looduskalender.ee

The trouble with beaks -

http://niwra.org/recovery.htm

A report of a bald eagle having a gun shot injury to its beak, then restored by a dentist and dental technician - in BC, Canada.

Whilst on the subject of beaks, on the Birding forum someone has posted a pic of a spotted flycatcher, in Mallorca - with what may be an avian pox tumour.
Which leads on to a lengthy story about a young bald eagle in Norfolk, USA, which developed this serious problem. Interesting reports and posts on the Hancock forum.

http://discuss.hancockwildlifechannel.o ... 47#p282247

Slideshow and story here.
http://www.wildlifecenter.org/news/arti ... 080523.php

With thanks to Patsycat for help with finding the links.

If we have a chance to ask questions of a veterinary specialist, I would like to know what s/he thinks of this article on the effects of pesticides, on humans and animals

http://www.naturalnews.com:80/025022.html

"According to an article published in the December issue of the journal Bioscience, the chemical tributyltin affects sensitive receptors in the cells of a host of animals, ranging from water fleas to people"

Beauty and the Beak.

The story of bald eagle "Beauty", who suffered a gunshot would to her upper beak.
Here is the video story of the compassion that went in to making a new beak, and fitting it!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zBca6j8isLs&NR=1

I just wonder if the White tailed eagle's injury on his beak is bad or harmless..? It is the other one the WTEs who have been seen in the sääksi-kamera, Osspray cam in Seili, Finland. It has been told in our newspapers that there proably will be fighting over the nest ownership between osprays and white tailed eagles.

Could the injury be because of fighting they have had?

Some few pictures of these eagles are here:

viewtopic.php?p=30763#p30763

ospraycam:

http://natureit.net/site/saaksikamera.p ... refresh=15

The injured beak seen from left and right, 7.4.2009:



The couple of eagles on the nest in Seili (injure on the beak, black spot) 7.4. 2009:



7.4.2009


7.4.2009


It's a pity that my ealier pics have vanished from these pages, they were attachments (they will be back some day when LKF has more space)

Perhaps Urmas will come and look at these pics, renandeli. Thanks for posting them - marvellous birds!
And so, too, are the Ospreys.

Ospreys are very skilled fighters in air, so wound on Sea Eagle beak could be from Ospreys talon. But also it could be caused by whatever - anyway it seems to be not dangerous wound, only some blood and no more (I hope so).

Here in Estonia some Osprey nests are occupied by Sea Eagles for sure and Osprey should find new place, usually further from good foraging area...

Thank you, Urmas! They propably were fighting the day before yesterday, maybe even before. A couple of days ago it was told in our newspaper that there in Seili Ospray nest will be fighting. I saw the other eagle in defending posture that day, wings open, and beak open, head upwards. ospray I didn't catch on picture.
Yesterday I have seen only one Ospray, and today the same.. (but I do not look the cam all the time..)

Good that the wound is harmless..

A year ago there were a few stories about many birds -- mostly in my part of the world -- the west coast of North America -- mostly to the north of me and in Alaska of birds with very long (even fatally long) bills. I think they were found in a variety of birds. I have yet to hear of any information about what might have been causing it.

http://www.pdxbirds08.org/viewabstract2 ... actID=4944

Warning disturbing picture of a hawk (with a podcast)
http://onthewing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=77626

It looks like it has been going on for a while -- with more cases since 2006.
http://www.audubonportland.org/sanctuar ... ong-billed

This is from the page:
Species other than raptors may be affected. Colleen Handel, with the USGS in Anchorage, Alaska, has been studying beak abnormalities in 29 bird species in Alaska, particularly in chickadees and corvids.

Anderson has been following the syndrome since 1997 when the first case was reported in Washington state. Reports of affected birds have been increasing. Although initial cases were seen in Washington, new cases are being reported in Oregon and California, suggesting the disease is spreading southward.

Unfortunately, the cause of the Long-billed Hawk syndrome remains unknown.

I was curious if this is found elsewhere or if anyone has heard any news about it.

On the Winter feeding ground webcam discussion, we have been talking about a fox with a lion's tail - that is, a fox with mange which has affected the fur on its tail
In UK, there is a National Fox Welfare Society which gives information and treatment for this awful condition. It seems they will even send bottles of medicine for free if one is unable to make a contribution. The use of text and images from that site is controlled so I will just give the link. There is a lot of information on mange in foxes at the NFWS site.

http://www.nfws.org.uk/mange/

That site crashes my firefox so... but I think here at least in some locals people treat foxes -- put medicine in food (I am not sure if it is for mange or a couple of diseases) -- because foxes live so close to all the human animals. People like foxes because they are beautiful and hunt mice but are not so hard on the bird population as escaped cats -- escaped cats can be a very big problem in the US especially in the south.

But natures balancing act can be harsh.

oh dear

here is a link to more pictures of birds with deformed beaks

http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/ ... llery.html

We still don't know why birds in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest have a high incidence of this problem.

I was alarmed to see this report of blackbirds falling, dead, from the sky in Arkansas, USA.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12105157



Are there any US members who can tell us more?

Jo -- that was the first I heard about this -- Red-winged Black Birds are my mom's favourites..

I found this article just posted
http://www.ldnews.com/lebanonnews/ci_16998376
Nothing really new. Maybe in a few days they will know something, for now it looks like they suspect storm winds picked them up out of their roost tree and chilled them.

Arkansas is the state immediately to the south of my state, Missouri. The biologists are still working on several theories, but it seems the most likely at this time is that the birds were startled by loud fireworks as people celebrated New Year's Eve & they flew in panic up from their roost sites, not seeing well in the dark, & crashed into each other, trees, houses, & other solid objects. They seem to have died from physical trauma. Such a tragedy! See article at the link below.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic ... _of_trauma

Jo I just heard newer news on the radio.


The guy (he works with fish and wildlife) who originally thought maybe the birds had flown into a storm now thinks that is unlikely. Red-winged black birds do not fly at night, and when they are forced to, they do it very badly. He did interviews with people in town and they say there were loud bangs, so maybe "canon" fireworks (something that has a super loud bang) scared the birds into the air -- and then the birds managed to crash into tree limbs -- roof tops etc. They have done necropsies on 17 birds -- all had internal bleeding like they had suffered damage due to running into things. I doubt there has been time for toxicology screens to show results.

Horrible to think that maybe new years celebrations contributed to all those deaths.

This article accepts the idea of fireworks as the cause --
http://www.kolotv.com/oddnews/headlines ... 36379.html

Thankyou, Alice and Kitty, for the news.

Yet another reason to enforce better control over the use of fireworks.
Heavens, if it is possible to kill more than 3,000 birds with fireworks, something is very wrong.

The news people have accociated that tragedy with the death of a lot of fish somewhere close
quote;.

The birds were the second mass wildlife death in Arkansas in recent days. Last week, several thousand dead drum fish washed up along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, about 100 miles west of Beebe. Wildlife officials say the fish deaths are not related to the dead birds, and that because only one species of fish was affected, it is likely they were stricken by an illness;quote

It was said the birds maybe due to fireworks but the fish ?

They are still investigating the fish die-off, but as articles have suggested, the fact that only one fish species was involved lends credence to the idea of an illness. If it were pollution or poison, many species would be affected, & not just fish, but other water creatures, too. The two locations are not really all that closely situated, but about 100 miles separated from each other, that is more than 160 kilometers. But it is not surprising that reporters' attention goes to seeking out similar stories to publish when one unusual thing happens. There are now stories in the papers of another, similar blackbird mass death in Louisiana on New year's Day. In all these cases, however, it does not seem the events are related.

An article on the Louisiana bird deaths here:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/20 ... -Louisiana


The redwinged blackbird is one of my favorites. Its song means summer time to me.

Website on the redwinged blackbird here:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red- ... ackbird/id

Article on how the redwinged blackbird uses his lovely shoulder epaulets to communicate, here:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommuni ... x?pid=1807

And now this -- dead birds in Sweden

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12118839