Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Bald Eagle Mom Delta is Injured, More Snow at Berry College Bald Eagle Nest, Wet Bald Eagles at Northeast Florida Nest


There has been a lot of worry about one of the Hancock Wildlife Bald Eagles. Mom Delta has been unable to put any weight on her left foot since some time on Feb 8/9. She appears ok in a video on the 8th, but is not using her left leg/foot on the 9th.  Hancock Wildlife posted a video from today of her perched and you can see her foot that is hanging down. I don't see anything obviously wrong with her foot. It may be a broken leg. An injured but flight-capable Bald Eagle is difficult to catch. They can try to bait/net her. Otherwise, her condition will have to deteriorate to the point of not being able to fly any more before she can be captured for diagnosis and treatment. Which would make recuperation that much more difficult if she is so sick that she can no longer fly... And that's only if she ended up down where someone sees her and knows to get someone to catch her.

I checked on Mom Berry College early this morning, concerned by all the forecasts of freezing rain for Georgia. She looked to be doing ok at 8:10AM:

She is really accumulating some snow tonight. You can see which white streaks are flakes (as opposed to branches) in these two screen captures, taken a minute apart at 7:30PM:


I missed the egg-roll and repositioning darn it, shortly after the above screen captures. Here she is at 8:45PM. This is about an hour's worth of snow accumulation on her:

This is what she has to look forward to for the rest of the night, with the snow clearing out by sunrise.

I was going to call it a night watching this nest when she decided to put on a show! First, a stand and shake (look at how nice and dry that nest bowl is!):

Then she carefully backs up:

Does a quick egg roll:

Then just that quick, she settles back down. I can't tell the difference between the white of her tail and the snow...

The Northeast Florida Bald Eagles are looking wet tonight. In this screen capture, one baby is right in front of the other:


Here's a better look at the babies. Their feathers are wet, but they are warm and dry underneath:

I looked in on the Southwest Florida Bald Eagle nest too, but the camera must be down...

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