Berry College Fledgling Day 104, Nest Cam Round-up: Hays, Two Harbors, White Rock, and Berry College Bluebird, and Bald Eagle Camellia Checked In

Today is day 104 for the Berry College Bald Eagle. I took some video today of Mom and B3 in the nest. B3 was eating and wouldn't share with Mom. There was also some nest fluffing, preening, feaking, and Mom flew from the front branch. Here's a link to the video. I also posted some video today that I took on 5/27 of the blue jay harassing B3. The stills that I posted on that day's blog came from this video. Here's a link to the blue jay video.

Here's some s'caps from today. This first one is from the video and shows the difference in size between Mom and B3. B3 is huge:

 
I took these later in the day:

I got some good s'caps at the Hays nest today. There was some stick work:

The eaglet farthest from the cam looks really big compared to the other two. I'd guess the farthest eaglet is a female.

Wheeeee! I saw two of the eaglets wingercizing today. Fun times to watch the cams.

This eaglet in the sunlight already has that fierce eagle look. One of the adults at this nest always has a fierce look -- like parent, like child.

The Two Harbors eaglet had just gotten a food delivery. She was standing on it in this s'cap.

In this next s'cap, she was trying to move but also had the branches in her grip (left foot). She was having a hard time moving and was squeeing the whole time.

I couldn't get the close-up cam at the White Rock nest to work today. This is the wide-angle view.

 

This was the scene on the PTZ cam. Pretty!

Mom Berry College Bluebird was wet today on one of her returns to the nest. Not sure if she'd been out for a bird bath or what...

Bald Eagle Camellia has checked in. There are pictures thanks to the Yanellos!

Berry College Eaglet Day 42, Northeast Florida, Southwest Florida, Hays, Two Harbors, and White Rock Nests

The Berry College Bald Eagle Chick is 6 weeks old today. Look at what a difference a week makes!

I had a really hard time picking the picture to use for today's picture in the above collage. I thought one of these other two pictures might be better. I thought the first would be good because it's almost the same pose as the 5th week picture:

And I like the picture below, showing the wings. But the pose is so much different than the 5th week. In the end I picked the one where the chick was standing up straight and showing the feathers and tail better, and still in a similar pose to the previous week. Maybe next week I'll use something like below, if I can get a good s'cap...

Here's a larger version of the one I picked:

Other pictures of the Berry College nest from today:

When the wings aren't covering the back, you can see there's still a lot of thermal down.

I've seen a lot of eaglets make their first attempts at self-feeding by grabbing pieces while the parent is standing on the food.

I love these big stretches!

The Northeast Florida nest had everyone hanging out together near the nest and I got there just in time to take the tour (thanks Zoomer!):

While all I saw at the Southwest Florida nest was an empty nest:

A heart-warming scene at the Hays nest. Mom was brooding the three chicks and Dad was feeding her:

Then Mom got up and they both fed their three chicks. Having both adults participate in feeding the chicks is the best way to prevent the bigger chicks from bullying the smaller chicks. It's hard to be a bully if you are being presented with bites of food.

The Two Harbors eagles were facing the camera for me. So cute when curious babies pop out in front of a parent:

You can see the baby has its wings spread to help keep cool.

It looks like rain at the White Rock nest. Mom is spreading her wings to keep the nest bowl dry. You can see that her feathers repel the rain, with the rain beading up on her back and rolling off. When eagles preen, they take oil from a gland near their tail (the preen gland) and distribute it to the feathers, making them waterproof.

Snow At Berry College Bald Eagle Nest, Screen Captures of the Northeast and Southwest Florida Bald Eagle Nests, Bald Eagles KE and Camellia Check In

It was another snowy day at the Berry College Bald Eagle nest.

This is the scene tonight. Raising a Bald Eagle family takes such commitment!

There is some side-by-side preening happening in the Northeast Florida nest. The Center for Conservation Biology explained preening in one of their posts. You can see it here.

Little E4 is looking quite a bit different from a week ago, with a lot of darker contour feathers growing in. It's interesting that you can make a pretty good guess about which babies are males and which are females: Males are typically smaller, so they become adult size when they are smaller/younger and then their energy can go towards growing feathers at a younger age. Females need to keep putting energy into growing and their adult feathers will come in later. For example: If you have a nest with two babies, and the younger starts growing contour feathers first, you can guess that the first hatched is a female and the second is a male... Growing is hard work, and the youngsters spend a lot of time in pancake mode. Here's a look at E4 being a pancake:

Bald Eagle KE has checked in a couple of times. On her January 30th check-in, she was in central Virginia. On her February 6th check-in, she had explored a few more areas.

Bald Eagle Camellia has also checked in. I'm so glad his transmitter is still working!