We have the first egg at the White-bellied Sea Eagle nest! (Remember to take 14 hours off the cam date/time to get East Coast time. I usually refer to my time, not cam time.) This is from yesterday, what turned out to be the last of the preps before the egg comes.
I think these birds are beautiful. I like how this s'cap shows off the tail.
This is Mom laying the egg. Her back is arched a little here, you can see the feathers on her back are sticking up with the effort.
She was making little chirps as she worked to lay the egg.
She is really making an effort here. Shortly after this scap, she did an egg roll. She didn't let us see the egg though until a little while later.
We can just see the egg among her petticoats.
Today, we had plenty of opportunities to see the egg as Mom and Dad do a lot of egg rolls.
White-bellied Sea Eagles do delayed incubation in an attempt to have the eggs hatch closer together. It is common to see an egg not being incubated 24/7 until the clutch is complete.
We got a close-up view of Dad's beautiful feathers!
But it was much better today. I thought about something. I've compared this chick to the Osprey chicks. But that's not a fair comparison. Osprey fledge 49-56 days after hatching and Black Eagles fledge 90-97 days after hatching. So, this little one is not going to develop as fast...
It was a puddle of Osprey at the Dyfi nest yesterday.
They had rain today. Mom tried to keep her babies dry, but they are just too big! Dad has some interesting coloring. His eyes never lightened. You can see how dark his eyes are compared to Mom's. He's also got a lot of dark feathers in his collar. True, his collar is not as dark as Mom's (see above s'cap) but it's still quite a bit for a male.
One of the Harrison Bay Eaglets was playing with a stick in the nest this morning. Here, it's got the stick in its mouth, is standing on one foot, and grabbing the stick with its other foot.
Who is perched in the tree across the way? Two somebodies...
It got super windy at one point. Here's Dad and one of the babies riding out the wind.
Pretty baby!
There was a food delivery and both babies went into full mantle. Pretty impressive!
I never noticed before that Dad has chicken legs!
I can't believe I caught all four in the nest together today! So awesome so long after fledge!
The feathers on the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey chicks are coming in great. They are starting to look like juvenile Osprey!
The two that were eating in the above s'cap shifted toward the camera and the third chick got to eat. It usually all works out in the Osprey nests.
The Osplets are starting to wingercize.
I'm always happy when I can get a s'cap with faces. Here, Mom is looking down. Drats!
This one has three baby faces and some of Mom's face is visible...
We got some nice close-ups of the babies today.
And Mom too!
The whole family.
I think only one of the White Rock Eaglets is getting up on the branch. I had an early morning yesterday, so I caught the nest before sunrise. I didn't realize how active these chicks are this early in the morning...
Both of them are flapping here.
That's a pretty s'cap!
Then today I was back to my normal time checking out this nest.
They are both checking out the parent.
It looks like the other chick is thinking about going out on the branch. Maybe tomorrow!
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