The Stupidity Regarding the Bald Eagles at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, Camellia's Location, Feathered Photography, Screen Captures of Eagle Cams at Sooner Lake, Harrison Bay, NCTC, Two Harbors, and Blackwater, and the Alcoa Osprey Nest, Super-sized Crabs, Sand Kittens, Wildlife Injured by Cats

First, I'm going to have to address the latest news regarding the Norfolk Botanical Garden Eagles. The Feds have endorsed the action that has been taken so far at the Garden to keep the Eagles from nesting there. These people are painfully stupid! How long is it going to take for them to realize that Bald Eagles are territorial and that they are not going to leave the Garden? They are wasting a lot of time, energy, and money trying to get the Bald Eagles out of the Norfolk Botanical Garden instead of making sure all wildlife is clear of the airport! How are they going to feel when a Great Blue Heron, Gull, or Goose takes down a plane while some idiot is shooting paint-balls at the Eagles in the Garden? Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen! One of the worst parts about this is that our concern for safety at the airport is being written off because we are being viewed as a bunch of eagle huggers.

There is a new location for Camellia. He is still exploring Chesapeake.

Ron Dudley's post today on his Feathered Photography blog is of a Prairie Falcon. This is a beautiful bird and Ron got some amazing pictures of it. In the last picture he posted, there is incredible detail in the underside of the wing. Simply beautiful!

Screen captures! 
If you remember, Sooner Lake started with four eggs that hatched. It is very difficult to successfully raise a brood of four. The last two to hatch did not survive. The first two, that hatched on the same day 3/19, look great:

The Harrison Bay eaglets hatched on 3/19 and 3/21. So, they look similar to the Sooner Lake pair. I had to wait forever to get this screen capture. They were being fed, screen right, and I could only see the tail ends as the adult was off camera. Finally, they finished eating and made their way back to the nest bowl. Look at the crops on these chicks! They are very well fed!!

I've got a couple of pictures of the NCTC eaglets. They hatched on 3/16 and 3/17, so they are just a little older than the previous nests. These two also have bulging crops. The one in face-plant position has a crop that is visible at 1:00 position in relation to its head:

I'm including a second picture of the NCTC nest. If you've ever seen an eaglet in the nest poop, you will recognize this pose. They almost do a headstand in order to send their poop over the side of the nest. Trees containing Bald Eagle nests end up "white-washed" as the nesting season progresses. In the below picture, the eaglet that is standing has its head down at the 7:00 position and its butt is in the air at the 1:00 position. You can always tell when they are getting ready to poop because they move around and back up toward the edge of the nest. This is instinctive behavior.

The Two Harbors nest has one chick this year, hatched on 3/25, who is a little younger than the nests shown above. This chick was snuggled up to the parent for most of the time that I was watching this nest, but I was finally able to get this capture. I'm glad to see so many full crops!

The Blackwater Eagles are far older than the rest of the nests presented here. This pair hatched 2/26 and 2/27. What a difference, huh?!

I also spent some time with the Alcoa Osprey nest. At one point, the male came in with a huge fish (missing the delicious head of course!) and couldn't shake it from his talons. The female had to grab it with her mouth and pull it off of his foot. She then flew away with it. You can also see the egg in this picture. There is a picture-in-picture close-up of the nest bowl. The upper part of an egg is visible. I'm excited about this nest! I watched the VIMS Osprey Cam last year and the nest failed. Two eggs were laid, but for some reason they stopped incubating... So, I'm really excited and am hoping to see some offspring in this nest.

A recent news story about super-sized crabs caught my attention. I thought, "Yum, super-sized crabs!" But then the story reveals that they aren't very meaty. And they are so hungry that they are wiping out oyster beds. Not great news for seafood lovers.

I've never heard of sand kittens. Four were born in captivity in Israel. They have been extinct in that country since the 1990's.

Speaking of cats... Ed Clark, the president and co-founder of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, has often commented about the great number of injured wildlife they see at the center due to cats that are allowed to run free outdoors. Recent research indicates that house cats are more prolific killers than previously thought. I don't think people intend to have their free-roaming cats killing song birds and bunnies. Maybe it's something you should think about if you let your cats run free...