10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2022

In my imagination, the job of a male Australian Brush Turkey is pretty similar – removing or adding bits and pieces to his pile of rotting vegetation in order to get the right temperature to incubate the eggs buried underneath to hatch. It breeds in tree holes, presumably explaining the more commonly used name for it.

Australia 189

Australia Birds Koalas Parrots 189

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

With populations plunging dramatically over the last decade, researchers from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Birds Russia, and a number of other conservation organizations made the always-controversial call to pluck eggs from the imperiled wild population and establish a captive breeding program as a final hedge against extinction.

Eggs 163

Eggs Russia Research Breeding 163

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2012

After 28 days of sharing the duty of sitting on three eggs we finally had the arrival of our first Pied Oystercatcher chicks for 2012 on Friday August 3rd. It is unusual for three eggs to be laid here in Broome and many eggs do not even hatch due to predation each season.

Eggs 177

Eggs Dogs Shelters Family 177

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2018

Two weeks ago I introduced you to two pairs of our Pied Oystercatchers that were early egg layers this year and this week the eggs have hatched out after twenty eight days of incubation. Both pairs of Pied Oystercatchers are in a very public area of Cable Beach, but they are always successful with their egg incubation each year.

2018 100

2018 Eggs Feral Cats Camels 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

However, it is kind of sophisticated in that the females lay very individualized eggs in order to be able to detect the added eggs of parasite cuckoo finches. Let’s hope it can find some relatively unfragmented habitat for breeding – studies show that the failure rate of nests is much higher in fragmented habitats.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2011

We are into the second attempt at breeding for this season in Broome for Pied Oystercatchers. The first eggs are laid during the first week of July each year and if these eggs fail to hatch or the chicks are lost they will lay further eggs within a few weeks. Nest site with 3 eggs-one white!

2002 166

2002 Feral Cats Eggs 2007 166

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2017

Though they weight less than two ounces, Least Terns migrate from South America to the West, East, and Gulf Coast to breed on dunes or flat gravel roofs (there are also populations in the middle of the United States). It’s mid-April, and soon they will begin laying eggs. There is no mistaking a Least Tern: they were back!

South America 103

South America United States Protection Pelicans 103

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2014

There are wild dogs present and these are not the dingo, but a dog that was also brought to Australia by Europeans in 1788 and has spread throughout the country. Feral cat predation on Pied Oystercatcher eggs. They have occasionally been seen to the south of Broome, but as yet have not become a big problem.

Australia 157

Australia Species Feral Cats Feral 157

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Wood Duck ( Aix sponsa ) Female Incubating Eggs in a Nest Box “Many species of cavity-nesting birds have declined because of habitat reduction. This is the female incubating eggs in the nest box… and a couple of weeks later… then, at the ripe old age of 17 days, what’s going on out here?

North America 216

North America America Barn Owls Falcons 216

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2012

Some might contest this, saying that Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hatches An Egg precedes Eastman’s book by twenty years. But since Horton is an elephant, and since the creature that hatches from the egg is an elephant-bird, I’m going to wait till 10,000 Birds does a Hybrid Bird Week before discussing this representative of the Seussiverse.

Birds 214

Birds Owls Switzerland Lions 214

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2011

Olive Sea Snake that has had a dog visit it on the beach Olive Sea Snake with obvious bulge Stoke’s Sea Snake Stoke’s Sea Snake with wounds Dubois’ Sea Snake Dubois’ Sea Snake being returned to the sea! She also monitors Pied Oystercatchers breeding along a 23km stretch of beach by bicycle and on foot.

Australia 151

Australia 2011 Sharks Deer 151

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2013

The story of the cahow, a “Lazurus species” that was thought to be extinct for over 300 years and then discovered to be breeding on a tiny remote island in Bermuda, is part of modern birding legend. In 1951, there were 18 breeding pairs of cahows discovered on three tiny islands. This is a good read, informative and engaging.

Birds 168

Birds Rats Breeding 2012 168

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

They range in size from the tiny Fairy Penguin ( Eudyptula minor ) at about 1 kg to the very large Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri at about 35 kg (that would be a reasonably large dog). Penguins are flightless, but some species locomote over long distances on antarctic ice to travel between breeding grounds and the sea.

Penguins 193

Penguins Seals Peru Science 193

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Michigan 231

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 231

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Our daily walks to our two local parks with our neighbour’s dog are currently quite a dangerous affair. With a dog you have to approach the trees for obvious reasons. There are eggs in the nests, so it won’t be long and there will be young and no doubt it will become even more dangerous to walk through the park.

Dogs 192

Dogs Eggs Breeding Birds 192

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2013

The early threats of guano harvesting and egg collecting have been replaced by the more ominous threats of oil pollution and overfishing of their favorite food source – pilchards. On the mainland they face predation from domestic cats, dogs, genets, mongoose and Cape Gulls which steal their chicks and eggs.

Penguins 217

Penguins South Africa Africa Sharks 217

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

Each year tens of thousands of these gulls go to the islands and each pair will lay three eggs. Most of these clutches of eggs will hatch to produce three fluffy and adorable chicks. By way of an example take the Western Gulls that I studied on the Farallon Islands in California. Western Gull chick.

Animal Rights 264

Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

The species was seemingly killed off by feather hunters, but then, after years, reappeared at the site of one of the deserted breeding colonies, Torishima Island in Japan. ” There are amazing stories here. The survival of the Short-tailed Albatross, which once numbered in the millions, is simply amazing.

Fox 100

Fox Albatross Geese Bald Eagle 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2011

We monitor the Pied Oystercatchers breeding along a 23km stretch of beach each year and it can all be covered on foot or by bicycle-tide dependant! They usually have their first eggs in place by the first week in July each year and they sit on them for 28 days. We had a new pair arrive in a territory about 7kms north four years ago.

Breeding 172

Breeding Feral Cats Eggs Feral 172

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2012

Over the past week I have continued to monitor the Pied Oystercatchers along our coast and as usual I observe the birds fight against predation of both their eggs and chicks. The birds first arrived on the mainland in 1996 after breeding on the nearby island, Lawrence Rocks.

Protection 166

Protection Portland Fox Birds 166

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

To be honest, both the robin and the flycatchers shown above remind me of the easter eggs I hunted for as a child – the same strong colors in front of a green background, same time of the year (feel free to insert your own Proust Madeleine reference here) … Bluethroats apparently are good at imitating other birds.

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2019

Birders cherish and hoard books above all other trappings of the pastime, and rather than relegating these tomes to the home library or study, they’re routinely carried out-of-doors as constant and dog-eared companions in field and forest.

2015 113

2015 Italy Falcons Europe 113

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2012

So, this pair (I assume there are two, though I only saw one today) of eagles has a territory including small dogs and stray children, baby coyotes, crows, but mainly squirrels and marmots right around its nest, and a major river backed up by a large dam about a mile or two away (the Mississippi) and several lakes.

Eagles 176

Eagles Bald Eagle Coyotes Mississippi 176

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2011

Breeding behaviour and plumage was very apparent, but John Wise , an ex-pat Brit now resident in Orlando, told me that the birds’ activities had been held up for a couple of weeks during a cold snap that saw frosts in Florida. Boat-tailed Grackles count eggs and chicks as part of their diet and they were well represented here today.

2011 116

2011 Alligators Florida Deer 116