Flyway and GSB Dreaming

Happy Sunday, everyone! While we ramp up to turning on our eagle cams (if you missed the announcement, we’ll be turning on the Decorah North and Decorah Eagle cams on Saturday, October 9, at 12:00 central time), we’re watching the Mississippi Flyway and Cornell’s migration forecasts. Today, we’ve got bald eagles, sandhill cranes, a quick kickbox, and Newman and a turkey vulture at Great Spirit Bluff. We hope you enjoy these videos as much as we do!

Mississippi Flyway
September 28, 2021: A mixed-age group of bald eagles on the Mississippi Flyway!

September 28, 2021: A mixed-age group of bald eagles on the Mississippi Flyway!

October 2, 2021: Eagles, young and mature hanging outhttps://youtu.be/kN2KJOtrjjY. I really enjoyed watching the young subadult eagle forage beneath the watchful eye of a young adult and a fully adult eagle. While not a family – the young adult eagle is too young – it felt very familial to me! This video gives us a closer look at what I think are the same two adults: https://youtu.be/3DAc-Nh0TI8.

October 2, 2021: Eagles and sandhill cranes.

October 2, 2021: Eagles and sandhill cranes.

October 2, 2021: Sandhills Curiosity with Two Juvie Eagleshttps://youtu.be/8Ap3ASmwkok. Sandhills often appear to be curious birds. A group loosely surrounds two juvenile bald eagles as they forage, with both eagles and sandhill cranes appearing to keep an eye on one another. Take a look at 3:14! When the remaining juvenile eagle takes off, a sandhill crane rises us as if to kickbox it!

October 1, 2021: Sandhill craneshttps://youtu.be/P62A7g9GnIY. Exactly as the title says: beautiful close-ups of a stunning bird! Turkey vulture fans, this is for you – we get an amazing look at this turkey vulture’s face, head, and body against the limestone and yellow lichen of Great Spirit Bluff.

Great Spirit Bluff
September 30, 2021: Newman at Great Spirit Bluff.

September 30, 2021: Peregrine Falcon Newman at Great Spirit Bluff.

October 1, 2021: Sokol wÄ™drowny Newman o poranku (Peregrine falcon Newman in the morning)https://youtu.be/JY2KMRuvx7o. We often get asked about GSB dispersal and migration. Young falcons always disperse and they disperse a lot earlier than adults migrate. Peregrine falcons are partial migrators, which means that adults may or may not migrate depending on local food availability and subspecies (several sub-species, especially at lower latitudes, are non-migratory). We haven’t seen falcons winter here before, although I would love to know whether Newman and Zooey migrate south or simply shift their focus over into La Crosse. Check this ebird map for a report on falcons sighted in La Crosse between December and February: https://bit.ly/3a4CKeC

September 11, 2021: A turkey vulture at Great Spirit Bluff.

September 11, 2021: A turkey vulture at Great Spirit Bluff

September 11, 2021: Turkey Vulturehttps://youtu.be/9vRJ_ua8F4w. This is a few weeks old, but I didn’t have a chance to share it. Turkey vultures are beautiful birds, but why don’t they have feathers on their heads? Bits of carrion adhere to feathers, but not skin, so their bald heads stay clean when they scavenge inside of carcasses. They also have relatively weak talons, so they need to wait for other animals or decay to open a carcass…which means that the process of decomposition is usually well along by the tie they get a meal. Rosemary Mosco put it best: https://www.birdandmoon.com/comic/birds-are-gross/