Monday, August 31, 2015

Africam Black Eagle Day 95, Big Sur Condor Dancing Chick, Dyfi Osprey How Dad Spent the Day, Loch of the Lowes Osprey Day 99,101&102, White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 26

The Africam Black Eagle was resting a lot today.



The chick did get up and stretch once while I was watching.

Then it settled down for the night.


The Big Sur Condor checked out the world outside its window.

This bird has a huge wingspan!

I found out that this nest is an old hollow Redwood that has been struck by lightening or was in a forest fire, resulting in the burned interior wall. Leaves and sticks have fallen inside to create a nice nest.

The parents only feed the chick every few days. It may take a while before I find one of them at the nest.

I have no idea what normal behavior is for a Condor chick. But I think it was dancing today... Check out the Dancing Chick video (2:36)

Here's Dad at the Dyfi Osprey nest.

Many times, when you see a bird "lighten the load" it is getting ready to fly. So, prepare your camera when you see this. (And yes, he flew away right after this.)

He brought a stick to the nest a short while later.

He knew exactly where he wanted to place it, then he took off again.

Lots of Canada Geese at the nest site.

A little later, Dad returned to his favorite perch with a  fish.

He waited for a long time to see if one of his fledglings was going to come and claim it. When nobody showed up, he ate it...

He's got the last bite (the tail fin) in his mouth here. He swallowed it whole!

Then he did some feaking to clean off his beak.

I brought up the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey cam this morning to find FR4 in the nest. She flew away 6 seconds later! Talk about good timing... They have posted an update on their blog.

It was a nice day at the White-bellied Sea Eagle nest today.

SE16 is getting a bite of breakfast.

They are really filling up the nest bowl now! I expect they will escape the nest bowl any day now.

Big and little...

We've been spotted! I can see pin feathers along SE16's wing edge.

Here's another look at those pin feathers.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Wildlife Center of Virginia Release of Bald Eagle #15-1250, Africam Black Eagle Day 94, Harrison Bay Eagles, White-bellied Sea Eagle Day 25 Pin Feathers

It took forever to upload the video of the Bald Eagle release from Thursday 8/27. Here's some still pictures. Chippokes Plantation sits right on the water:

Ed Clark got stuck in traffic. Dr. Kelli Knight did the release.



Here's the video of Bald Eagle #15-1250 Release (12:06):

I finally got the Africam Black Eagle cam to come up today. The baby was laying in the nest and the camera angle let us see the waterfall in the bottom right corner. The waterfall provides background sound at this nest.

Kendi finally stood up...
 
...but curled up into a ball for the night.

Both of the parents are spending the night in the nest tree at the Harrison Bay Eagle nest.

I think it's Mom at the top left and Dad at the bottom right.

We have pin feathers coming in on the White-bellied Sea Eagle chicks! You can see the dark spots all over SE16's back and at her "elbow".

It looks like the parent got in the way of a poop shoot at some point. I'm sure it happens, I've just never seen it happen. I imagine this is what it looks like afterward...

I still can't get over the size difference! They look funny when they sit up like this.

SE15 does have a large crop, so he is getting fed.

He relaxes a little bit when his sister is looking away.

But then he would stretch tall whenever his sister looked his way.

But SE16 isn't fooled. She knows she is the dominant sibling and puts him down.

And SE15 is smart enough to stay down.

Such a huge size difference between these two chicks!

SE16 is doing a big stretch and showing us her pin feathers coming in along the edges of her wings.

Two little cutie-pies!

Stretching those wings.

They still snuggle together for warmth.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Big Sur Condor Nest Cam, Dyfi Osprey Day 89,91&92, Harrison Bay Eagles, Loch of the Lowes Osprey Day 97,99&100, White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 24

There's a nest cam at a Condor nest in Big Sur California. This is the first time a cam has been put on a nest of this endangered bird. I'm not familiar with the background on this nest. It looks like it's in a hollow (maybe burned) tree? Maybe from a lightening strike? Anybody know?

The chick has been banded "99" and it already looks rather large with that wing span. The bottom left of this s'cap is what makes me think this is a hollow, burned tree.


And then it nearly disappears in the shadows against the wall.

They aren't the prettiest of birds...

I was hoping to see a parent. But after more than 5 hours of recording (some of which was of a frozen stream) all I got was the chick.

At the Dyfi Osprey nest, Dad brought a fish and W2 Celyn came screaming in to claim it.

"Thanks Dad!"

I'm not sure who this is. The folks at the nest have a new blog entry about Blue24 that was at the nest yesterday. They include a s'cap of her in the nest in June while there were babies in the nest. I hadn't realized that had happened... It looks like she's being yelled at and is leaving. In that blog entry, they reference another blog entry which contains a map showing where the various nests are located. Good stuff! They also refer to a male Osprey Dai Dot. You can read the background of Blue24 and Dai Dot here. All of these posts are very interesting and informative.

One parent was perched in the pine at the Harrison Bay Eagle nest. You can see it flying away in the bottom right of this s'cap.

Who is this at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest? I don't see a band on its left leg.

It's got white tips on its feathers, so it's a youngster... But no band. Who are you? Are you a visitor hoping to score a free meal?

A little while later, FR4 comes for a visit.

Hoping for a fish delivery... The antenna is visible here.

It was a short visit since Dad didn't bring a fish. You can see the antenna clearly in this s'cap.

I didn't get much from the White-bellied Sea Eagle nest today.

It's hard to tell where one stops and the other one starts...

I processed the video from Thursday's Eagle release. But it is going to take 8 hours to upload to YouTube. I forgot how long it takes to upload from my video camera. I think that's because it's HD... I'll have it posted tomorrow.