Berry College Eagles: A Well Stocked Pantry!, Bald Eagle HK, Sterling, And Visitors, Harrison Bay Eagles Getting Ready For Hatch Watch

I grabbed some nest footage a few days ago and never got it posted. And now it's old news... But I'm still going to post this one shot that shows how well the Berry College pantry is stocked. I see 6 whole and partial fish and a coot!

Pam Monahan has been spending some time out at Honey Bell Golf Course, documenting the life of Bald Eagle HK.

On 2/25, HK had 4 visitors to his territory, from juvenile to adult.

On 2/26, HK and Sterling were both in the area.

On 2/27, HK and a sub-adult were at the nest.

Nests are attractive to other Eagles since they can be a source of food: eggs and babies that are left unattended as well as pantry items (such as in the Berry College nest above) can all provide food.

Get ready for hatch watch at Harrison Bay! We will be in the hatch window this week! I'm going to start watching tomorrow, but it may be another day before we see signs of hatching.

Southwest Florida Eagles Day 22&23 A Good Day, Africam Black Eagles New Pictures

I watched the Southwest Florida Eagle nest for a few hours today. I saw some sibling rivalry, but nothing too bad. It looks like E8 is learning to lay low until E7 has been fed. I saw E8 get plenty of food today. I didn't see anything too concerning while I was watching and E8 seems to be in fine shape. Here's my s'caps from the day. Mombrellas are good at shading the babies from the hot sun:

That looks comfortable.

Mom hopped onto one of the nest branches so she could survey her territory:

That is a HUGE crop on E8! Being fed here by Dad while Mom feeds E7.

Zoomer gave us nice close-ups of Mom feeding E7:

Here's an animated gif of one of the bites:

Afterward, Mom dropped down onto a branch and did some feaking. She better be careful with her tongue hanging out the side!

That's all the cool stuff I got from 3 hours at the nest today. Here's a video of A Good Day At The Nest (28:48). I got the screen captures above from this video.

There's new pictures of the Africam Black Eagles. Check here and check here. Both are great sets of pictures.

Berry College Eagles Day 92&94, Harrison Bay Eagles 48&50, White Rock Eagles Day 26&27

I reviewed the entire day at the Berry College nest and didn't see either fledgling. Mom brought a squirrel to the nest. The cam was freezing bad today. One frame she wasn't there, the next frame she was...

She waited a while to see if one of her babies was going to show up. Eventually, she started eating the squirrel. (And when she left the nest later, she took the leftovers with her.)

It was fun watching her wait. She is panting to cool off after carrying the squirrel to the nest in the mid-day heat. It makes her look funny... Or maybe she was just jealous of my funny looking Dad video and she was making faces for the camera...

I like this s'cap of the Blue Jay. It's thinking, "Fly like an Eagle!"

The Harrison Bay Eaglets look full grown. Here's a day in the life...

I love the big stretches. I think these relieve their growing pains.

It's funny watching them follow each other around the nest.

They are both showing off their big feet.

One of the parents brought a nice-size fish to the nest.

Two peas in a pod...

One of the eaglets did some impressive self-feeding.

Mom and Dad like to perch in a near-by tree.

Sleepy baby...

Wingercizing.

I like the light at this nest in the morning because it lights up the background trees and at sunset (like here) because it's such a pretty light.

Mom stands up. She's thinking about something...

And off she goes!

She's gone for a bit and returns with a clump of green pine. It's looks like she took the end off of a pine bough.

She fed the babies some nestovers before bedtime.

Berry College Day 19&21, Peacock Spiders, Birdcams, Plane Crash at Norfolk Botanical Garden

This post is for March 4, 2015. I forgot to hit the "publish" button last night...

You can see the thermal down that has come in. It's darker than the natal down.

The two chicks are moving out of the nest bowl and coming to the food.

Flapping

They both have nice sized crops. They are getting plenty to eat.

A family s'cap with Mom.

Here's a link to a video of Dad delivering this fish (3:05). (You can see the fish tail at the 3 o'clock position. Dad had already eaten the head.)

Another fish appeared in the nest when I wasn't looking. Not sure who brought it... (This one still has a head.)

Mom started eating. The babies weren't even interested. They are already full...

Here's a link to a video of Mom eating some nestover bones and one of the babies moving out of the nest bowl (4:50).

Check out these spiders. I don't care for spiders too much, but these are some beauties! Check out the video too...

Here's a site that lists (all?) of the birdcams. Leave a comment if you find something good so I can watch too!

A small plane crashed at the Norfolk Botanical Garden around 4:30AM (early this morning). There was very poor visibility due to fog. The plane was found in the Enchanted Forest part of the garden about three hours after the crash. It missed the runway at the (next door) Norfolk Airport by about 1.5 miles. There were 3 aboard, no survivors. The garden is closed until the investigation at the scene is completed and the plane is removed. The Norfolk Botanical Garden, for many years, was the happy home of the Norfolk Eagles. In the last few years, the city of Norfolk has harassed the eagles into leaving the garden because they felt the eagles posed a hazard to flight.

Berry College Day 11 & 13 Video

I put together some video highlights from a half hour today at the Berry College Bald Eagle nest. There are some stretches and baby flapping, poop shoots and bonking, and Mom flies in and eats some bony nestovers and then feeds the chicks. Check it out at this link. (9:32)
Here's a s'cap from the video during the wind-up to a bonking:

Berry College Day 7 & 9 -- Feeding a Family

That's a lot of food in the Berry College nest! I see at least two squirrels and one coot. And some unidentifiable prey items. Yum yum! With all of this food, there shouldn't be any serious problems with sibling rivalry. (Talons crossed!)

I caught a family dinner this evening. Mom and Dad are working together to feed the babies. This is good when there are multiple babies in the nest. If they are both getting food offered to them, they are both eating and aren't bopping on each other.

 

 

Berry College Bald Eagle Nest: Pip In Second Egg!, An Update For Bald Eagle HK, and The Final Transmitter Report For Bald Eagle Camellia

The fun part of the adventure has started at Berry College. Look at that 1-day old cutie. This was during a feeding and its attention was on the parent. A pip is visible in the second egg. Last year, the second egg didn't hatch. So, I'm excited to see two chicks grow in this nest and pray that they don't have any problems. The egg shell from yesterday is gone, either removed or eaten by the parents. The pip in the second egg is toward the top of the egg:

This late at night, Mom is asleep... Sometimes she tucks her head under her wing and sometimes it's face-plant mode. I don't know what prompts the different positions or if it is random. It looks like there is a food item to the left. Once a chick has hatched, Dad is driven to provide food, food, food! Get ready to see a lot of nestovers laying around.

I'm happy to find that Pam Monahan is making regular visits to Honey Bee Golf Course to check on Bald Eagle HK and his lady Sterling. Here's a link to her latest post. She is doing a fantastic job of documenting this pair. I haven't seen HK's nest in a while -- it is pretty impressive!

Reese recently reported that Bald Eagle Camellia's transmitter has finally stopper reporting his location. Here is Reese's post with some interesting facts about Camellia.