Bird Cams Around the World

This is what I feared., The other two are eating right there in the box with him now and he is still. Alive, but not for long I would imagine. Even last night I saw him sway/ wobble having a hard time standing. It seems like many on the SJ forum are in denial. Do they not watch the cam????

Well Clara is feeding the other two now. Wish she had done this a couple of days ago. Not sure if the chick is sick or just starving to death, but unless they go and get it, it will die I believe. Don't know how long that will take, but I will turn this cam off for the season when that happens.

How do you know that? I haven't even seen him on the cam. Well if so, I'm done. Thanks mwplay.

Right before food was brought in, Red and Silver were sitting next to him. He slightly raised his head and made some jerking movements.

Food was brought in. Red and Silver were eating. Red decided to take control of prey. Silver backed up (quite a bit) and actually stepped on Blue and there was absolutely NO movement. That was at 6:52AM.

I based the timeframe on when I posted my earlier message and when I saw Silver step on him.

I'm fearing that Silver thinks he's not getting enough and will begin to pluck Blue.

You know, I did see all that , just couldn't tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's not already dead, And it is possible the others will try to eat him, especially since they are not getting enough. The saddest thing I've seen . Is Red sitting on Blue now? Oh lord.

I just checked, and I think you are right. How terribly sad. I'm so sorry. Both of you have been so dedicated to this pair, and it seems such a shame to not do something. Glenn knows more than almost anyone about falcons, so I guess we have to assume he chose the right course. I am only a member of SF group, so I've just joined this one to see what he is saying. What a loss.

I don't think this is a matter of starvation. I think something went wrong. Disease or some kind of poisoning.

Blue was very strong and there were posts about how quickly he moved and some thought he would be the first out of the box (5/7/10).

This chick has been in trouble for days, nothing done. I understand they feared the others would bolt from the ledge, but I would have probably tried anyway. That's just me. I think their philosophy is let nature take it's course, a bad one , in my opinion.

You're right mwplay, Blue was very strong and full of life and energy just a few days ago, but he would not fight for his food when Clara stopped feeding them . They all ate the same thing. If poison, why aren't the others sick? Well they may all die yet, but the other two look strong, for now anyway. I will read any future posts, but won't look at the cam again.

ljames, I see that you posted this on Yahoo several days ago. There seems to be no posts from Glenn. I got one today on naming the SF chicks, so he must be around. I hope what has consumed him does not spread to the remaining chicks. Such a bummer.

Here's the announcement:

Dear forum members,

It appears that this year we will not only experience Nature at her best,
but at her worst as well.

With great sadness, we must inform you that the little "blue" boy passed
away earlier this morning.

You may wish to take a break from the San Jose Nest Cam for a few days and
turn your attention to the 4 exhuberant youngsters in San Francisco.
You will find the San Francisco nest camera at this link;
<http://www.scpbrg.org/> http://www.scpbrg.org/.

We will probably never know why, and it would have been too much of a risk,
to the two surviving young, to have attempted intervention.

As sad as we all are, we must take comfort in the two surviving youngsters
and occupy ourselves with preparations for next weeks Fledge Watch
activities.

With sorrow,

Board of Directors
San Jose Peregrine Falcon Alliance

As hard as it is to watch and accept such a turn of events, it is what life in the wild is all about: Survival of the fittest.
I guess we will never know the cause of death, retrieving the dead chick is not an option at this time of development. Too risky for the other two eyases.
Should "they" have intervened, even if they could have? I still have ambiguous feelings about that, even after 5 years of watching all these nests.
Ones heart says: Help the bird. Ones mind says: Let nature take it's course unless the need for help is obvious (for instance when a chick falls down to the ground, or a bird or animal is hurt in traffic.)
Maybe it was genetically. For the health of the species as a whole, it is better that individual members of that species which are not fit/strong enough or have a birth-defect, are not getting the possibility to re-produce.
Basically that is what LIFE is all about, the strongest/ healthiest re-produce to maintain a healthy and thriving population.

Edit: I see that an announcement was posted while typing this.

Catwoman - Glenn Stewart is the biologist, Glenn Nevill watches the SF nest and does wonderful photographs. Just want to distinguish. Glenn S. just posted to the forum. I can't speak for him, but based on his comments, I do think this death is not taken lightly.

I'm torn over this death.

The nest ledge is 19 floors up. The only access to the ledge is from the roof. It is clear the eyasses were moving around and exploring all the way down the runway. At the far end, there's a very short wall, probably the same height as the nestbox. If they attempted a rescue, it is very likely the other eyasses could run down the runway and off the side of the building.

Blue appeared very strong. I thought Silver was having problems (slowed down) over the weekend. Now, Blue is gone. I think something else is going on here. Up until Sunday (based on forum posts), all was going okay.

I don't know what to think. If there was poisoning, or disease, would any amount of intervention helped? And then, where do you foster him at? If he was introduced to another nest, if he did have disease, maybe the other nest becomes infected. If it was congenital, nothing would be able to help.

Even though I am writing a lot, I'm at a loss for words.....Maybe I'm becoming more numb after losing chick #4 and reading about all the strange stuff going on this year (Wilmington, Montreal, Cleveland, Amsterdam, De Mortel, Kestrel nest/Little owl in Netherlands... and other nests I'm forgetting).

Thanks for the correction about names, Michele!

So many times this year, I've been tempted to stop watching the cams that have chicks, because it is very hard to take all this misfortune. I wouldn't think they should have tried fostering out Blue, but I do think he should have been examined by a veterinarian. I thought they should have fostered out the baby because I think the only problem with him not getting fed was that there wasn't enough food to go around. Now my concern is getting Blue out of the box before he is fed to the other 2 & potentially giving them whatever he had. And if they have to take him out now, too bad they didn't take him out early enough to possibly get treatment for him.

I think it's pretty clear they aren't going to take Blue out.

I'm worried also. I think we will end up seeing the other two considering him prey. Until those other two fledge, I'm really going to be stressing over their health.

Last year we lost all 3 youngsters at SF. All 4 safely fledged in SJ. This year, SJ is having the issues and SF is doing great. What a turnaround. Reminds me of the little owl nest in the Netherlands. 2008, only 1 survives to fledge. 2009, all fledged, but I worried up until that time if they were going to make it.

Do they give the medication as a precaution, or because they've had issues with T. previously?

There was mention of disease from pigeons. In a post to the forum, Glenn S explained that even though they are all eating the same prey, sometimes some young are stronger than others. Apparently the eyasses get some immunity from Mom & Dad early in life, but become vulnerable around 4 weeks.