An Older Video Of Bald Eagle HK, Brain Cleaning

I came across one of my older videos the other day. It's from the 2009 Norfolk Botanical Garden nest: Bald Eagles Azalea (HH), HK and HE. It's HK return to the nest after fledging. I love this video! HK is so pitiful -- so hungry. Read my comments on the video before you watch it, so it will make sense. There is also a lot of wingercizing in the second half of the video. It makes me happy to see Azalea in this video. It's been so long now since her transmitter stopped working. I miss my girl! Here's a link to the video. It's 8:22 minutes, but I enjoy the whole thing and am disappointed that it's over when it ends. (This was recorded with my old camcorder, so the quality isn't great. But this is still one of my favorite videos!)

While you sleep, your brain is cleaned of toxins. This includes the plaques that are found in the brains of people that have Alzheimer's. This cleaning process almost stops when we are awake. Read about it here.

Now for some bad news. My computer died. I have a new one on order, but it won't arrive until around November 14th. I'm picking and pecking this paragraph on my Kindle Fire. And I have no idea how to copy addresses of web pages so I can include links. (The two paragraphs above were already composed and saved in my drafts.) So, I'm going to have to experiment and see what I can figure out... 

New Picture of Bald Eagle Dad Norfolk, AEF Eaglets Fledge And Are Tracked, Swainson's Hawk Morphs on Feathered Photography Blog, Bald Eagle Population on The James River

Duane has posted a new picture of Dad Norfolk on the Norfolk Eagles Forum. He is looking good!

I posted several times earlier in the year about the AEF eaglets. They were removed from their nest when they were 6 weeks and 2 days old. This was to prevent them from imprinting on humans. They were taken to a hack tower away from people where they continued to grow and strengthen their flight muscles. They could only view natural surroundings without being able to see the people that monitored them and brought them food and water. They then fledged at 13 weeks on August 2nd. They both have transmitters and can be tracked at AEF's web site. I don't see how to get the map to come up from that site. If you figure it out, let me know how to do it...

Ron Dudley has presented the various morphs of the Swainson's Hawk on his Feathered Photography blog.

The College of William and Mary has posted a story about the Bald Eagle population on the James River.

AEF Eaglets Going to Hack Tower, S'Caps of Recent Fledges: Fort St Vrain, Alcoa, Two Harbors, and Sooner Lake

Tomorrow at 5:00PM, the AEF eaglets will be removed from the nest and taken to the hack towers. You can watch this on the AEF eagle cam. They will continue to grow, strengthen their flight muscles, and eventually fledge from the hack towers. I've talked about these towers in an earlier post. Here is a screen capture of the AEF eaglets this evening:

I caught up with some recent fledges. After Eaglets fledge, they will return to the nest, where the adults continue to bring food until the eaglet has learned to forage for itself. The Fort St Vrain eaglet finally looked toward the camera so I could get a s'cap (screen capture) without cutting off its head:

It looks like the two Alcoa eaglets are perched in a tree near the nest (one is only barely in the frame):

The afternoon sun is always harsh on the Two Harbors cam. But you can still make out the fledgling on the left side of the screen:

I found one of the Sooner Lake eaglets at home. It's hard to believe that two eaglets fledged from this nest. It looks too small!

I had included a bunch of s'caps from the Alcoa Osprey nest. But it was making this post take forever to open. So, here is a link to those pictures that I've put into a separate post. Just give it some time to open...

Nest Cam Roundup: AEF, Two Harbors, Sooner Lake, Alcoa, Duke Farms, Alcoa Osprey, Fort St Vrain, Harrison Bay, NCTC, Blackwater

The AEF chicks are getting big under the watchful eyes of their parents. Here, the chicks are in full pancake mode while their parents watch something fly overhead:

The Two Harbors chick is full grown. All that's left now is to build up flight muscles over the next couple of weeks in preparation to fledge:

The Sooner Lake babies look great. I caught them up and about today:

The Alcoa nest presents a challenge when trying to get a screen capture. This is pretty much just a silhouette -- and I only got that after much time and effort...

The Duke Farms eagles are full grown too. Here, one is sleeping with its head tucked under its wing while the other is in pancake mode:

The Alcoa Osprey chicks are getting so big so fast. All three chicks are in this screen capture. One is harder to see because it is laying down at the 7 - 8 o'clock position...

The Fort St Vrain eaglet is also full grown, with at least a couple more weeks before it will fledge. The overhead cam still has a smudge on it. It's hard to see the eaglet with the side cam when it's in pancake mode...

I checked in on the Harrison Bay nest, but it was just an empty nest on the cam. Off-cam? Branching? Too early for fledge... Update: A late night check shows one of the eaglets is back in the nest. Not sure where the other one is tonight. It could be spending the night on a branch...

The NCTC nest is on fledge watch the end of this week. This is the earliest one might fledge. It could still be a few weeks. I caught them at dinner time today:

The Blackwater eaglets have fledged. After eaglets fledge, they still spend quite a bit of time at the nest. Their parents still bring food to the nest while the young learn how to forage from their parents. Here, I caught one hop-flying over to its sibling:

Nest Cam round-up: Blackwater, Alcoa, Duke Farms, Fort St Vrain, Sooner Lake, AEF, and NCTC Eagles and the Alcoa Osprey Nest, Harrison Mills Egg Tooth Video, Camellia and NX Locations, Find Momo

I made the rounds of the cameras today. I'm mentioning when each nest might fledge. I'm going with the soonest date we might see a fledge, keeping in mind that it could be a couple more weeks before they fledge. At the Norfolk nest in 2009, HK fledged early and HH (Azalea) took forever to fledge. HK was the second hatch and he fledged on 6/3. HH was the oldest and she fledged on 6/13. The youngest, HE, fledged on 6/8. (If you aren't familiar with that nesting season: HE was doing some hopping/wingercizing and fell out of the nest. When the tree climbers went to put her back into the nest, HK spooked and fledged early. I speculate that HE was next to fledge because she had lost her fear after falling from the nest. When she fell, an observer on the ground said that she dropped like a rock and at the last minute put out her wings and glided to the ground. So, she had kinda already fledged and didn't come to any harm...) So there can be a lot of variation for when they fledge -- I've seen 10 - 13 weeks as the estimate.

The Blackwater babies seem to be doing great. They hatched at the end of February, so they are on fledge watch now. But it could still be some time before they fledge:

The Alcoa eagle cam is presented from a different perspective than pics I've posted before. They had a problem with the camera and had to start using an alternate camera. They couldn't fix the other camera without disturbing the nest. But the eaglets are big enough that they can be easily seen with this camera, and could fledge before the end of May:

I had to be very patient, but I finally got this great picture of the Duke Farms eaglets posing with one of the adults. They will be old enough to fledge in early June:

This is the remaining chick in the Fort St Vrain nest. It could fledge around the first week of June. Here you see it learning how to be an eagle, watching one of the adults as it flew out of the nest. I was so glad I caught this moment. I always think it's neat to watch how closely eaglets observe their parents:

The Sooner Lake eaglets are going to be old enough to fledge by the end of the month. Some interesting things in the pic below. You can clearly see the transmitter on the back of the upright eaglet in the left-hand screen and you can see the antenna for the transmitter on the same eaglet in the right-hand screen. I also caught this one with the nictitating membrane covering its eye. You can see its sibling in pancake mode behind it, with its head visible past the crop of the one that's upright.

Here's the same view a few seconds later without the nictitating membrane (after the blink):

The AEF babies are being well-cared for. I think having this breeding program for captive Bald Eagles is wonderful! This picture shows the dark feathers on the back of the Mom's head. I mentioned in an earlier post about Bald Eagles in captivity not always getting their full adult plumage. I'm not sure how old she was when she was injured, so I'm not sure if that's the case with this eagle. But I think it's interesting that she has all those dark feathers despite being an adult at least since 2002 when she took a mate. Here, the two babies are in pancake mode:

The NCTC eagles played hard-to-get today. I did manage to get a pretty good picture of one of them. The earliest fledge for this nest would be a few days before the end of the month.

The camera round-up wouldn't be complete without the Alcoa Osprey nest. I was happy to get such a great picture of the two babies:

It has been a while since I looked in on this nest. So you can imagine my surprise when a third head popped up!

Hancock Wildlife got some amazing video of one of the Harrison Mills chicks hatching. In the video, the chick is still inside the egg and you can clearly see the egg tooth. (Great job Zoomer!) The egg tooth is a bump on the top of the beak. The first air that a chick breathes is when the egg tooth punctures the sac at the large end of the egg. After that, they need to break the shell to get outside air. (If you notice an adult listening to their eggs when hatch time is near, it's because the chick can now make peeping noises.) They have a special muscle in the neck, called a pipping muscle. As the chick moves around in the egg, it breaks the shell with the egg tooth. Within a few days of hatching, the egg tooth disappears. This video is way cool! Here's a link to the video and here's a picture I captured from it:

 Here's a pic of Mom incubating. I like how her wings are spread a bit so you can see how far up her back the white feathers reach.

Camellia has checked in. It's amazing how much these birds like landfills and golf courses!

NX checked in today. She is still exploring Aquia Creek!

The 5/9 "find Momo" made me laugh. And it took me FOREVER to find Momo in the 5/10 pic...

AEF Eagle Nest, Ecuador's Yasuni National Park, Harpy (Jungle) Eagle PBS Special, Upcoming Southeast Raptor Center Eagle Release, Bald Eagle Bird Bath, KE's Location, Feathered Photography Blog

I have posted some pictures recently from the AEF eagle cam. I was curious about the Bald Eagles at that nest. They are non-releasable Bald Eagles that are allowed to fulfill their biological imperative to find a mate and reproduce. Here is their story.

I found a slideshow of Ecuador's Yasuni National Park. Slide 3 is a Harpy Eagle (Jungle Eagle). This is one serious Eagle. If you've never seen the PBS special on these eagles, you should check it out. Here's a link to the full video. The special is beautifully done and interesting to watch!

The Southeast Raptor Center at Auburn University is going to release a rehabilitated Bald Eagle on Saturday May 11th.

Here's a neat set of bird bath pictures. Bald Eagle bird baths!

KE's location has been updated.

I like Ron Dudley's picture today on his Feathered Photography blog. I got a picture of a bird like this once before. Not sure where to find it now though. I know I posted it on the forum...

Camellia's location, AEF Hack Towers and Eagle Cam, Bald Eagle Windex, Aberdeen Proving Ground Bald Eagle Survey, Shetzers Photography

Camellia checked in around midnight last night. He is hanging out near the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge:

I was watching the AEF nest cams on Friday. One of their cameras was directed toward their hack towers. This shot gives some perspective on the towers. The one with the open door allows three of the older youngsters a way to come outside and hang out --  the hack tower version of branching:

And one of them did come outside for a bit and did some wingercizing:

Then it went back inside. At this point they are free to fledge, just like a Bald Eagle being raised in the wild:

And I got some great shots of the AEF babies. Here they are, just 1 day old at feeding time:

And we got a really nice close-up of them, while they look up Mom hoping for more food:

 I found an interesting story about a Bald Eagle named Windex who last made headlines in 1995.

They have completed a survey of Bald Eagles at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

This looks like a neat site to explore: Shetzers Photography. Bald Eagles, Hummingbirds, and Grizzly Bears! There are some interesting photography tours/workshops being offered.

AEF Eagle Nest, Alcoa Osprey Nest, Hampton Master Gardeners Spring Plant Sale

It was an exciting day at the AEF nest! This was the best hatch I've ever witnessed. There was a pip yesterday in one of the eggs, so I was really excited to tune in today and see that it hadn't hatched yet and that I might get to see it! Not only that, but the second egg had a pip also:

Here, you can see that the egg is cracking open:

A moment later, half of the shell is gone:

Mom checks out the baby, now emerging from the shell:

The baby is finally free of the shell:

The baby is too weak to hold its head up. This is its back with a wing toward the nest and one toward the egg shell:

Dad came to check things out:

And we finally get to see its face! It's still pretty worn out at this point... Hatching is hard work!

A few hours later and the baby is dry and is already very active -- trying to get upright and flopping around in the process:

And it looks like we will see the second one hatch tonight. The shell is just about split in half now:

I finally got a look at the Alcoa Osprey babies today. Dad brought in a fish and Mom got up and I could see two little faces looking up:

And look at the height the hungry baby gets! They are only two days old:

There is a local event in Hampton this weekend:

Hampton Master Gardeners Spring Plant Sale

Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Bluebird Gap Farm, 60 Pine Chapel Road, Free. Information: 757-727-1401, *TTD 1-800-828-1120 or website

Bluebird Gap Farm is a working farm. Bring your camera and plan on spending some time looking around!