10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2018

This year is the eighteenth year since we discovered our first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in Broome and it didn’t take us long to realise that they are not at all successful at raising young due to egg and chick predation. He last raised a chick successfully in 2016 and has nested in this area since 2008.

Breeding 100

Breeding 2018 Eggs 2016 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Sadly, they no longer breed in Algeria, while in Turkey no free-flying birds remain. (In Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World states that “disturbance by local people, tourists, and egg and zoo collectors has similarly reduced the colonies, and more protection is vital”. In 1890 an estimated 3,000 pairs nested in Birecik.)

Morocco 240

Morocco Austria Algeria Germany 240

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

Egg loss to predation has been extraordinarily bad this year and all of the nests mentioned in the last post were lost and all of the pairs of Pied Oystercatchers laid a new clutch of eggs. In fact they have not just laid once again, but many pairs have laid up to five clutches of eggs this season.

Breeding 135

Breeding Eggs 2011 2008 135

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

I should have known that birding High Island meant I would be 20 minutes away from a place where hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterbirds rest, feed, breed, and generally have a good time. I love American Avocets and I rarely see them in such marvelous breeding plumage, so I was in heaven. Clapper Rail. Back to the Flats.

Houston 233

Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 233

Critter News

NOVEMBER 5, 2008

4, 2008) – Voters in California approved an historic ballot measure to halt the inhumane confinement of animals on factory farms by an overwhelming margin. All animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food.” It applies to breeding pigs, egg laying hens and veal calves.

Prop 2 100

Prop 2 Wayne Pacelle Proposition 2 California 100

Critter News

DECEMBER 12, 2009

Another animal dies at the Calgary Zoo and more questions are being raised about their practices. In April 2009, unseasonably cold weather froze two whopping crane eggs. They were a part of the zoo’s breeding program for the rare birds. In November 2008, a virus killed a 15-month-old Asian elephant calf named Malti.

Zoos 100

Zoos Animal Welfare Welfare Elephants 100