At the Bird TLC property

Photo taken after a presentation at the Bird TLC property tonight. It was 73° and a gorgeous day.

Return to Moose Pass

Ghost, Petra and I went to Moose Pass on Friday night. Every year Bird TLC is invited back to Trail Lake Lodge to do presentations for their birding groups. We always have a good time and meet some great people from all over the states. Since I went solo, there are no photos of the presentation, but here's Ghost and Petra chillin' afterwards.

Moose Pass is not a large town so there's not a lot of traffic off the main road. We only attracted a few people at the lodge.

Ghost didn't care. He said "I'm off the clock. I'm enjoying the quiet".

Petra did a few calls for the few that walked by. I think she thought they wanted her salmon. She didn't want it then, but she didn't want to share.

Nothing like a nice bath after a long over-nighter.

Thanks Dave, Doug, Chris and Nan for having down again this year. It's a big treat for us.

International Migratory Bird Day at the Alaska Zoo

Let the releases begin

The first release of the year will be tonight at the Eagle River Nature Center right after their auction. BE 11-29 came to Bird TLC less than a month ago from Kodiak after it was hit by a truck. He recovered fast and has quite the attitude.

A good time at Potter Marsh

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was the host of a fun event at Potter Marsh yesterday. It was for the 4th & 5th grade kids of Anchorage School District to learn more about salmon and life cycle.

An estimated 800 kids came out for the day and they also go to see some of our education birds.

(Picture borrowed from Patrica Grenier)

A gorgeous day helped make it a perfect event.

Gina Maria presented Arc our great horned owl and Lisa with Petra a bald eagle. Cindy and Hal a bald eagle and me with Ghost a snowy owl also got to present.

For the past 9 months I've worked with Lisa and Petra. We both got to share this event today.

All in ll a fun time today.

There's some serious building going on

Even tough Bird TLC doesn't hold a permit for their education birds to reproduce and even though Petra doesn't have a mate, she still goes through the steps of building a nest.

Here she is gathering grass to line her nest.

Petra is considered partially flighted, so she has a very large mew. Sticks and limbs provided by Lisa are arranged by Petra to form what she considers a nesting area. Lisa will hand her a limb and Petra will size it with her beak. If it fits her needs she takes it and places it in the nesting area were Petra feels it needs to be.

 
Here she's placing grass within the nesting area.

Petra is very protective of the nesting area. Weighing almost 14 lbs, she can very intimidating. We stay clear of the area when we enter her mew for feeding, watering and stuff. She's also more receptive to Lisa than me right now. We're not sure if it's because she's more familiar with Lisa right now or what.

Anyways, Petra is staying very busy right now.

The bottom 2 photos are by Lisa Pajot and the top 2 are by Dave Dorsey.