White-bellied Sea Eagle Day 72 Branching!, Big Sur Condor Feathers In The Nest, Northeast Florida Eagles

The White-bellied Sea Eaglet SE16 branched for the first time today! The thumbnail for the video is SE16 jumping up onto the branch. Check out the SE16 Branching video (6:51):

And here's some s'caps from today. While SE16 was on the branch, SE15 was doing some wingercizing. It seemed like the eaglets were looking at each other. But SE15 was actually flapping and hopping all over the nest, making good use of having the nest to himself!

After a few minutes, SE16 jumped back down into the nest. She did a good job her first time branching. For her first jump up, she needed to flap a little to get her body over the branch. She just was a little short getting up there. The jump down into the nest was a lot easier -- and she stuck the landing just fine!

Then she did a quick victory lap, spinning and flapping in a circle.

It looks like the Big Sur Condor cam has been knocked even further out of position. I hope they will apply lessons learned and move it out of reach of the large wingspan for the nest nesting season. Look at all of the feathers in the nest. Are they the babies? Knocked off while flapping in such a confined space? Is it molting already? I see a lot of feathers!

I caught one of the Northeast Florida adults visiting the nest for a few minutes today: