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...

More Snow at Fort St Vrain Nest, Camellia's Location, White Rock Nest

The Eagles at the Fort St Vrain Nest just can't catch a break. Another snow storm today, on May 1st! There is some smudge on the camera. But the other camera is completely covered with snow, so this is as good as it gets. This is what I saw before I went to work:

I figured the chick was OK since the adult had obviously been sheltering the nest bowl. During the day, the snow continued to pile up -- on the nest and on the adult:

At one point, she got up to stretch and shake off the snow:

I could hear the baby cheeping and see it moving around. It seemed hungry. Around 1:00PM, Dad brought some dinner. It was something feathered. After much plucking (notice the dark feathers all over the nest) she fed her baby:

After feeding for a bit, Mom shook her feathers off one more time, then left the nest to take a break and stretch her wings.

The baby was left for a while, but you could occasionally hear an adult calling. And one of them returned to the nest long enough to drop off a stick. Around 2:00PM, there was another feeding. Then around 2:30, it looked like Mom was ready to settle in again. I'm just relieved that they seem to be doing OK. The temperature while I was watching went from 30 to 20 degrees... Hopefully, they will soon get a break from this crazy weather.

Camellia checked in on 4/30. He is in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, on the Virginia side.

I watched the White Rock nest for a couple of hours last night and no adult came to the nest. There is still one egg in the nest. But I don't know if it was damaged in the skirmish with the intruder or if an adult has been to the nest when I wasn't watching. No one is there now, just the egg... I checked some forums and it doesn't seem that the adults are spending time at the nest.

Training Update for Buddy, Location Updates for Camellia and KE, Eagle Festival at Mason Neck State Park, Feeding Liquid Diet to Raptors, Fort St Vrain Nest Loses Two Babies

There is a training update for Buddy posted today. They are working with Buddy six days a week, for several hours each day. He is going to be at the Wildlife Center's Jack Hanna Reception this weekend.

There is an update for Camellia, who is out exploring again.

And there is an update for KE from 4/11. She really seems to be enjoying the landfill... 

Mason Neck State Park is having their annual Eagle Festival this Saturday from 10:00AM - 4:00PM. This state park is located in Lorton, VA and is home to 50-60 Bald Eagles. Looks like a nice event.

There's an interesting post about a Wildlife Rehab in Utah. There is a Bald Eagle that is being fed a liquid diet. I've never seen how this is done. Having watched the video, here are my observations: I don't think it's especially a good idea to rub a Bald Eagles beak. The man seems to think he is comforting the Bald Eagle by rubbing its beak and talking to it. I don't think you should talk to wildlife in a rehab setting. The animal is already stressed enough without you adding something else foreign to the situation. And rubbing its beak? I don't think that would be much appreciated either. I hope the guy was just mugging for the camera and that he doesn't usually do those things. Anyway, I found the feeding part to be interesting. I've never seen how that's done before. The applicator goes right down into the crop -- that's a pretty efficient method... There's also a video of him feeding a Red Tailed Hawk using the same method. At one point, he's holding its lower beak and it looks like he's trying to get it to swallow. He's got part of his thumb inside the beak. He went from saying, "Go ahead and bite, I don't care" to "Yeah, that one drew blood." I thought that was kinda funny, because it was such a "duh" moment. But that was just a little bite compared to what that Bald Eagle will do once it's feeling better. A Bald Eagle on the mend is often referred to as being feisty!

The Fort St Vrain nest has had a hard few days. This nest is in Colorado. The midwest has experienced some very cold weather and snow. This pair lost their chicks last year. They were doing so good this year. But now, due to the weather, they have lost two chicks this year. Here's a picture of the two adults hunkered down in the nest overnight 4/17-4/18. It's very unusual to find both adults laying down in a nest. But the weather was that extreme and they were trying to save their last chick.

Statistically, only 50% of eagles reach one year of age. It's hard to watch eagle cams sometimes. But I think they are great to watch for the most part. This has just been a rough week for this nest. I'm hoping for happier days ahead! Here is the nest just now with one healthy baby and no sign of the snow and harsh weather that took two babies.

Camellia's location, Snow at Fort St Vrain Nest, Baiting Wildlife, Moon Rise Video, Buddy T-Shirts, Bald Eagle Caught in Fishing Snare, The Pet Collective on YouTube, Gloucester Bald Eagle

Camellia is exploring Chesapeake. There is a new location posted for him.

The Fort St Vrain nest has some snow. I saw the temp was 16⁰F. Ouch! There's some smudge on the cam, but this shows the snow and that it's feeding time.
 

Ron Dudley posted on his Feathered Photography blog about his dislike of baiting in order to get pictures of wildlife. He pointed out a story on his blog that I am also going to point out here. This makes the point that wildlife needs to keep it's distance from humans because of morons like one in this story. Here's a story and video of some paramotorist idiot chasing and twice kicking a migratory bird. There is evidence that the idiot is Dell "Super Dell" Schanze, whoever that is. If he's well-known, it's in different circles than the ones I pay attention to. I hope they can prove who did this and that he gets to spend some time in jail and pay a hefty fine for this behavior. This story does point out the importance of not doing things that cause wildlife to become accustomed to being around humans. There are idiots like this that think it's funny to harass wildlife if they can get close enough.

One of my eagle friends, Lola, sent me this link. It's a video of a moon rise. That may sound ho-hum. But you want to watch this! Read the explanation and turn on your speakers. Thanks Lola!

Good news if you ordered one of the T-Shirts for Buddy's 5th Birthday. They are being shipped!

I don't know what a fishing snare is. But I found this story of a family that had a Bald Eagle that got caught in their fishing snare when it went after their live bait. One of the quick-thinking family members googled what to do and they made sure the Eagle was free of the snare instead of sending it on its way while still tangled up or hooked. The video isn't too great, but you get the idea...

YouTube has a channel called The Pet Collective. You can watch a live stream of puppies, cats, or a Bald Eagle nest with three bobbleheads. Also available are uploaded videos of puppies and cats.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia has posted an update for the Gloucester Bald Eagle, #13-0283. This Bald Eagle is very feisty! Which is usually a good sign. Maybe we will be seeing an Eagle release in Gloucester soon!

Fort St Vrain Eagle Nest, Harrison Bay Eagle Nest, Eagle Extravaganza in Nebraska

One of the Fort St Vrain eaglets spent the day outside of the nest bowl. Two were kept warm in the nest bowl while one spent the day out by the crib rail. I was a little worried about the little guy...

At one point, Mom did a nice stretch. And the little one is still hanging out at 10:00:

Then a little later, there was another escapee:

I checked in later and all three were in the bowl. All is well:

The Harrison Bay nest got a chance to dry out today. Here's Mom and both babies enjoying some sunshine:

There is a Bald Eagle event in Nebraska tomorrow, April 6th. The Eagle Extravaganza will be at the Lake Wanahoo State Recreation Area (SRA).

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

 

Pictures of HK, new location for NX, Great Horned Owls, Fort St Vrain nest

Pam Monahan took some new pictures of HK out at Honey Bee Golf Course. You can see her pictures of HK here. She has been taking pictures of HK pretty regularly. There are pictures dated 2/21, 2/25, 2/27, 3/3, 3/8, 3/13, 3/14, 3/20, 3/24, 3/29, 4/2 (If you hover over the picture, a menu comes up with an i for information. Once you open the information, you can grab it and move it out of the way as you arrow through the pictures.) There are 17 pictures of HK on her site. He is hanging out with an adult in some of these pictures. Is that his girlfriend? Pam has a ton of other eagle pictures as well as some nice nature photography. Part of her eagle collection includes pictures of Azalea. Take some time to explore her site! Thanks Pam for keeping us up to date on HK!

NX has a new location map today. She is in the same general area as her last check-in.

I haven't looked in on the Great Horned Owls in a while. They are getting big. This picture isn't the greatest, there is some sort of reflection... But you get the idea...

Here, you can see that there are two of them:

This pic shows some of their set-up -- and that one of the owls has moved even closer to the cam. (In the first pic the owl is in the planter next to its sibling. In the second pic, it was on the edge of the same planter. In this picture, it has moved across to the other planter and is really being a camera hog!) They have three cameras and switched cameras for this view.

The Fort St Vrain nest has a 3rd hatch!