Berry College Bald Eagle Chick Day 16, Screen Captures For Hays, Northeast Florida, Southwest Florida Bald Eagle Nests, Eagles4Kids Update

These screen captures are from yesterday, March 10th. Day 16 for the Berry College Bald Eagle chick. Bunch of s'caps...
Started off the day with some breakfast:

The chick can spend more time without Mom brooding -- both because the ambient temperatures are getting warmer and because the chick is old enough to start thermoregulating on its own:

The chick is still very vulnerable at this age, completely defenseless. So Mom keeps a close eye on her baby:

The chick still likes to snuggle up with Mom if it gets chilly, getting warmth from the sun and from Mom:

Something happened that Mom didn't like and she urgently called for Dad. It's hard to see: Her mouth is wide open in this screen capture:

And Dad was there in a flash:

All that commotion tires a baby out -- huge yawn:

I like this picture of Mom watching over the baby:

And the baby cracked me up. It kept grabbing this piece of grass with its beak:

And finally (drum roll please) the chick has escaped from the nest bowl for the first time! (Time for Mom and Dad to work on some guard rails!)

I also wanted to show you guys this video of the Berry College nest. Mom Berry stretches out her injured left leg. I've seen her do this stretch so many times. It must help ease the pain in her bad leg. And then she limps across the nest. She is moving better...

I made the rounds of the other nests that I'm watching...
Everything looks quiet at the Hays Bald Eagle nest:

At the Northeast Florida Bald Eagle nest, one has fledged and the other has at least branched. Here's where I found them tonight:

The Southwest Florida Bald Eagle chick is huge! Must be a girl -- and she really knows how to relax:

And check out this picture of a bird bath! Posted by the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam.

The folks at the Eagles4Kids nest are reporting that the resident male has been mating with the intruder female. We'll know in a few days if they were mating for real or just bonding so far. They have a video posted on their update page for March 9th that shows them mating. It looks like he got his tail curled up under her tail, so I'd say it was real mating. And they report at least three more mating attempts yesterday. I think we are going to have eggs at this nest soon...

Berry College Bald Eagle Chick Day 14, Fledge at the Northeast Florida Bald Eagle Nest, Screen Capture of the Southwest Florida Bald Eagle Chick, A Cold Night For Bald Eagle Mom Hays, Hays Bald Eagle Nest Had Sub-adult Bald Eagle Fly By, Eagles4Kids Bald Eagle Nest Update, Bald Eagle Eggs and Cold Weather

The Berry College Bald Eagle Chick is 2 weeks old today. Here is a comparison of hatch day and today. That egg that didn't hatch is providing a good point of reference:

February 22: Hatch Day



March 8: Two Weeks Old

 

 I noticed Mom Berry wasn't incubating as much today. The temperatures were warmer today and soon, the chick will be able to thermoregulate on its own. Some more screen captures from today. "It was this big!"

Here's a nice moment with Mom and baby:

It was 61 degrees when I took this s'cap this evening. Mom was standing nearby.

Eventually, she moved in a little closer.

 Then finally she incubated... the baby's head!

Much excitement at the Northeast Florida Bald Eagle nest. I checked in on the nest this evening and there was only one chick in the nest. So I did some checking and found out that one of them fledged this morning. Then I went back to the cam and found they had panned over to this:

The Southwest Florida Bald Eagle chick appears to be doing well.

The Hays Bald Eagle Nest Cam page is reporting 33 degrees and light snow. It seems incredibly windy there tonight. Mom Hays seemed agitated just now when I looked in on her, repeatedly calling out:

I was searching the web for info on the Hays nest and discovered not only did they have the incident with the raccoon. But they also had a sub-adult do a fly by. Here's a link to the video. Here's a still taken from the video, where you can tell it's a third year Bald Eagle:

At the Eagles4Kids nest, it appears that the resident male has taken the intruder female as a new mate. Some of you may remember Dad Norfolk and the parade of women that came and went after Mom Norfolk was killed. The imperative to reproduce is so strong. Since the resident female had injuries to her feet, she was probably unable to defend her place at the nest against a challenger. In her absence, the male accepted the new female. Such is life...

There seems to be a lot of Bald Eagle nests with eggs that aren't hatching. I think the unusually cold winter may have something to do with this. The Raptor Resource Project had a blog post recently about incubating eggs in cold weather. Very interesting!

Eagles4Kids Bald Eagle Nest Territory Dispute, Berry College Bald Eagle Chick Day 11, 12, and 13, Bald Eagles Camellia and NX Check In, Decorah Bald Eagle Nest Videos, Hays Bald Eagle Nest Cam

Lots of drama happening at the Eagles4Kids Bald Eagle nest. A pair of eagles are trying to take over the nest. Their update for yesterday has several videos posted: one of the strangers attacking one of the resident eagles and then the intruders visiting the nest several times afterward. The second half of this video shows a close-up of one of the strangers. It looks like there are still some dark feathers in the eye-stripe. This eagle is probably coming up on its first reproductive year. A new mating pair would be looking for a territory. As habitat reaches saturation, we will see more territory disputes... The update for today says that the strangers have been on the nest today, so we will just have to wait and see how this plays out.

I took two screen captures of the Berry College Bald Eagle nest yesterday (March 5th). Here's the chick day 11 -- it was watching Mom intently:

And what was Mom doing? She was trying to eat the leg of a Coot. You can see its foot resting on her foot, it's leg in her mouth. Coot feet look like a Christmas Cactus, not webbed at all. I couldn't stick around to see who won, the leg or Mom Berry. That leg was not going down without a fight!

I only managed to get one screen capture of the Berry College Bald Eagle nest yesterday. It looked to be a cold, wet day on the nest. I didn't have many opportunities to see what was happening at the nest, so I went the entire day without seeing the chick on day 12...

But today I got a good look and let me tell you, the Berry College Bald Eagle chick (day 13) is growing like a weed. I know it's hard to realize how much bigger it has gotten. But look at this screen capture from today and compare the chick to the egg that didn't hatch. Looks much bigger now, right?

Bald Eagle Camellia checked in with some partial data. Hopefully, he'll get a good charge with some sunny weather.

Bald Eagle NX has also checked in and she is 28 miles from her check-in site of 2 weeks ago.

I like these two videos from the Decorah Bald Eagle nest. Three eggs at this nest! Video 1 and Video 2. An interesting thing at the end of video 1: When Dad gets up off of the eggs, they are all in a row. Then before Mom lays down on them, she rolls one over so they are in a circle (triangle). I've noticed that male Bald Eagles tend to like the eggs to be in a row and Moms like them more in a circle. I believe that since males are more narrow, they have a more narrow brood patch. Having the eggs in a row helps the male to line them up along his brood patch and keep them all warm. Just my guess...

Shoebutton left a comment that I should check out the Pittsburgh Hays Bald Eagle Nest Cam as a possible nest to follow. This was the nest that had the Raccoon in it a week or so ago. I'll watch that nest for a bit and see how I like it. They have three eggs and they do have a good night-time cam. (I was disappointed to find that the Humboldt Bay cam doesn't have very good night-time picture quality... So I may not follow them after all.) Thanks for the suggestion Shoebutton! Here's what's happening on the Hays nest right now:

Location for Bald Eagle KE, SW Florida, NE Florida, Berry College, and Eagles4kids Eagle Cams, Eagle Cam Behind the Scenes, Sink Holes, Bonobo Apes, Egg Agents, National Zoo's Baby Panda

Reese has posted a new location for Bald Eagle KE. She knows where she likes to hang out!

The Southwest Florida Eagle Cam has a 'hatch watch' clock showing 10 more days... The Southeast Florida Eagle Cam doesn't have the fancy clock, but the first egg arrived three days earlier, so... I'll let you do the math. I looked in on both of these nests tonight and it looked like business as usual. I couldn't look at the Berry College Eagle Cam tonight. Something wrong with the feed...

The Eagles4kids nest is full of snow. But I see footprints, so someone has been there. Their web page shows that it's a brisk -18 degrees there tonight...

I was looking in on the Sooner Lake Eagle Cam and saw a link for "Eagle Cam Behind the Scenes." I have a technical background and find stuff like this to be interesting. If you aren't interested in that sort of thing, at least check out the pictures!
 
A huge sinkhole opened up in Bosnia. It seems like I'd never heard of such a thing, but now it's a common occurrence. Is this a case of the world becoming smaller due to the internet, or are these happening now and they didn't used to? I looked at the accompanying slide-show and only one picture was from earlier than the year 2000.

Bonobo apes in a German zoo have gone high-tech. They can control which channel is played.

Egg agents recruit women to sell their eggs. This is interesting to me. Part of me feels these women are taking an incredible risk that they may not have any eggs left when they are ready to start their own family. Women only have as many eggs as they are born with, and once they are gone (normally at a rate of one per month) they are gone. Some can view this as incredibly generous and some can view this as putting money above all else. I'm conflicted about this one...

The National Zoo has selected a name for their baby Panda. There is also a video of her first steps at the end of the story. You can't help but cheer her on!

Eagles4Kids Nest, Valdez Alaska, Boolie's Blog

There is an announcement at the Eagles4Kids Nest Cam web site that the season is over. The egg is gone. It never hatched and now it is gone. I'm not sure what happened to the egg. It disappeared on day 42, and it should have hatched around day 35. If you remember, this is the nest with Lucy, who showed up at the nest this year with injured feet. The right one was severly injured and she lost most of the foot. Everyone was amazed and cheering for this couple when Lucy laid an egg this year. She has been an inspiration for people with disabilities. I look forward to watching Lucy and Larry next year.

Here's some pictures and videos from someone's trip to Valdez, Alaska. Bald Eagles all over the place! I hope to go to Alaska one day!

I found a photo gallery of Bald Eagles by Rick Cameron. The last Bald Eagle on this page has some very unusual coloring. I'm not sure if it's leucistic or not. The feathers on its back and wings aren't white, but they aren't dark brown either... He has an interesting blog (Boolie's Blog) and you can also look at his other pictures, ranging from wildlife to places to pets and more.

Eagles4Kids cam, Sooner Lake cam, Harris Hawk, Red-tail Hawk, bear cubs, tiger cub, leopard, brown bear

Yesterday, I mentioned the disabled Bald Eagle at the Eagles4Kids live cam. I got some screen captures of the eagles today. She was able to hobble across the nest. This is the female, you can tell her right foot is missing the toes:

In this pic, the male is heading out and the female is resuming incubating duties after returning to the nest. Good shot of the egg here and her foot. I don't know why this camera is tilted...

I think this eagle is an inspiration to anyone who is living with a disability!

And I finally got a look at the Sooner Lake eaglets. I'm not sure if I see three or four heads in this shot. The last I heard, there was a pip in the 4th egg. So, they may have four babies in the nest by now.

Here's a site with a few pics of a Harris Hawk. What a beautiful bird that is! We don't get these around here...

Check out these pictures of birds of prey on flickr. Over 98,000 pictures here...

Have you ever seen a bird that ate too much that it couldn't fly? Check out this story with video. I think they maybe should have left this Red-tailed Hawk alone, with people keeping away from it, to see if it would eventually fly away... Just my thoughts on the matter...

I don't know how three bear cubs end up in a cardboard box on the side of the road in South Carolina. But it sure makes for cute pictures.

There's an orphaned polar bear cub in Alaska. He made his first public appearance. Here's the story. And here's some video. There are two videos on this page and look at the size of those paws in the pic at the bottom of the page! This is a video of a different polar bear cub learning to take his first steps.

The San Francisco Zoo's baby Sumatran Tiger is now on exhibit for limited periods of time.

A couple of quick videos:

This leopard knows how to deal with paparazzi!

This bear is much more friendly!