We have your Decorah and Decorah North NestFlix, a 50 States of Conservation, and an Odds and Ends…and Robin Brumm will have a very special Day Trip and report on Mom and DM2 a little later this evening! Thank you so much for watching our nest tweet nests and please remember to join us for a special fundraising chat tomorrow! Every gift to RRP in any amount powers our work, and we can’t do it without you.
Decorah North Eagles
November 28, 2022: Mr. North left and DNF right.
November 27, 2022 – DNF and Mr. North tussle over where the furniture goes – https://youtu.be/6Y6AjOAQiks. Check out the size of the stick in the stick tango! It’s not long, but it is wonky and quite thick! It’s not surprising that DNF made the final decision on where this particular crib rail went!
November 26, 2022: Deer, DNF, and Mr. North on cam – https://youtu.be/rKa_HMtDiJQ. The video opens with a white-tailed doe in the pasture. Rut is drawing near and deer are becoming more active in the open and during the day! We watch her until 1:04, when the camera switches to the North nest. DNF is busy moving sticks around. Mr. North joins her at 2:31!
A dark-eyed junco searches for food on November 26. These hardy little birds could be locals or visitors from Canada. They breed from Alaska east across the great boreal forest to Newfoundland and Labrador.
November 24, 2022: Thanksgiving cardinals – https://youtu.be/nfD2rqZQyTk. I counted three male and two female Northern Cardinals, but Dark-eyed Juncos and a small bird with white wing bars – an American Goldfinch in winter plumage, perhaps? – also visit the North nest snack station!
Decorah Eagles
November 28, 2022: A picture-perfect eagle with hardly a feather out of place. HM is beautiful!
November 28, 2022: A deer, HM, and two turkeys – https://youtu.be/5fBMZLycCmU. We get a nice glimpse of a doe up on hatchery rock before the camera operator finds HM perched in a tree. But wait – what are those dark things to the left of HM? Two wild turkeys wander into the screen behind him.
November 27, 2022: HD and HM
November 27, 2022: HM loses a twig to the wind, HM and HD to the Y – https://youtu.be/lXviiztyQjo. The video opens with a stunning shot of HM. At 1:24, the camera operator switches to HD in the nest. He hops to the Y at 2:11 and HM comes to the nest at about 3:40. At 3:46, she loses a twig to the wind! She peers over the nest curiously at 4:34, appearing to watch something below her, although we can’t hear anything but small birds. She joins HD on the Y at the end of the video.
November 28, 2022: Do you see the eagle heart? A shot of the nest taken by our camera operators.
I loved seeing the eagles, but I also really enjoyed the glimpse of N1. HD and HM have brought in cornhusks, leafy stalks, and plenty of grass. Their well-lined home-tweet-home looks cozy and warm even on a windy day!
50 States of Conservation
Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance: https://www.lakepepinlegacyalliance.org/. The Lake Pepin Alliance is fighting to save Lake Pepin from filling in with sediment. With sedimentation rates 10 times above normal, the lake is in a fight for survival and is expected to prematurely disappear in just a few generations.
We band falcons along Lake Pepin. It is the world’s biggest natural river lake and an unbelievably beautiful place. You often ask us what you can do for wildlife and wild places in your own lives. Personal changes are really, really important, but I also recommend that you join local groups like this. We really are stronger together.
Odds and Ends
Poisons killed beloved owls in Tampa Bay. Can their defenders save others? https://www.tampabay.com/news/2022/11/22/poison-birds-florida-owls-wildlife-rodenticide-deaths/. A tragic but worthwhile read. Three takeways: Local action works. The EPA is reviewing rodenticides and will have a public comment period, so we’ll keep you posted. Trapping is hard work and can be gruesome, but if you have problem rodents, it is a safer option than rodenticides for birds of prey, snakes, and anything else that eats rodents.
Colombian environmental engineer Germán Viasus Tibamoso, owner of Tierra Viva, holds a Hercules beetle in Tunja, Colombia. Credit: AP Photo/Fernando Vergara
Hard working Columbian beetles clean garbage, retire as pets – https://phys.org/news/2022-11-hard-working-colombian-beetles-garbage-pets.html. This is a cool story! The beetles are really neat and the researcher has developed an efficient, quick, and environmental way to quickly transform fertilizer into food scraps. I also like that he talks to his beetles in Japanese to accustom them to the sounds of their future homes. Not raptors or vertebrate animals, but very neat!
Jaw of Extinct Lion found along drought stricken Mississippi River: https://gizmodo.com/american-lion-jaw-fossil-mississippi-river-1849796612. Did you know there were lions in what we now call the United States? I’ll admit that I’m jealous – my best find remains an okay nautilus. What a cool fossil!
The Raptor Resource Project