The Berry College Bald Eagle chick day 9 is being fed some pretty yucky looking nestovers. Mom stretches her left leg:
Then the feeding commences. I know you are thinking, "I thought Dad buried that egg yesterday." Yes he did. I hear that Mom dug it back out.
People asked Berry College to post the archive video of Dad burying the egg yesterday. Here's some s'caps from him burying it. It started out only partly visible.
Dad stayed hunkered like this for a while. I'm not sure what he was doing.
Without allowing a look at the nest bowl, he then came at it from a different direction. (Mom was in the nest at the 10 o'clock position removing feathers from a Coot.)
Dad has really fluffed up the grasses lining the nest bowl. The chick is right in front of Dad.
You can see how fluffy the nest bowl is as Mom moves in to feed some of the Coot to the chick.
I think Dad was freshening the nest bowl. He kept digging around and coming up with a bunch of grass in his beak:
And he would spit it out. He kept doing this over and over:
Bald Eagle chicks are preening 95% of the time. It's almost impossible to catch both of the Northeast Florida chicks in a photogenic moment. But, I got them!
And here's an action shot. The one in front is shaking and the one in back is stretching.
And this is pretty close to the same pose as last night for the Southwest Florida Bald Eagle chick. This bird really knows how to relax...
The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) is one of my favorite organizations. They published a story on January 24th about Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons nesting in the same trees. It's pretty interesting to read. This report references a story from last year about Bald Eagles. Here's a link to that story.
I am thinking about finding another nest to follow, in addition to this one. Maybe one that has 2 or 3 eggs. One with sound. Any suggestions?
Bald Eagle NX checked in on January 5th. She has done a little bit of exploring since her last check-in.
The Center for Conservation Biology newsletter is hot off the press. Here's a few interesting items:
- Bald Eagles with transmitters continue to provide valuable information to aid conservation efforts. More than 1,000,000 GPS locations have been provided, indicating which areas are the most important to Bald Eagles. These areas include travel corridors and communal roosts.
- The current irruption of Snowy Owls is explained in this story. Dr. Bryan Watts flew a survey with Dr. Mitchell Byrd to look for the owls and reports his findings.
- Dr. Watts is quoted in this USA Today article about the impact of this week's freezing temperatures on birds.
- Two Whimbrels (Machi and Goshen) that CCB had tracked via transmitters survived an encounter with Hurricane Irene during their fall migration only to be killed by hunters when they reached their winter home on Guadeloupe. This tragic event has been a catalyst for change via increased awareness of shorebird hunting and new regulations governing the hunting of shorebirds.
- Dr Watts is quoted in this Richmond Times-Dispatch article about the come-back of the Great Blue Heron.
More tomorrow...
