into the holes.

My first ever coyote sighting. He was also pretty far away.

A few birds along the road: pigeon, meadowlark, kestral and a sparrow of some type.

Some of the critters we saw during our drive through Rocky Mountain Arsenal Park in Denver. I think if I lived here I would always be cruising through here.  Lots of critters to see roaming around. It was near our hotel so we drove through quickly before getting dinner. We also saw bison and deer so more on those later.

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