Black Bears on Critter Cam, Brown Thrashers, Keeping Nests Clean

Last night I mentioned that Buddy is on the Wildlife Center's Critter Cam. They actually have two Critter Cams. They've got 8 Bear Cubs on their other cam! That's a lot of bears! I got a s'cap with at least a part of each cub...

I've had some Brown Thrashers settle in at my yard. I'm always surprised to see them eating the bird food that I put out. Then one really surprised me when it finished eating some bird food, then grabbed a peanut and flew away. I didn't know they liked peanuts. (In the shell...) I put out extra peanuts now!

Ron Dudley posted on his Feathered Photography blog about Ravens collecting chick feces at the nest. One of his blog readers left a link to this video, about why baby birds don't need diapers. Pretty gross. But it is necessary to keep the nest clean...

Photo website, Buddy, NBG, animal attacks, Owl nest cam, Black Bear mom and 4 cubs

I found another photography website to follow. Ron Dudley has just posted some Osprey pictures on his blog: Feathered Photography. I want to check out his site some more! I've just spent a half hour looking at a variety of his posts. He is very active, posting pictures often. And he includes explanations about the behavior he observes. Very interesting. Oops. Just spent another half hour on this site. Be sure to check this one out!

There is another post from the Wildlife Center of Virginia about Buddy's training. Raina posted another update on March 9th. Buddy is so smart! Check it out here.

Reese has posted updated locations for our eagles.
Azalea's update, including a picture taken by Cary!
Camellia's update.

The Norfolk Eagles and the situation at the Norfolk Botanical Garden are back in the news. Eagle On Alliance has hired a lawyer and has charged the City of Norfolk with violating the permit to remove Bald Eagle nests at NBG. Check out Rose's post on the Norfolk Eagles Forum. There are three links in her post.

Here are some stories of animals attacking people in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area. There is an account of an owl that kept attacking a jogger that I found interesting. They really are silent when they fly...

I found a nest cam of a Great Horned Owl. The eggs were laid on 1/20 and 1/23. They hatched on 2/22 and 2/24. There are two angles shown in one shot:

Here's a video of a Black Bear and her four cubs in New York as they get a check-up by some researchers.

Azalea's location, eagles and bears in the news

Azalea checked in around 11:00PM March 5th. She's still hanging around on the south-side.

Azalea's location 3/5 11:00PM

I found another photographer to follow. Ted Ellis has pictures of Bald Eagles, Hummingbirds and Cardinals on his photography site. He also has some backyard birds (don't we all!), large birds and silhouettes. I usually don't care for music on photography web pages -- I'd rather save the bandwidth. However, I can only complain so much about this site since I found myself singing along...

This article is from the Washington Post dated 2/26/13. It's about the Bald Eagle population in the Chesapeake Bay Tidal Region and Dr Watts (from the Center for Conservation Biology) is quoted. I find it interesting that Bald Eagles are starting to use man-made objects to nest upon, since most of the prime real estate is gone.

The Street Smart Naturalist blog has a great article about the different avian wildlife that is drawn to his yard because of the huge Douglas Firs in the yard. I am always dismayed when I see tracts of land cleared for a housing development, with landscapers coming in after the homes are built and planting puny little trees. I wish that the people that build housing developments would make the effort to leave some of the mature trees. It's not like they can be replaced. I know it adds a layer of complexity to the build, but you can't replace mature trees!

Who doesn't love baby bears!?!? Bearizona Wildlife Park has five black bear cubs. So cute! And a polar bear cub was born at the Buffalo Zoo. Even cuter!

I've got family coming into town tomorrow, so I'm not sure when my next post will be...