For those of you pining for the old majordomo days, they're long gone, so
that address doesn't work anymore. Chebucto is using the Mailman list
server now, which anybody receiving this message will have known about a
few months ago. It does seem to have some glitches nowadays, and I will get
back to you when I find out what's going on.
Doug Linzey
Administrator
I've tried unsubscribing using the instructions located on the naturens
webpage (https://naturens.ca/information-page/nature-network/), but my
emails are bouncing back, telling me that the majordomo(a)chebucto.ns.ca
address is not valid.
any one else have this problem?
Bill #4 before the N.S. Legislature at present is designed to help restore
some of our lost Biodiversity and hence the name. Biodiversity Act.
But there is a group, spreading falsehoods in an attempt to get people to
ask for its defeat.
We need to let the MLAs know what a benefit the Act will be for the
forests, wildlife and N.S.
Please read about it on the Ecology Action, the Nature Nova Scotia or
Healthy Forest Coalistion Websites.
https://ecologyaction.ca/save-nova-scotias-biodiversity-act-contact-your-mlahttps://naturens.ca/nova-scotia-once-again-close-to-enacting-biodiversity-l…
And contact the MLAs of N,S .
There is also an amendment to the Crown Land Act that redefines the
purpose ot our common land to one for the people and wildlife rather than
just forestry.
Help both of these to get passed.
Regards.
Larry
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Larry Bogan
Brooklyn Corner, Nova Scotia
larry(a)bogan.ca
Today (March 3) Lisa Eye reports an adult bald eagle is sitting on the nest on Lower Church St., northeast of Port Williams. I just drove by the Blomidon Inn, which is adjacent to the eagle nest at the Anglican Church in Wolfville. An adult male eagle was perched at the Inn, and a cursory look at the nest showed nothing; but an eagle sitting down in the cup would be difficult to see. At this time of year adults are known to “pseudo-incubate†without any eggs under them.
This is an interesting time of year for the eagles. Now the paired adults should be on their territories, showing ownership of the area around the nest, adding sticks and redecorating, cementing their pair-bonds in various ways, and indulging in courtship and perhaps mating behaviours.
I’ve been messing around with approximating dates for egg-laying (up to 3 eggs, takes a week), growth of eaglets to fledging (requires 12 weeks or 84 days, until early July or end of June, etc.
Back-dating from early July results in approximately March 10-15 for egg-laying and April 15-20 for hatching of eaglets, which then don’t become visible in the nests until early to mid-May.
These are just vague guesses from someone who spends a lot of time monitoring local nests from his car in eastern King’s County.
Now think about how tough these birds are, i.e., no matter what the weather, the female gets to sit on the eggs for very long periods of the day and night, for 35+ days, and then sit on and guard the growing youngsters for weeks.
Here are a few more stats on bald eagles, from my memory:
Both sexes show white heads and tails at maturity, which takes about five years, and females are much larger than males after fledging, averaging about a kilogram or two pounds different. The size differences are very noticeable even when the immatures are growing in the nest. The large adult females make very good nest defenders, whereas the smaller males are more versatile hunters. It is the males that provide most of the food for the female and eaglets until the latter are a couple of months old.
Bald eagles are quite long-lived, up to nearly 30 years in the wild, versus up to almost 50 years in captivity.
The largest bald eagle we weighed and measured at Acadia University was about 12 kilograms (I need to check this) and had 87 inches of wingspan (7 feet 3 inches).
Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
Dear All,
   My email program will not let my forward my post of Mar.3 so can't
connect directly with it. That Robin vanguard was just that. More showed
up today; mixed large and normal sized Robins and left after brief
feeding. Still some haws left.
   Perhaps they are waiting for soon to arrive warmer weather.
Dave
Today (March 4) in early afternoon I checked on the eagle nest at the Anglican Church on Wolfville’s east Main St., and there was a definite white head in the nest but it was difficult to see. Later I drove around on this sunny but very cold day and checked on ten more local eagle nest-sites, mostly from Greenwich to Hortonville and Avonport. Of the 11 nests checked, only 2 had sitting adult eagles (including Lisa Eye’s), 2 others had 1-2 eagles on the nest-rims, and the rest had no visible eagles. It’s still very early in their nesting cycle, and I will be checking on them regularly.
I also saw a female n. harrier in the Grand Pre area.
Cheers from Jim in Wolfville.
Yesterday I wrote:
Today (March 3) Lisa Eye reports an adult bald eagle is sitting on the nest on Lower Church St., northeast of Port Williams. I just drove by the Blomidon Inn, which is adjacent to the eagle nest at the Anglican Church in Wolfville. An adult male eagle was perched at the Inn, and a cursory look at the nest showed nothing; but an eagle sitting down in the cup would be difficult to see. At this time of year adults are known to “pseudo-incubate†without any eggs under them.
This is an interesting time of year for the eagles. Now the paired adults should be on their territories, showing ownership of the area around the nest, adding sticks and redecorating, cementing their pair-bonds in various ways, and indulging in courtship and perhaps mating behaviours.
I’ve been messing around with approximating dates for egg-laying (up to 3 eggs, takes a week), growth of eaglets to fledging (requires 12 weeks or 84 days, until early July or end of June), etc.
Back-dating from early July results in approximately March 10-15 for egg-laying and April 15-20 for hatching of eaglets, which then don’t become visible in the nests until early to mid-May.
These are just vague guesses from someone who spends a lot of time monitoring local nests from his car in eastern King’s County.
Now think about how tough these birds are, i.e., no matter what the weather, the female gets to sit on the eggs for very long periods of the day and night, for 35+ days, and then brood and guard the growing youngsters for weeks.
Here are a few more stats on bald eagles, from my memory:
Both sexes show white heads and tails at maturity, which takes about five years, and females are much larger than males after fledging, averaging about a kilogram or two pounds different. The size differences are very noticeable even when the immatures are growing in the nest. The large adult females make very good nest defenders, whereas the smaller males are more versatile hunters. It is the males that provide most of the food for the female and eaglets until the latter are a couple of months old.
Regarding food, eagles are opportunistic predators on various kinds of animals from fish to birds and mammals. They are also scavengers and are attracted unfortunately to road-kills and baits in traps.
Bald eagles are quite long-lived, up to nearly 30 years in the wild, versus up to almost 50 years in captivity.
Some say that bald eagles mate for life. I have heard that there is a small divorce-rate, based partly on how well two eagles have been reproducing. This is very difficult to study, without having individually marked birds.
The largest bald eagle we weighed and measured at Acadia University was about 12 kilograms (I need to check this) and had 87 inches of wingspan (7 feet 3 inches).
Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
Dear all, The vanguard of a brief invasion of unusually large Robins,
which I understand are a Labrador strain, showed up today and, based on
previous years, will strip my very large (30'tall &10' across) seedless
Multiflora Rose of haws by mid afternoon.
Dave in Kentville
