Berry College Bald Eagle Chick Day 26, White Rock Bald Eagle Nest Screen Captures, Turtle Bay Bald Eagle Nest Lost All Three Eggs

I only got a few screen captures of the Berry College Bald Eagle nest today -- day 26 for the chick. Getting some rest:

Starting to wake up:

A lazy wing stretch:

Did somebody say food?

There's always room for more food!

Dad's home! Can you tell that the baby is about 1 foot tall now!?

I forgot to include this picture of a sloppy bite from yesterday. I keep thinking that raptors must have fewer taste buds than we do:

And this evening Mom and Dad Berry went beak-to-beak... Here's a link to a video.

I tried to get a look at the White Rock nest yesterday to see if they had 2 eggs and couldn't get a look. But according to a few sources, there are 2 eggs now. If they are going to have a third egg, it would come on Saturday. Here are some s'caps of that nest from today:

In the above s'caps, I noticed the shadow on Mom's right wing up near her neck. You can even see what looks like a beak-shadow. I noticed it because it was moving...

So I switched to the wide angle cam and sure enough, there was Dad. Love this nest -- so pretty!

The Turtle Bay nest has lost all three eggs this nesting season. I'm not sure if they will attempt to lay a 2nd clutch.

Berry College Bald Eagle Chick Day 8, Turtle Bay Bald Eagle Attacked by Owl, No Explanation For Loss Of Egg At Turtle Bay Nest, Mom Delta Bald Eagle Starting To Use Leg, Bald Eagle Camellia Checked In

Today is day 8 for the Berry College Bald Eagle chick. Looks like red meat (more coot) for lunch. This is a very well fed baby!

All tucked in for the night, baby with a Mom-blanket.

The female Bald Eagle at the Turtle Bay nest was attacked last night by an owl while incubating her eggs. I guess this is the norm and cameras are allowing us to see this interaction now... And it may be related or not, but there are only two eggs today (the link is to a short video)...

Here's a video of Bald Eagle Mom Delta. She's got an injury to her left leg/foot and she appears to be able to use it a little bit now. This video gets a good look at her, but I can't tell what's wrong. Her foot looks ok... They are saying she has a broken leg, which is as good a guess as any... There's also a fly-by of Dad in the background on his way to the nest.

Camellia checked in today and he's been on a whirlwind tour of Virginia Beach over the past three days. Check out his adventures. It has now been 1397 days since Camellia got his transmitter. This is how long Azalea's transmitter worked. Hopefully, Camellia's transmitter will continue to send location data...

It's very tiring being a growing Bald Eagle. Check out this picture of the Southwest Florida Bald Eagle chick catching some air while wingercizing. Which results in an exhausted eagle pancake-face-plant:

Here's the Northeast Florida Bald Eagle chicks. I think the cam is at an angle... Just tilt your head to the right.

Momo was in Virginia Beach recently.

Mom Berry Gets Blown Over, Raccoon Attack At The Hays Bald Eagle Nest, Juvenile Bald Eagle Visits The Turtle Bay Nest

Here's a link to a scary Mom Berry video. It's only a minute and a half video. A very scary situation was created due to her bad foot/leg and the high winds yesterday.

Drama last night at the Hays Bald Eagle nest. A raccoon came into the nest and startled Mom Hays off of the eggs. The story says that they don't think that any of the eggs were broken -- she had just laid the 3rd egg that day. (In 2008, both of the eggs at the NBG nest were broken when Mom Norfolk was startled during the night.) I'm surprised the raccoon in this video didn't steal one of the eggs -- it certainly looked like it could have... Read the story and watch the video of the encounter at this link.

There was also a pretty incredible encounter at the Turtle Bay nest today. You might recall that last year was a sad year at this nest. You can read my previous posts if you aren't familiar with the events of last year. This video that was taken today shows the new male "Spirit" on the nest incubating 3 eggs when a very large female juvenile lands on the nest. The standoff is pretty wild. He confronts her. Then he looks submissive. I think it's interesting at about the 6 minute mark that he goes back to incubating the eggs while she's still there. His instinct tells him he needs to keep those eggs warm. But the angle of his head while he's snuggling back down onto the eggs shows that he's keeping an eye on the intruder. I don't know what the intruder was doing. She appears to be three years old. This is not the first time a juvie has joined an adult on a nest. Maybe it was hungry, but I have a hard time believing that an eagle makes it to three years old without knowing how to find food for itself... Strange occurrence, not sure what was happening here. This video is almost 13 minutes long.

There's a lot of drama happening at these nests. I think the more nest cams that are available, the more we will see that there are a lot of life and death struggles in nature.

Bald Eagle Patriot of Turtle Bay Died Following Battle With An Intruder, Buffet for Bald Eagles, Pelican Harbor Bald Eagles, Cat/Cop Rescue, Bats, Roll and Shelf Clouds, Property Maintenance Workshop, Washington State, Amazing Birds, Bald Eagles at Duluth Airport

More sad news for the Turtle Bay nest, home of Bald Eagles Patriot and Liberty. If you remember, this is the nest where an intruder ran off the resident male (Patriot) and ate both hatchlings. The intruder would look roughed up (a couple of times) probably from doing battle with Patriot. But Patriot returned in early April. It is now being reported that Patriot died following a fight with another eagle. This may be the same intruder eagle that is trying to take over the nest. My heart goes out to the people that follow this nest. It has been a rough year... 

Here's a video of a bunch of Bald Eagles in a parking lot. I don't know what's in the back of that truck (I think it's fish), but it must be yummy! And this is in Alaska, so you know there are some Bald Eagles waiting to take advantage of a situation!

I found a video of the Pelican Harbor Bald Eagles wrestling with a stick. The video is from 2008, but it's so funny -- right from the crash landing at the start -- I thought it's worth posting now. I think this is cooperative nest building. But I'm not going to emphasize the word 'cooperative' when it comes to these two!

This sounds like I'm telling a joke. A cat goes up the tree and needs help getting down. So the nice police officer goes up the tree to rescue the cat and he needs help getting down. Here's the story.

I like bats. What can I say... When I move to Maryland, I'm going to put in some bat houses.

I've never heard of roll clouds or shelf clouds. I think I'd be a little freaked out if I saw either of these coming at me if I didn't know what was going on. But having seen these pictures and read the explanations, I'll be ok if I ever see roll clouds or shelf clouds in the future. This reminds me of a time I was on ship (in the Navy). We were underway and we went into a line of... I don't know what it was. It was like a line of clouds that stretched all the way from the sky to the water and as far as the eye could see in either direction. It was just a wall of cloud and we went right into it. It just looked like a heavy fog while we were in it. The ship had to set the 'low visibility detail' and after a little while we steamed right out of it. And it looked like a wall of clouds on the other side. Very bizarre.

An interesting workshop is being offered by the City of Hampton:

HAMPTON 101-PROPERTY MAINTENANCE

Learn about the right of inspection, paint, gutters, grass and zoning codes as part of a property maintenance workshop presented by Hampton 101 and the Hampton Community Development Department. Thursday, May 16 from 6-8 p.m. at the Ruppert Sargent Building, 1 Franklin St. To register or for more information go to www.hampton.gov/learn or call 727-8311.

The recovering Bald Eagle population is wreaking havoc on Great Blue Herons in Washington State.

Massachusetts has conducted its first Bald Eagle nesting survey.

Here's a slideshow, set to music, of 'Amazing Birds You Probably Didn't Know Exist'.

A pair of Bald Eagles locked in battle fell onto an airport's runway in Duluth, Minn. The eagles were removed from the runway before aircraft could strike them. If you remember, the Norfolk Bald Eagles were on the runway at the Norfolk airport. Instead of getting them off of the runway, they had a plane land on the runway, which struck and killed Mom Norfolk. The Norfolk airport was completely negligent in having a plane come in, knowing that there were Bald Eagles on the runway. But I digress... Good job to the folks at the Duluth airport!

Turtle Bay nest, new Eagle behavior, Camellia's location, Azalea out-of-touch, SW FL nest, Connecticut River Bald Eagles, another thought on the pesticide poisoned Bald Eagle, disabled Bald Eagle on cam, Bald Eagle scuffle, nests in North Dakota, Feathered Photography post

Lots of material today. Yesterday's post was short because I just wasn't feeling it after the bad day at Turtle Bay. They are trying to piece together what happened at that nest. Here is an article.  I disagree with the article. I think the intruder is male and most likely got into a fight with the resident male. The intruder's feet look damaged on the web cam. I think that the resident male is either dead, injured or just chased away by the intruder. I grabbed this screen capture of female #4's feet last year. No doubt she was scrapping with the other females that were seen at the Norfolk nest last year.

With the increase in the eagle population, we will see more fights over territory. Here is a timely article that discusses how we are learning new things as eagles are adapting to areas that have reached saturation.

We have a new location map for Camellia. He is still local, hanging out on the south-side. Reese has also made an entry for Azalea, that he has received his last transmission from her. I had thought that the battery on her transmitter would gradually die. I didn't expect it to work one day and then to kaput! I was hoping that it would last for another year so we could see where she builds her nest. Oh well. Maybe we'll still luck out with ground reports...

I took this screen capture the other night of the SW FL Eaglets. They both have their heads tucked in, asleep. I'd wonder what they were if it weren't for the feet...

They are branching now, so there's only one in the nest this evening:

Here's an article on Bald Eagles on the Connecticut River. I'm posting the link here because I love the first picture in this article! This 4 year old Bald Eagle has the most awesome eye stripe I've ever seen! So pretty!

I mentioned recently that there was a Bald Eagle that died from pesticide poisoning. It also had lead in its system. I should have mentioned that it's possible that the Eagle consumed fish that was poisoned when a toxic substance washed into a body of water. It's concerning since we eat fish too...

The Bald Eagle nest cam Eagles4Kids is also giving us something new to learn about. The resident female showed up for the 2012/2013 nesting season with serious injuries to both of her feet. As the season progressed, she lost her right foot and is now making do with a stump. This resident pair has stayed together despite her disability. You can read about her disability here. And she is defying the odds -- she laid an egg on March 9th!

Note to self: Do not release a rehabilitated Bald Eagle near another Bald Eagle's nest... Good video of two Bald Eagles interacting with each other -- at one point one Bald Eagle flips over so they can face each other, talon-to-talon. No surprise that their feet can get pretty ugly!

North Dakota's Game and Fish Department is asking for the public to report the locations of Bald Eagle nests.

I love Ron Dudley's blog, Feathered Photography. Here's a link to his posts for 3/22 and 3/23. An American Kestrel and a Short-eared Owl. Wonderful pictures and explanations!

More sad news out of Turtle Bay

More sad news out of Turtle Bay. The last egg hatched and the intruder killed the eaglet. There are numerous stories of heart-ache while watching nature play out on the various cams that are available. I have witnessed some of the most amazingly beautiful things  and some of the most heart-breaking things on wildlife cams. It's a package deal, and you never know what you are going to get. But I still find the experience to be worthwhile. My heart goes out to the followers of the Turtle Bay Eagle Cam. I know they are devastated over this turn of events.

NX location, Turtle Bay Eagle nest, Sooner Lake Eagle nest, The Critter Window

I meant to wish everyone a happy Spring yesterday. I don't like cold weather, so I'm always happy when Spring arrives.

NX checked in. Just as I'd anticipated, she hasn't gone very far. Check out the map here. And speaking of eagle locations. I said on the Norfolk Eagle Forum yesterday that Camellia hadn't left Virginia. Then today I was poking around looking at the tracking maps and found that Camellia has one dot in Maryland and 5 dots in North Carolina. Then I went to CCB's Eagle Trak blog and looked at the entries for those dates and there's no mention of Camellia being in Maryland or North Carolina. So, I'm not sure what that means. I'm going to ask Reese the next time I see him...

They still aren't sure what happened at the Turtle Bay nest. I know it was heart-breaking for the people that follow that nest. We've had our share of turbulence at the Norfolk nest, so I know what it's like. My heart goes out to the people that follow the Turtle Bay nest. As the eagle population rebounds, we will see more fights over territories, nests and mates... There will be an increase in "intruders" at nests. Resident eagles will be injured or killed defending their nests -- or will simply run away to escape injury -- leaving the remaining resident unable to cope alone with eggs or young in the nest. The increasing eagle population is a success story, but it brings problems with it because there is only so much real estate to go around. It also brings about change, with "Urban Eagles" setting up nests in closer contact with humans and not necessarily near water. As far as Turtle Bay is concernet, they still have one egg and it looks like it has a pip today. The last screen captures I see on their forum shows two eagles in the nest with the egg. And I think it's the resident female and the intruder. I'll post another update tomorrow... Today, I've had to go by what's posted on the forum -- there are so many people looking at the cam that I'm getting "Connection failed: Over license connection limit."

The Sooner Lake Eagle Cam (Oklahoma) had four eggs this nesting season. Three have hatched and the fourth should hatch any day now. I'm going to be checking on that cam tomorrow and hope to have some screen captures to share.

 Some pics from The Critter Window:


These ducks can put away some bird food!

  

I hadn't expected to see birds as big as Cardinals wait on a squirrel...

 

Even this duck was giving the squirrel a wide berth! It wouldn't go in the feeder with the squirrel!



Eventually, the feeder runs empty.



Then, at 2:04PM, it rains bird food! Pretty neat set-up... 


I have found a blog that seems to be a pretty comprehensive guide to the Eagle Cams that are available. Check out this site!



Camellia's location, Buddy training update, sad news at Turtle Bay nest, pesticide poisoned Bald Eagle

There is a new location for Camellia posted on the CCB's Eagle Trak. There is no location for Azalea. I checked Seaturtle and her location isn't shown. I've seen this happen before -- I guess their data doesn't all download from the satellite at the same time. Just guessing. We'll just have to wait to see if she checks in. I'm figuring we should have a fix on her by tomorrow. NX hasn't checked in since 3/14. It's normal for her to miss checking in as she wanders in and out of areas that have cell coverage.

Raina has posted a training update for Buddy! His training seems to be coming along nicely. If you have any questions about Buddy's training, here's your chance: Raina and Dr Dave are going to be on WCV's moderated discussion at noon tomorrow (3/21). You can ask questions then, or you can ask questions in advance and then read back later. The link to the moderated discussion is included in the training update.

Disturbing news out of the Turtle Bay (Redding, California) nest. One of the Eaglets had hatched, but the next morning it was killed by an adult. Intruder Bald Eagles will kill offspring in a nest to reduce competition for resources or to make room for their own offspring if they are trying to take over the territory/nest and remaining mate. There is some speculation that it was one of the parents that killed the Eaglet. But there has been an intruder in the area for a couple of weeks, which I think played a role. I am speculating that something happened to one of the residents, maybe in a conflict with the intruder. Or perhaps the resident went away when the intruder appeared, as happened at the Norfolk nest in '08. This story points out that one of the residents stopped coming to the nest to help with incubation and stopped bringing food to the nest after the intruder arrived -- about two weeks prior. I think the remaining resident probably gave up on trying to handle all of the nesting duties alone. It doesn't help that the camera isn't pointed correctly at the nest. We may never know what happened at this nest... I've seen a lot of disclaimers on nest cams recently, that the cams show what happens, sometimes it's life and sometimes it's death... Something to keep in mind as we observe these nests. The cam can be found here -- the picture is really clear, but the angle is pretty bad:

 And here's a story of a Bald Eagle in Oklahoma that died of pesticide poisoning. That's a new one on me. They said the pesticide is commonly found in rat poison. I had a termite company tell me once that a poison would kill the animal that ate it, then kill the animal that ate the dead (poisoned) animal, which would then poison and kill whatever animal ate it. So if you poison a mouse, and it gets eaten by a snake, the snake will die. And if the snake then gets eaten by a raccoon, the raccoon will die. I think I'd rather not use a product when you can't control the domino effect like that...