Owls nesting in a planter! [live webcam]

A pair of great horned owls chose to nest in a planter outside of the Brevard County Commission in Viera, FL and the eggs have hatched--there is even a LIVE owl cam.

Seems like a very odd place for an owl nest indeed!

I've only seen one chick, but maybe there are two or more?

Some of the best hummingbird videos I've seen

This website has some of the best pictures and videos of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that I've seen yet! Be sure to watch the video of Russ handfeeding the hummers! Oh, how I want to do that!

http://e-hummingbirds.com/

By golly there are birds on that nest!

I travel down Jones Creek Rd twice every week day to and from work. Behind the Presbyterian Church there is a large field and a small stand of woods, with a minimal tree line that separates the field from a subdivision on the other side along O'Neal Lane. In a Sweet Gum tree there is a hawk's nest. I think I found out about it last year, and checked it out last spring. I did actually see the female on the nest last year, but a couple of weeks later when I checked, she was gone, so I'm pretty sure they didn't fledge any young. This year, every day as I pass I glance at the tree to see if there's any action and I haven't seen any birds there. But the nest is so well maintained that today I decided to take a closer look.

So on my way home today from trying to video the Eagle's nest, I stopped. Much to my surprise, two birds were on the nest! The male left immediately and I didn't see him again. The female hunkered down and became virtually invisible without magnification. Fortunately I had some :-) She is hard to see in the pictures above (click on the picture to see them larger), but you can see her head, dark eye, and most of the top of her body if you look closely. Hopefully she is sitting on eggs and we'll see the nestlings soon!

Click here for a mediocre video of the hawk on the nest. Not too exciting at this point, but I'll be keeping a closer eye here on out!

Nesting action!

Exciting stuff going on in Downtown Baton Rouge! A birder friend that works in the Chase building reports that a Red-Tailed Hawk (pair?) is making a nest in a large communications tower just east of the Chase. The nest is smack dab in the center of the top of the tower, in between large disks. From underneath, the nest looks like a pile of sticks on top of a screen platform. It's a very protected location. Unfortunately, it will be very difficult for us to watch any activity here. If the nest is successful we might be able to see fledglings as they are about to fly....

And on the Kestrel front...the female Kestrel is back! I've seen her two days in a row on top of the State National Life building. If you hark back to last year, http://seejanebird.blogspot.com/2008/03/kissing-kestrels.html you'll remember the Kestrels that nested in downtown Baton Rouge. It was actually the third year I saw them. They fledged at least one baby last year. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture before they moved out for the summer... So, I'll be checking often to see if the male is around, and *really* hoping that I can find the nest the year. In fact, our Kids Who Bird club is going to make a point of locating the nest if we can!

Here's a link to a nestcam for a Red-Tailed Hawk http://www2.fi.edu/hawknest.php nesting in downtown Philadelphia. She's laid two eggs so far and is incubating them. Not very exciting to watch at this point, but things should heat up soon!

Whooping cranes are dying...

Sad article about the plight of the Aransas Whooping Crane flock:

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/local/story/424767.html