Dyfi Osprey Day 84,86&87, Harrison Bay Eagles, Loch of the Lowes Osprey Day 92,94&95, White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 19, Rebuilding the Decorah Eagle Nest

Of the 3 Dyfi Osplets, W2 (Celyn) was the only one I saw at the nest today.

She was moving around, but not going away.

That didn't stop the Magpies from visiting.

W2 is on the nest perch.

The Magpies are eating some disgusting looking nestovers.

Looks pretty gross...

And where is W2? Well, I see her shadow.

She hopped down into the nest to get a fish delivery, then mantles to warn the Magpies away. I've got an hour of video that I'll process tomorrow and post... It's going to take more time than I have tonight to whittle it down. W2 is mantling and declaring that this fish is hers!

Both of the Harrison Bay Eagle parents were at the nest tree today. First, there was one in the large pine across from the nest.

Then it flew to the nest tree.

It's funny, when I first saw this scene, I didn't see Dad at the top of the screen. Then he moved! This was the brief time that I saw Mom and Dad together. A few seconds later, Mom hopped forward to the other Y branch.

It's starting to get dark and the infrared camera turned on.

Eyes closed while napping. Head tucked (under her wing) would be a deeper sleep.

I love the foot dangling over the edge of the branch.

And who is this at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest? Well, there's an antenna. So that narrows it down to FR3 or FR4...

But wait! The folks at the Loch of the Lowes are reporting the FR3 has starting the migration south. (This is why transmitters are awesome!) So, that must be FR4 above. They also note that FR2 hasn't been seen in a while, which I've commented on. So, FR2 has probably also started the migration too, having fledged around the same time as FR3.

A cheeky crow decided to play chicken with FR4. But FR4 actually didn't seem to mind.

I forgot to post this s'cap yesterday, when the cam was showing the loch. Sea birds sure do know how to live!

It looks like the rain has cleared up at the White-bellied Sea Eagle nest. The pantry looks to be well stocked.

The chicks look like they are all alone, but a parent is perched above them. It's about 67 degrees, so they don't need to be brooded, just protected from predators.

We got a close-up of the parent. I'm not sure which one this is...

The Decorah Eagle nest blew down in July. Check out this link If You Build It... It will be interesting to see how the Eagles react when they begin their preparations for the next nesting season. Will they take to this new nest? I believe the White Rock Eagles build upon a platform that was started by humans. And Bald Eagles have been known to take over Osprey nests and build them up into Eagle nests. So, it's not like they are adverse to building upon something else that was there first. We'll have to wait and see what they do. There's no telling if the humans picked the right spot in the right tree to put in a nest foundation...

Nest Cam Round-up: White Rock, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Africam Black Eagle, and Dyfi Osprey, Pictures of Bald Eagle Grace, and Decorah's D18 Electrocuted

This first s'cap of the White Rock nest is from the wide-angle cam:

Then I brought up the live discussion page and found Christian Sasse was on. I got some great s'caps!

They were both napping tonight.

And then popping back up to look around.

This one is sleeping with one eye open. Kinda creepy looking...

In this s'cap, you can see that the eaglet's right eye is open. The lid is partly closed on its left eye. Opposite from us, their eyelid comes up from the bottom when they close their eyes.

This is one of Christian Sasse's pictures of these eaglets -- posted here with his permission:

I got a look at the White-bellied Sea Eagle's eggs tonight when Dad stood up.

 

I finally got the Africam Black Eagle cam to come up today! But I didn't get much of a look at the baby... Totally blocked here. 

 

The baby is a little visible here. Unfortunately, that's as good as it got during the limited time I could watch. (My job is getting in the way of my nest cam addiction!)

I haven't heard these eagles vocalize very much... Something must have been flying over the nest.

The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's Dyfi Osprey Project chicks are more active these days. One of the adults is on the high perch in the background.

Reese posted new pictures of Bald Eagle Grace and her sister.

Sad news. One of Decorah's fledglings, D18 (EWOT), was electrocuted and died. This same nest lost two of its fledglings to electrocution two years ago. My heart goes out to all of the followers of this nest.

Nest Cam Round-up: Hays, Two Harbors, White Rock, Berry College Bluebird, Dyfi Osprey, and White-bellied Sea Eagle, Decorah Eaglets in a Storm, Loch of the Lowes Eggs

Two of the Hays fledglings are spending the night in the nest. But one of them is hiding... 

The Two Harbors cam is frozen. But I like the scene that it's stuck on...

I'm hoping to catch one of the White Rock eaglets on a branch. But so far, I've only seen them in the nest.

I've got a ton of s'caps that I took last night during Christian Sasse's live broadcast at the White Rock nest. I processed some more of them today. These are the keepers that I got from 10:34PM to 10:39PM... The eaglet is preening, zipping its feathers. Check this page for an explanation of what happens when a bird runs a feather through its beak like in the s'cap below.

In this series, the eaglet on the right is moving food from its crop to its stomach. A crop allows an eagle to eat something right away. It then doesn't need to worry about another eagle stealing its food. It is also able to fly away if necessary without worrying about its food. Then, when it is hungry, it just moves some food to its stomach. The food in their crop can also tide them over if they have a gap in finding food. These next five s'caps were taken in quick succession in this order:

I thought these were funny. The eagle on the left was getting ready to preen when something caught its eye...

But then it went on to preen some more.

The eaglet on the right is blinking with its nictitating membrane. (By the way, Christian said that "Jules" is on the right and "Indy" is on the left.)

The preening eaglet is protecting its eyes with its nictitating membrane.

Something must have flown over the nest. The next nine s'caps were taken in quick succession:

I forgot to check on the Berry College Bluebirds earlier in the day when they would have been active. They are all tucking in for the night here:

 The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's Dyfi Osprey Project nest had a wider angle than what I've seen before. It looks like there are a couple of man-made perches near the nest. One adult is on the nest with the babies and I didn't notice at first, but the other adult is on the perch.

The White-bellied Sea Eagles didn't make a showing for me today. But they've got the nest on the second cam now. What a pretty scene. Here's the usual nest view with the top cam:

This is the new view. We will be able to see Mom and Dad when they perch outside of the nest on this cam. I asked what kind of trees those are and was told blackbutt gum/eucalyptus. I've never heard of a blackbutt gum before...

I didn't check early enough to get a look at the Africam Black Eagle today. I'll have to be sure to check tomorrow. I think it's only available up to 12:30PM E.T.

Once Eaglets in the nest are big enough that they don't need protection from the rain, they are fun to watch during a storm. A lot of flapping and shaking... There was a storm at the Decorah nest on 6/16 and the three eaglets are so fun to watch! Two of them even dip to each side as if they were in water taking a bird bath. And I swear one of them rubs its butt on the nest a couple of times... I've never seen that before. Here's a link to the video. This is an awesome video!

They have retrieved the eggs from the Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest. Here is a link to their blog post with pictures and observations about the eggs.