When you cannot get close enough to an osprey to see its eye color (red/orange fledgling & yellow adult), especially in flight, and you want to know is it an adult or a fledgling. Take a look at the back of the bird! Fledgling has white points at the end of all of its feathers! Adult has beautiful brown flight feathers. 2 photos (adult left, fledgling right) so you can see the difference! Moncure, July 2025 & August 2014
We are all familiar with a ruby-throated hummingbird … as it dashes madly about and the whir of its wings is quite distinct. There is another hummer at Jordan Lake and that is the hummingbird moth. You have to get pretty close to the moth to realize it is an insect and not a bird! I managed to catch both of these critters in the past couple of weeks and so wanted to share them with you. Enjoy their beauty and their zipping sipping flight! Moncure, NC, July 2025
He is negative for avian influenza/ bird flu. That was first big hurtle. His weight has fluxuated – not unusual in the process toward recovery. He is getting supplements to help with recovery from the severe feather damage. He is being feisty. Still not capable of flight, he runs and hops around the long enclosure that is his home. As I get further information I will pass it along. Please note the ongoing cost towards his recovery is over $1500. Please consider making a donation, thank you! current location is Carolina Raptor Center, Huntersville, NC. photo is from day of capture
My first sighting of one of this year’s fledgling ospreys! She is beautiful and her dark many layered necklace says I am female.
The little leucistic chipping sparrow is getting very good at finding food! John Gerwin ornithologist at the NC Museum of Natural Science answered a couple of questions about this leucistic bird for me. I was concerned that maybe it was a hybrid: it is not, it is all chipping sparrow. The first item that told John this was a chipping sparrow was the shape of its bill! Just thought I’d pass that along to all of y’all as we learn together.
The Rangers of Jordan Lake State Park discovered an injured bald eagle. Rangers Gibson, Sharpe, Davis and Baxter, working as a team, were able to safely get the bald eagle captured and into a dog crate. Park Supervisor Martin had called me asking how to safely catch the bald eagle and what were steps needed to get the bird to medical care. The bird needed to go to the Carolina Raptor Center for care and hopefully rehab. Dr. David Knox met me at the lake. The crated eagle went into his car and we drove to Huntersville NC. In 2nd photo the eagle was being examined by the staff at the Carolina Raptor Center. The staff is cautious about the eagles’s ability to recover. Recovery, in part, depends on results of the avian influenza bird flu test. If test is negative then the possibility of eventual release are good. If positive for the bird flu a lot of thought will go into the eagle’s future . If you would like to support the Carolina Raptor Center’s work, I have included the Jordan Lake bald eagle’s patient number and a QR code where you can learn about the Eagle and, if you would like, make donations to help the work at the center continue. On average it costs $1000 to recover a bird. I will pass along info at the beginning of next week on how the bald eagle is doing.
doc ellen's journey 