Screen Captures of Berry Bald Eagle Nest Chick Day 4, 5 and 6, Bald Eagle Camellia's Location, Urbanized Bald Eagle, Juvenile Bald Eagle Buzzes Alcoa Bald Eagle Nest

Screen Captures of the Berry College Bald Eagle nest/hatchling from 2/26 day 4:
Mom resting with her butt in the wind:

Eagle chicks have a lot of growing to do, so they spend a lot of time eating:

Mom offers a bite:

 

 Dad is getting some shut-eye:

And later, eating again. This is Mom:

Mom using her wing as a crutch to get back onto the nest bowl:

These are from 2/27 day 5:
This is a new one for me -- being fed and brooded at the same time:

Home alone, but only briefly:

These are from today, 2/28 day 6:
Dad landed in the nest, bringing a big fish:

There is starting to be a large accumulation of "nestovers" in the nest. This is a good sign that there is ample food. Once the chick gets bigger, the regular food deliveries will be needed. You can just see the chick peeking out:

Bald Eagle Camellia has checked in.

Reese posted today about the Urbanized Bald Eagle. I referred to Bald Eagle HK the other day as an urban Bald Eagle. I think it's amazing that they are able to adapt so well.

The Alcoa Bald Eagle nest was buzzed by a juvenile today. At least the youngster didn't land in the nest, like what happened the other day at the Turtle Bay nest. The juvie at the Alcoa nest might have been hungry for the fish laying in the nest, who knows... The Alcoa nest has two eggs.

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...

Nest Cam Screen Captures, NX location, Alaska Raptor Center, Fleecing the Llamas, Help Clean Up Hampton

Camera round-up:

Fort St Vrain has three bobble-heads. I know this isn't the best picture, but I think it really shows the size difference between the older two (both hatched on 3/29) and the youngest (hatched on 4/1):

Duke Farms has two bobble-heads. One is higher and a little bit to the right of the other.

Alcoa has two babies -- and look at the one that has already climbed out of the nest bowl! 

NCTC has two little ones. They are passed out!

It was a rainy day at Harrison Bay. You can see the Mom Eagle has her wings spread, trying to keep her babies warm and dry. We finally get to see the two bobble-heads for feeding time:

And some shots of the Great Horned Owls. The youngsters' plumage is starting to resemble the adult's.

NX has checked in. And for the second time, she has put on some miles! She is now exploring new territory after flying 29 miles from her last check-in!

This is interesting. Eagles that have been rehabilitated in Alaska get a tune-up before being released back into the wild. Check out what the Alaska Raptor Center does. The Wildlife Center of Virginia doesn't do this. I wonder if it's beneficial...

The city of Hampton is advertising two items that you may be interested in:

FLEECING THE LLAMAS
April 10, 17, 10:30-11:30 A.M.
Come to Bluebird Gap Farm, 60 Pine Chapel Road, and watch the llamas get their fleece sheared. Meet at the livestock barn. Free. For more information about all farm programs, including the hayride on Saturday, April 13 at noon, go to http://hampton.gov/bbgf/.

HELP CLEAN UP HAMPTON

Saturday April 13, 6 a.m.-noon

Invite family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to spend just 30 minutes or more in a campaign to Walk Hampton Clean. Volunteers are encouraged to work with a partner using equipment – including litter sticks, safety vests and work gloves - provided by the Hampton Clean City Commission. The goal is to pick up litter across Hampton in the biggest cleanup ever. To register, fill out the online form. Information: 727-1130 or causink@hampton.gov

 

Camellia and NX locations, Harrison Bay cam, Alcoa cam, Fort St Vrain cam, SW FL cam, Two Harbors cam, dog howling, Lake Ontario eagles, pics

New location for Camellia! He's staying local for the time being. NX checked in on the 24th. She is still in the same general area as her release.

I got some pictures today of various eagle cam nests:

Harrison Bay, feeding time. These two hatched on 3/19 and 3/21. Look at all those fish -- these two are great providers:

Alcoa, feeding time. These two hatched on 3/16 and 3/18. Both parents were there for feeding. I watched for about 10 minutes. The male was trying to feed but the female insisted on taking the morsel from the male and feeding the babies herself. They passed a tiny piece of food back and forth several time. It took about 5 minutes for the male to finally start passing her the pieces to feed to the babies... Look at the crop on that baby! Very well fed.

The Fort St Vrain eagles are still incubating 3 eggs:

The SW FL eaglets were home today. One was lounging and the other was eating. These two hatched 1/1 and 1/3 and they both fledged yesterday!

The Two Harbors nest had a hatch yesterday. K82 is the female. (K81 is the male...) Feeding time:

And I couldn't resist grabbing this screen capture of fluffy eagle butt:

Eaglets can't thermoregulate until they are a couple of weeks old. So they continue to be incubated. I love it when the babies poke their heads out. So curious already!

I found this video today of a dog howling at a siren. Too funny. When I was a kid, we had a Basset Hound in the neighborhood that would howl at the noon whistle every day. So this is a video of a dog howling at a siren. Then, in the comments, there are two video responses of people's dogs howling at this video. Too funny! I played them all for my dogs and got nothing... Oh well. Still a good video if you enjoy dogs howling!

Bald Eagles on Lake Ontario have successfully hatched two chicks -- the first in decades!

Check out this incredible picture of a Bald Eagle chasing a Great Blue Heron! Run, Forest! Run!

And check out these Bald Eagle pics! Very nice!