All About Raptors class and field trip

One of the events we chose to attend at the Festival of the Cranes, at Bosque del Apache, was the lecture and field trip called "All About Raptors," held on Thursday morning (Nov 15). Two raptor handlers gave the attendees a plethora of information regarding all types of raptors. They even brought many birds they use for education purposes, such as a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl. These women were from The Wildlife Center located in Espanola, New Mexico, which is about 25-30 miles north of Santa Fe. Once we took to the "field" which was on the Wildlife Refuge, we got to see the release of a peregrine falcon. There were some extra "guests" who accompanied this group of attendees, namely Jeff Bouton (Leica Birding Blog) and Julie Zickefoose. Here is a link to a very short video I took of the release of the peregrine falcon. While also in the "field," Jeff Bouton spotted a "different" type of red-tailed hawk, a Harlan's red-tailed hawk. He was so good at describing the differences in the morph and coloring. If anyone should ever have the opportunity to go birding with this expert, please don't miss out on it, especially if you want to learn more than one can absorb in a day.

** Just a note to let you know that Blogger is giving me trouble today with uploading this 14 second (3 MB) video - so that is why there is a link rather than the Blogger video I tried to upload. I'll try to upload the video itself when Blogger decides to cooperate. ;o)

Falcon Cam

For folks interested in newly hatched peregrine falcons, and want to catch some live camera action, here is a link to Jose Fernando and Clara, San Jose City Hall's resident falcons. The camera was placed there and is being maintained by the city of San Jose and the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group. There are three eyasses that hatched the last week of April, and were banded on May 18th. I happened to connect that morning while the birds were being banded. Wow! Quite an experience. I'm sure glad I wasn't the one banding them; Jose and Clara were unhappy parents and stayed away while the eyasses were being banded, but flew by and pecked the guy several times when he was leaving the nest area. Really cool seeing that online.

http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=91/nest

Here is the link for the diary about Jose, Clara, and their 3 eyasses. And it was recently posted that there are two females and one male.

http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ.htm

I try to check in with the camera about two or three times a day, usually in the mornings, and again in the afternoons when I get home from work.

This morning I found Clara (?) feeding her eyasses. Most mornings mama is not seen (probably out looking for food for her youngsters). And there have been times when "the folks in charge" move the camera so one can see the adults (one or the other) keeping guard on the ledge.

How fascinating to be able to watch what is going on -- all from my desktop!