Berry College Eaglet Day 74, Nest Cam Round-up: Hays, Two Harbors, White Rock, and Berry College Bluebird, and Bald Eagle NX Checked In

Today is day 74 for the Berry College Bald Eagle. The eaglet is very comfortable on the branch now. Birds have a tendon that causes their toes to close around a branch when they are perched. The eaglet spent a lot of time today perched on the front branch. The eaglet was also aggressive at meal time today, taking the food that was brought to the nest and mantling over it before self-feeding. When I first brought up the cam today, it was to find the eaglet on the front branch.

One of the parents arrived with food, which the eaglet took and mantled over.

The eaglet was left alone to self-feed.

The adult ate what the eaglet left behind.

The eaglet jumped up onto the branch.

The eaglet was feaking while standing on the branch.

Nice close-up!

The eaglet jumped back down to get some bites from the adult.

The eaglet still likes to see what's over to the right.

Big stretch as seen from behind.

The adult hopped up next to the eaglet and then flew away.

The eaglet is craning its neck watching the parent fly away.

Feeling the breeze!

Keeping cool.

A stretch to the left...

...and a stretch to the right. This is the best look at the tail feathers that I've had in a while. Eaglets have a varying amount of white in their tail feathers, which can be used to help identify which eaglet is which in multi-eaglet nests.

 At one point, the eaglet hopped down to the nest. There was some vigorous flapping and hopping today. It was some of the best wingercizing the I've seen to date.

Back onto the branch. The eaglet was having fun with the breeze, giving me these pretty views of its feathers.

This evening, the eaglet is laying in the nest.

I don't have many s'caps of the Hays nest today. The littlest one did some flapping today. So cute!

One of the adults arrived at the nest.

And then was gone. Here the baby is stretching.

Then both adults came to the nest.

One of the adults stayed to feed the chicks.

Look at how tall this baby is already!

I got these s'caps today of the Two Harbors nest. The chick is stretching its wing in the second s'cap.

There were two sleepy chicks at the White Rock nest.

There was a shift change at the nest. I got this s'cap as a result of a lucky cam freeze!

The other adult left the nest and the chicks never even woke up...

One of the eaglets finally woke up.

A shadow on the nest gave away that the other adult was perched above, so I switched to the wide angle cam. The adult in the nest is feeding the chick that woke up.

That is not a very well placed branch. I hope someone moves it...

The word at the Berry College Bluebird nest is that they are going to remove and inspect the three non-viable eggs tomorrow. These may be the last s'caps that I get where we can compare the size of the baby to the eggs. This baby is so big now, it can almost cover all three eggs at the same time! During the day today, the baby got a steady supply of food. Here's Dad (top) passing a grub to Mom...

...who then feeds it to the baby as Dad watches.

Here's Dad bringing another grub to Mom. Open wide...

She then offers it to the baby.

The baby has a little wing wrapped around one of the eggs.

The baby is huge now compared to the eggs.

I thought it was so funny when I saw the baby and the Mom both begging for a bite.

The rest of these s'caps show how much the baby is moving around now.

Sleeping with its mouth open. Maybe trying to cool off...

This does not look comfortable.

Hugging those eggs.

Bald Eagle NX checked in today. She is still in Maryland!