Friday, October 25, 2013

An Older Video Of Bald Eagle HK, Brain Cleaning

I came across one of my older videos the other day. It's from the 2009 Norfolk Botanical Garden nest: Bald Eagles Azalea (HH), HK and HE. It's HK return to the nest after fledging. I love this video! HK is so pitiful -- so hungry. Read my comments on the video before you watch it, so it will make sense. There is also a lot of wingercizing in the second half of the video. It makes me happy to see Azalea in this video. It's been so long now since her transmitter stopped working. I miss my girl! Here's a link to the video. It's 8:22 minutes, but I enjoy the whole thing and am disappointed that it's over when it ends. (This was recorded with my old camcorder, so the quality isn't great. But this is still one of my favorite videos!)

While you sleep, your brain is cleaned of toxins. This includes the plaques that are found in the brains of people that have Alzheimer's. This cleaning process almost stops when we are awake. Read about it here.

Now for some bad news. My computer died. I have a new one on order, but it won't arrive until around November 14th. I'm picking and pecking this paragraph on my Kindle Fire. And I have no idea how to copy addresses of web pages so I can include links. (The two paragraphs above were already composed and saved in my drafts.) So, I'm going to have to experiment and see what I can figure out... 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Picture of a Male Northern Harrier on Feathered Photography, Zombie Car, Imbending Cocoa Shortage, Amazon Trees, Biggest Star Ever Found is Ripping Apart, Contageous Yawning in Chimps, Recon Roaches


Ron Dudley has a great shot of a male Northern Harrier in flight on his Feathered Photography blog. What a beauty!

If mankind were to disappear off of the face of the earth, nature would take the planet back pretty quickly. Check out this zombie car.

There is an impending cocoa shortage. Not cool...

Scientists have cataloged the trees in the Amazon.

The biggest star ever found in the universe is ripping apart. 

Yawning is contagious. Chimps also are affected by human's yawns.

So let's say that you are in a building that has collapsed. Do you really want a bunch of roaches coming in to do recon? The monitors would hear, "Get away from me!" and a squishing sound...

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Location Updates for Bald Eagles Camellia and NX, New Pictures of Bald Eagles Dad Norfolk, DT, HK and His Lady Friend

There is an update for Bald Eagle Camellia's Location. He is back in Virginia Beach.

Bald Eagle NX has also checked in. She is just a few miles north of Rosier Creek at Machadoc Creek, where she was a year ago.

Mike Inman has posted a new picture of Bald Eagles Dad Norfolk and DT on the Norfolk Eagles Forum. They are looking good!

Pam Monahan has posted a bunch of new pictures of Bald Eagle HK and a lady friend. It looks like she is a dirty bird. So, I won't look for babies this year. They look really close. Included is a series where they are talking to each other. Cracked me up!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Picture of Bald Eagles Dad Norfolk and DT (Dirty Tail), Honey Bee Invasion, Giant Hornets in China, Jellyfish Causing Problems, Amazing Flight of Swifts, Do Dogs Feel Emotions, Suriname: A Tropical Eden.

Mike posted a great picture of Bald Eagles Dad Norfolk and DT! They look great and I'm so happy to see them together. Hopefully they can weather this storm that the idiots on the Norfolk City Council are throwing their way.

How about a couple of bee stories? This woman had some honey bees living in her attic. Honey bees are suffering from colony collapse, so they had to try to evict them without killing them. And then there's Hornetgeddon! Look at these giant hornets causing problems in China! These are very aggressive hornets that have killed 42 and injured at least 1600. In the video, they are referred to as the sharks of the insect world. Yikes!

Jellyfish are causing Jellypocalypse! Look at the size of the jellyfish in that first picture.

Here is an amazing story about Swifts flying non-stop for 200 days! You read that right. Non-stop for 200 days. I didn't know that birds could "rest on the wing." I think this is just incredible!

There has been research to answer this question: Do dogs feel emotions? I don't need to do any research to answer this question. But it's still an interesting article...

I like reading about places where humans haven't gone in and destroyed what nature intended. Pristine places. Wild places. Check out Suriname: A Tropical Eden. And make sure you check out the slide show of animals that live there.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Bald Eagle Camellia's Location, Bald Eagle Pictures, Update on the Bald Eagle That Was Impaled on a Tree

There is a new post for Bald Eagle Camellia on the EagleTrak blog. He has stayed in Gloucester County.

Bald Eagle Pictures!

There is an update on the Bald Eagle that was impaled on a tree. See my previous blog posts (August 25th post and August 27th post) if you missed the background about this Bald Eagle. I'm glad that she is doing well.

More Bald Eagle pictures!

Friday, October 11, 2013

New Picture of Bald Eagle Dad Norfolk, Location Updates For Bald Eagles Camellia and KE, Find Momo, Northern Harrier Pictures on Feathered Photography, Meowza!

I had a friend in town for the past couple of days. We were going to go see the ponies at Chincoteague/Assateague. But we were rained out! We still had a nice visit...

It has been raining so much here, Mike got a picture of a soggy Bald Eagle Dad Norfolk.

We have a couple of location updates. Bald Eagle Camellia is still in Gloucester. And Bald Eagle KE took a little trip into Maryland, then back to Virginia.

Check out the Find Momo from October 10th. It took me a while to find him!

Ron Dudleys Feathered Photography blog has got a male Northern Harrier hunting. He gets some really great shots of a variety of birds.

I'm going to close today's post with something pretty gross and pretty funny at the same time. I really didn't think it was possible to laugh until I was crying while being totally grossed out. Meowza!

d

Monday, October 7, 2013

Buddy Day at The Wildlife Center of Virginia, Pam Monahan's Pictures of Bald Eagle HK (And His Girlfriend), Bald Eagle NX and Camellia's Locations, Bald Eagles on Feathered Photography Blog

This past weekend was Buddy Day at The Wildlife Center of Virginia (WCV). Ann posted on the Norfolk Eagles Forum about her visit with Bald Eagle Buddy. Here's a link to her post. She has some pictures and a short video of Buddy. WCV also has updated their Buddy Training page to include some pictures from the day as well as the photo montage that they presented as part of the day.

Pam Monahan has a bunch of new pictures of Bald Eagle HK. (I think 14 are from today.) And it has recently come to my attention that she has posted pictures of HK's girlfriend. She is sitting on the same structure as many of HK's pictures. From what I understand, this female has a silver band on her right leg. She does not have the color band with the large letters that the eagles from the Norfolk nest got in 2009, 2010, and 2011. An interesting thing is that the eagles from the 2007 nest only got silver bands on their right legs... The oldest from the 2007 nest is a female. Makes me wonder...

What in the world is Bald Eagle NX up to? I'm not sure if she's coming or going these days. I do think that she's found a place that she likes: Rosier Creek.

Bald Eagle Camellia has checked in. He's spending some time in Gloucester County.

Check out Ron Dudley's recent Feathered Photography blog post about Bald Eagles. He's got a picture of a Bald Eagle eating while in flight. Pretty wild!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Bald Eagle Pictures: Dad Norfolk and HK (Thanks to Duane Noblick, Jim, and Pam Monahan), Bald Eagle Camellia's Location, Episode Five of Earthflight

Duane has a new post on the Norfolk Eagles Forum of Bald Eagle Dad Norfolk. He's looking good! Duane also spotted the Female (DT or Dirty Tail.)

There's also a new post on the forum by Jim of Bald Eagle HK taken out at Honey Bee Golf Course. He's just got a little bit of a dark eye streak. His tail looks completely white now. Hatched in '09 with Azalea, he should molt the last of these dark feathers and have his adult plumage in the upcoming year.

Pam Monahan has posted 3 new pictures of HK. This time he's in a nest in a tree. I believe this is the nest that he started building last year. I sure hope he finds a good woman and has a family this year!

For some reason, Bald Eagle Camellia was missing some data from on his October 3rd check-in. Here is the blog entry with partial location data that was available. There is a comment in this post about a picture of HK with a girlfriend. However, I haven't seen the picture... Then there is a post on 10/4 that was complete and shows him to be dumpster diving. The allure of a landfill...

Episode five of the Earthflight series was on this past week. This episode was filmed in Asia and Australia and features Japanese Cranes, Swallows, Swifts, Lorikeets, Cockatoos, Budgies, Pigeons and Geese. That's what they advertise. There were also many different raptors and vultures. This was another great episode! You can watch it here. It will be available until October 30th.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Pam Monahan's New Pictures Of Bald Eagle HK, Bald Eagle Camellia's Latest Location, Updates On (And Pictures Of) My Orchids

Pam Monahan has posted some new pictures of Bald Eagle HK. She's got a really neat picture where I first thought he was coming in for a landing. But he's looking up and if he was landing, his wings would be stretched out to slow him down. And he would be looking down, concentrating on sticking the landing. But with his wings in this position, he's trying to get a big stroke for some big lift. My final answer: He was taking off. Neat picture.

Bald Eagle Camellia is 32 miles away from his check-in point of three days ago. I think he's enjoying this beautiful weather!

I mentioned in my September 24th post that I've got a couple of Cattleya Orchids in sheath. It occurred to me to take some pictures! (My Orchids spend the summer outside in dappled shade. Some get more sun than others, depending on the type.)

About the two that are in sheath: I bought both of these Orchids online (years ago) and have never seen either bloom. So, I'm really excited! The sheath is that rounded bit coming up from the junction of the leaf with the stem. You can tell by the size of the sheath that a big bloom is on its way:

The other one is a Mini-Cattleya. They typically had two leaves per stem and the sheath comes from that juncture. The leaves and sheath are considerably smaller on a Mini-Catt. The bloom will also be smaller. But the blooms on both are supposed to be very fragrant, which is why I bought them. Something else to note: Each year, the leaves should get bigger than the previous year's leaves. I definately succeeded with this one! Which is why it's happy and giving me a flower!

I've also got a couple of other varieties putting up flower spikes. This is a Dendrobium, one of the easiest Orchids to get to rebloom. I've had quite a few of these rebloom. Some of them have flower spikes and some of them put out blooms along the stem, at each leaf junction. This kind has a spike. There's only one spike, but it's still a success for me!

And this is my Epidendrum with a flower spike. This is the first time I've gotten it to rebloom! 

I'll post pictures of them in bloom when they get there...