I love these videos narrated by Sir David Attenborough from BBC Worldwide. They show the private lives of beavers up close and personal.
You don’t have to look only in your local tv listings for nature shows on Discovery Channel and National Geographic any more, you might want to check out the your neighborhood movie listings. The release of Earth in April was only the beginning of a new surge of big screen nature movies. The Cove is an espionage style/documentary film that brings the plight of the Dolphin in Taiji, Japan to light. The Cove is screening in select cities around the country.
The Crimson Wing , opens Sept. 25th, the first in a series of nature films by newly formed Disneynature.
Wildlife films: Flights of fancy
Over the next five years, Disneynature will be releasing one film a year. Following The Crimson Wing, the sub-aquatic adventure Oceans will be unveiled next April. Then, in 2011 comes Naked Beauty. “It’s about the job that pollinators – bees, hummingbirds, bats, butterflies – do to help flowers produce and create what we need to survive,” says Camilleri. “Einstein said that if bees disappear from the surface of the Earth, then we have four years to live.” Then comes African Cats, currently being shot in Kenya, and in 2013, Earth co-directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield will present Chimpanzee.
I think the real winners here, besides the viewers that get to see these wonders up close, are the animals, birds and habitats that get the attention they deserve.
This week in Santa Monica, Ca. IBRRC took part in the Blue Planet Festival. To kick off the festivities they did a public release of Brown Pelicans and gulls. It’s great to see these large, anthropomorphic birds make it back from human caused injury to freedom again.
Another large bird that may not have the same anthropomorphic qualities is the Ca. Condor. I find them fascinating even though I have yet to see one in the wild. There is good news from Ventana Wildlife Society in an update on the status of this years hatchlings. You can read about it here on their blog.
To Celebrate Vulture Awareness Day, I thought I would feature a few photos of what Vultures do best. This Turkey Vulture was in my neighborhood cleaning up the remains of a squirrel I assume had been hit by a car. He was in a driveway with his prize as I came down the street. Thanks for the cleanup!
International Vulture Awareness Day
California’s Bay Delta Region could be in for a real fight if the Governor’s proposed legislation is passed. A package of five bills regarding the Bay-Delta is currently being considered by the state legislature in the final weeks of this legislative session. These are bills that would enable moving legislation ahead to construct a water conveyance system comparable to the Panama Canal circumventing the fresh water flows into the Delta.
The Center for Biological Diversity is asking for your help to Stop the Governors Big Ditch with a letter to your Legislators by Sept 11
For more information follow these links:
It’s been good and bad news for the Ventana Wildlife Society this year. They had successful hatchings from the 5 nesting pairs this year with continuing good news from 3 nesting sites. Unfortunately one chick was found dead because of trash impaction, probably from being fed trash from the parents. One nest is still being monitored for later news on the chick.
As of today 5 Condors are being evacuated from their flight pen in Pinnacles to Big Sur because of a fire.
For more information on these fascinating birds visit their own personal blog at MyCondor.org
The US Army is planning to move more than 1,1oo Desert Tortoises to expand its training operations in the Mojave Desert. More than 250 of the 600 tortoises died last year during a move to make way for tank warfare training.
The Center for Biological Diversity is asking for help in their fight to stop the translocation of this endangered species.
Their petition can be found here
More information can be found on these pages
California Desert Tortoise: under the gun of the U.S. Army
Army seeks to move more than 1,100 desert tortoises
- Juvenile Double-Crested Cormorant
IBRRC is an amazing place to volunteer. I’ve only worked there a few months but it doesn’t take long to sense the dedication and care that the staff and volunteers practice everyday. I don’t know what it is that keeps everyone coming back for more, the lovely smell of fish that covers your clothes when you go home, or the many colors of bird poop that you might be wearing when you walk out the door. What it comes down to is that it’s all about the birds and I think Charlie at 10,000 Birds had a good feel for for the allure of the place in his second report from his visit here.
More from the IBRRC – releasing cormorants
If you missed part one it is
According to the LA Times today The operator of a tanker that spilled 53,000 gallons of fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay pleaded guilty Thursday to two criminal charges and will pay a $10 million fine, according to federal officials. Read the complete story here.
If you need to be reminded of the damage it cause to the local waterfowl here’s the blog from IBRRC about the scores of birds they had to clean and rehab.
Yesterdays Audublog from Audubon Ca. gave us a little update about the Rossmoor Acorn Woodpeckers, which we haven’t heard too much about for awhile now. The last we heard the Fish & Wildlife Service authorized the USDA to trap 20 birds to be sent to Colorado for research purposes. The trapped birds would all be euthanized at the end of the project and it was felt by many of us to be an underhanded trick to bypass the depredation permit.
We’ve also learned through Dr. Eric Walters, an Acorn Woodpecker specialist at UC Berkeley, that at least five woodpeckers died before they could reach the USDA’s research facility in Fort Collins
Right now it’s a wait and see game to see what happens when the acorns are ready to be harvested by the Woodpeckers. Rossmoor installed fake granaries that look like bee blocks with non-native wood and we don’t know how inviting that is as a substitute food storage. They have also done more repair on the houses to make them less enticing to the birds.
Judging from the new acorns on my little tree it looks to be a fruitful year.
For back posts of Rossmoor Woodpecker articles go here
