Berry College Eaglet Day 56, Loch of the Lowes Third Egg

Today is the 8 week mark for the Berry College Bald Eagle! First the collage. I took this screen capture while the eaglet was self-feeding. (There is a series of 3 s'caps below of this session.) The eaglet had a meaty piece of food and was tearing off and eating pieces. We will still see the parents feeding the eaglet until the eaglet displays too much aggression when food is brought to the nest. At that point, the parents will drop off food and then get out of the way as the eaglet rushes to claim it and eat.

And here are a few other pictures from today. Mom seems to be taking her weight off of her left foot. I hope she hasn't aggravated her injury.

I love watching babies stretch out in the nest.

It's been a lazy day so far. There was a feeding, which the eaglet stayed laying down for.

Just taking it easy.

We are seeing a lot of these stretches today. The wing is trailing over the edge of the nest by several inches. 6-8 inches?

 

This was interesting. At first, I thought, "I remember my Mom looking at me like that when I laid in the bed all Saturday morning." She stood like this for about a full minute and I was starting to wonder what she was looking at.

Then she stepped in and started nibbling at the eaglet's back. In all the time I've spent watching nest cams, I've never seen this before... Maybe she saw a fly or lice or something on the eaglet?

And then she looked for about another minute...

And then she relaxed a little bit more. But still looking... I don't know what this was about... I'm surprised the baby didn't react at all.

At my last look today, the eaglet was self-feeding off of something meaty. It was standing on the prey and tearing off pieces. A milestone moment!

And this is the pic I've chosen for the collage for week 8. Here the eaglet is standing on the food and taking a moment to look around while self-feeding.

Amazingly, the Loch of the Lowes Osprey has laid a third egg! At one point last night while I was watching this nest, I wondered if she wasn't in a hunched over, egg laying posture. But at the time I was thinking, what are the odds? Congratulations to this wonderful pair and all who love and follow this nest! I haven't been able to get any decent pictures of these eggs and they are so pretty. The Scottish Wildlife Trust has some great pictures posted on one of their blog entries. Here's the pictures I got this morning:

Yes, I did get a shot of the eggs. But they are so well camouflaged.