The shadows at the Berry College nest present a challenge when trying to get decent s'caps. Here's a couple from earlier today. In this first s'cap, the eaglet has its left wing stretched out toward the top right corner. You can see the dark feathers growing out of the edge of the wing near the tip.
Horrible shadows, but I can still make out a big crop.
Much later in the day, the shadows are gone and we can see the eaglet much better. This must be a lazy day at the nest -- the eaglet is dozing in the same spot with a wing stretched out. This is a great look at the feathers near the wing tip and darker splotches of feathers on the wing that's stretched out. And the dark feathers on the back are filling in. Bald Eagles have about 7200 feathers, so this chick still has a long way to go!
The Southwest Florida nest is still on fledge watch! Look at how much space one full-grown Eaglet takes up in a nest. And many nests have three youngsters! But when they get full-grown and are branching, they aren't all in the nest at the same time, making more room for all...
I found one of the Northeast Florida Fledglings posing for the camera:
I'm trying to get a look at the Hays nest to see if the third egg hatched today. I brought up the cam just in time to see Mom Hays pulling grasses in close, which means I just missed getting a look at the nest bowl. Here she is digging into the grass to pull it closer.
The picture above and the next one below were taken within seconds of each other. Look at the big pile of grass she pulled in front of herself:
I checked back 15 minutes later and the night cam was turned on. Mom stretched up taller, I'm not sure if she's on alert or if it's because of something the babies are doing under her:
And then there's this s'cap that cracks me up! This is one of my all-time favorite s'caps! This is real, not photo shopped. Thanks Mom Hays! I'm going to believe that the children were rough-housing under her...
Several times she acted like she was going to get up only to relax again. What a tease!
The Two Harbors chick is thriving. I see you looking at me looking at you!
I'm ready for my close-up! At a week old, the chick is still covered in light gray natal down. The thermal down will be a darker gray. Once it comes in, the baby will be able to keep warm without being brooded. About another week or two...
And getting some chow -- with a string of saliva between their beaks. Yummy!:
I checked in at White Rock and found this beautiful scene. (All of the s'caps below were taken within three minutes. Talk about having good timing!)
Two minutes after taking the above s'cap, Mom looked around and started chattering. I knew something was happening, so I took a s'cap and hoped for the best... And caught Dad landing in the nest:
They seemed to confer for a moment.
And then Mom took a break. What a pretty sight!
Bald Eagle NX checked in today. She is taking the scenic route, I just don't know where her destination is. Or maybe she doesn't have one...The following was edited on 4/2 to correct the days of the week for this lunar eclipse.
We are going to have a total lunar eclipse on the night of April 14-15. There should be good viewing in North America. We should see a partial eclipse for over an hour, followed by a total eclipse for 1.3 hours and then a partial eclipse for over an hour. The entire event will last about 3.5 hours. This eclipse will give us a "blood moon" due to Mars being near the moon during the eclipse. Hit the link above and then select the links on that page for more details. This site says that things will start happening on April 15th at 12:55AM and end at 5:30AM in my home city of Hampton, VA. That's a Monday night / Tuesday morning, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about viewing this eclipse...
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