Harrison Bay Eagles Day 65&66 Comfy On Branches, White Rock Eagles Day 42&43, Dyfi Osprey Day 2,4&5, Loch of the Lowes Osprey Day 10,12&13 Aggression

The Harrison Bay Eaglets are pretty comfy out on the branches now. How quickly they learn!

Headless? No -- preening! One of the Eaglets sneezed again while I was watching. The moderator said that the Eagles at this nest sneeze a lot. It has something to do with allergens and the valley they are in.

This turtle wasn't as lucky as the one that escaped the other night.

The Eaglets can feed themselves now. But they will still cry for a parent to feed them.

Parent and Eaglet on the branch. It won't be long before one of the Eaglets ventures that far out...

I'm ready for my close-up!

The White Rock Eaglets are getting bigger and are feathering out.

Probably up to a 4.5 foot wing span now. I'm guessing by comparing it to the nest (smallish since it fell apart between nesting seasons and had to be rebuilt) and that the parent is about 3 feet tall from head to tail.

Finally, a chance to see the three Dyfi Osprey babies... But no! No zoom and no heads popping up.

My internet connection is still struggling and this is all I got before it froze during the overnight (my overnight).

You can often hear a train while watching this cam. Here it is in the background (blue and yellow). This is from morning my time. Afternoon their time.

These chicks were in a puddle in the bottom of the nest bowl. Finally, one raised its head. That's all I got... I'll record again tonight and tomorrow and see what I can get. Verizon is supposed to fix my internet tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get enough speed back that it will stop freezing.

I got some good shots of the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest. It's easy to pick out the youngest on the left, still wearing its natal down. The two older siblings on the right have their thermal down coming in and look darker.

Dad came to the nest for a visit.

The youngest was in the back for the next feeding and couldn't get a bite.

The older sibling in front turned and elbowed its way to the back. I thought it must have been full...

Nope, just making its way to the bathroom... But that gave the youngest a chance to get some bites. The parents are doing a good job of making sure all of them get enough to eat.

Here's the plan: Put the babies in a food coma and then everyone gets to nap!

This was the first sign of aggression that I've seen at this nest. And the baby was the instigator! The older sibling was laying down minding its own business when the younger one reared back and then dove at the sibling.

It kept doing that until the older one got up and gave it a beat down. Eventually, the younger Osplet stayed down and it was settled.

Dad brought this huge fish to the nest. It was still alive.

Mom quickly started tearing off pieces and fed it to the babies. It didn't stay alive for long. Usually, prey is dead by the time it gets to the nest, having received fatal puncture wounds from the talons.

Berry College Eagles Day 59&61 Food Fight, Harrison Bay Eagles Day 15&17, Africam Black Eagle Golden Morning, Dyfi Osprey, Loch of the Lowes Osprey

There was a food fight at the Berry College nest today. I've noticed that food at this nest becomes a little scarce once the coot leave the area. I haven't seen many food deliveries recently. I only saw one yesterday. Fortunately, the decrease in food supply comes after the eaglets have gone through their growth spurt. Today, the eaglets get a small food delivery. There's a rush to claim the food, mantling, and self-feeding. There's also a lot of give and take between them (and some "you'd better back off!" posturing) as the siblings fight over the morsel. I finally got some good side-by-side footage of these eaglets -- I think one is female and one is male. Here's a link to the food fight video (20:56). Yes, it's long. But if you start watching it and get bored, turn it off. But I think you'll like it! Here's some stills taken from the video. When the parent lands, the smaller (male?) mantles and grabs the parent's foot. The food was actually dropped in front of the eaglet.

The eaglet figured out where the food was and bends to start eating as the other eaglet (closer to the cam) and the parent (farther from the cam) peer to see what's happening.

Here's part of the food fight.

Some other s'caps from today. The eaglets want to get out into the world and spend a lot of time staring off into the distance.

Why do they have to stand on the weak edge of the nest!?!?!? They make me worry so much! I have seen an eaglet fall out of a nest... (That was Dad Norfolk's daughter/new mate Bald Eagle HE. She fell out of the nest when she was wingercizing and hop flapping from one side of the nest to the other. She overshot the edge... She about gave me a heart attack!)

This s'cap shows their size difference...

That is an impressive wing span! Can you believe that only two months ago, these two were hatchlings?

The Harrison Bay chicks have their thermal down now, which is darker than the natal down they hatched with. They are putting on some size.

I brought up the Africam Black Eagle cam just now (almost 1:00AM East Coast) and it's their sunrise. Beautiful light! Worth staying up for, but I'm going to pay for it tomorrow...

 

It's also daylight at the Osprey nests that I follow. And someone is home at the Dyfi nest...

...as well as the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey Nest.

Berry College Day 19&21, Peacock Spiders, Birdcams, Plane Crash at Norfolk Botanical Garden

This post is for March 4, 2015. I forgot to hit the "publish" button last night...

You can see the thermal down that has come in. It's darker than the natal down.

The two chicks are moving out of the nest bowl and coming to the food.

Flapping

They both have nice sized crops. They are getting plenty to eat.

A family s'cap with Mom.

Here's a link to a video of Dad delivering this fish (3:05). (You can see the fish tail at the 3 o'clock position. Dad had already eaten the head.)

Another fish appeared in the nest when I wasn't looking. Not sure who brought it... (This one still has a head.)

Mom started eating. The babies weren't even interested. They are already full...

Here's a link to a video of Mom eating some nestover bones and one of the babies moving out of the nest bowl (4:50).

Check out these spiders. I don't care for spiders too much, but these are some beauties! Check out the video too...

Here's a site that lists (all?) of the birdcams. Leave a comment if you find something good so I can watch too!

A small plane crashed at the Norfolk Botanical Garden around 4:30AM (early this morning). There was very poor visibility due to fog. The plane was found in the Enchanted Forest part of the garden about three hours after the crash. It missed the runway at the (next door) Norfolk Airport by about 1.5 miles. There were 3 aboard, no survivors. The garden is closed until the investigation at the scene is completed and the plane is removed. The Norfolk Botanical Garden, for many years, was the happy home of the Norfolk Eagles. In the last few years, the city of Norfolk has harassed the eagles into leaving the garden because they felt the eagles posed a hazard to flight.

Berry College Bald Eagle Chick Day 28, Checking In On The Hays Bald Eagle Nest During The Daytime, White Rock Bald Eagle Nest

No blog post last night -- I wasn't feeling well. So, here's the post I would have put together last night...

Day 28 for the Berry College Bald Eagle Chick. It looks like the feet are about full size now. These big feet are going to help the chick stand and then learn how to stand on food and tear pieces off in order to self feed. Compare the size of the chick's feet to the size of the adult's feet:

The next thing to become full size is the beak, which will also help the chick to self feed. It's still not as big as the adult's beak, but it's getting there:

You can also see pin feathers coming out in various places, looking like polka dots on the chick. As a pin feather comes in, it pushes the thermal down out, which then wears off. Look at the polka dot look on the neck in the picture below, the wing in the picture above, and the back in the first two pictures. These dots will be some of the places where we will first see feathers coming in. You can really see the pin feathers coming out on the wing tip in the two pictures below.

 

Bald Eagles will pant to help them cool off. We will start to see more and more of this as the days get warmer. The adults will pant after bring heavy prey into the nest.

The chick is really starting to take advantage of not having to share the nest with any siblings, stretching out in its sleep. First this way...

...then that way.

Eaglets also stretch a lot when they are growing. I think they are trying to adjust to their ever-changing bodies:

I got a nice family picture in the evening:

And then Dad took off while the chick preened.

3/22 was 4 weeks old for the Berry College Eaglet. Here's the collage:

I finally remembered to look in on the Hays nest during the daytime. This is the nest that looks like it's got an artsy filter on it at night. Well, this is what it looks like during the daytime, with Mom on the eggs:

Checking out the skies:

Looking at me, looking at her...

Enjoying a nice stretch:

Doing an egg roll to keep the eggs evenly warm and prevent the embryos from sticking to the shell.

Doing the shimmy, shimmy to settle back down on the eggs, getting maximum contact between her brood patch and the eggs.

All settled in:

And back to the artsy filter look. (I love how this looks, by the way...)

I also checked in with the White Rock nest, hoping to see a third egg. The first egg was laid on 3/16, the second right on time on 3/19. If there will be a third egg, it will be on 3/22. It looked kind of damp and foggy:

The strong breeze was giving Mom a bad hair day:

Dad is nowhere in sight:

Mom calls out. Is she looking for Dad?

Finally, a look at the eggs. Only two. Maybe a third egg will be laid later in the day...