Berry College Eagles, White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 82, Africam Black Eagles

The Berry College Eagles are steadily working on their nest. 

Here's a video of the Highlights from today (6:44). (I'm having a problem embedding this video. Please just click the link.)

The White-bellied Sea Eagles were being harassed again today by the Currawong. They must have a nest with young nearby.

SE15 is so pretty!

Here's a video of today's Highlights at the nest (18:01).

Here's the video I promised you from yesterday, showing SE15 Branching & Other Highlights (23:19).

Here's three links to new pictures of Kendi, the Africam Black Eagle Fledgling. The second and third (I think) were taken at the same time by two different photographers. So, a lot of the pictures look almost the same.) There's also a Peregrine Falcon in the mix.
First Link
Second Link
Third Link

I just realized that this post came up as Tuesday, October 27. I was so late in the wee hours of the morning working on this post that it ticked over to the new day. This was actually my post for Monday, October 26.

Berry College Eagles Nestorations, Harrison Bay Eagles Nestorations, White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 81 SE15 Branches!

The Berry College Eagles are back and they were doing some nestorations today!

Here's video of them doing some Nestorations (24:14):

The Harrison Bay Eagles were in the big pine:

Then they did a little work in the nest. I love this s'cap of them:

At least one of them is spending the night in the nest tree, but perched on a higher branch and we can only see the bottom half...

I am putting together some video from the White-bellied Sea Eagles, but I'm not going to be able to get it finished until tomorrow... The good news, SE15 branched today! Here's a s'cap and I'll have the video up tomorrow. You can see his tail where he has jumped up onto the perch branch:

White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 76, Africam Black Eagle Kendi Video, Loch Of The Lowes Osprey FR3 and FR4 Favorite Spots

The White-bellied Sea Eagles are looking hungry this morning. Mom found some tiny scraps in the nest to eat and share with her babies.

The chicks were sticking close to Mom hoping she'd share whatever she found. I did see her eat a piece after trying to tear pieces off. I think it was skin because she couldn't get any pieces to tear off. So, she ate it... But then she found something that she shared with the eaglets.

These babies have some great camouflage! It's amazing to me that something that starts out white and ends up white and gray can be so dark at this stage of their lives.

There was a pesky Currawong Fly-by at the nest today. Here's a short video (0:36):

SE16 is having so much fun in the branches today! She is totally confident now, hopping around and exploring what's beyond the nest. Check out the SE16 In The Branches video (11:03):

Here's a new video put out by the Africam Black Eagle folks: Kendi On The Cliff Face (2:02):

Loch of the Lowes Osprey FR3 and FR4 are exploring different parts of the Gambia River and the smaller offshoots. They both seem to have found favorite areas. Here are FR3's data points:

FR4 has been in this area longer and is showing more data points. There must be good fishing and plenty of trees in which to roost. Perhaps they have found communal roosts and are with other Osprey... The data from tracking various animals is used to find important areas such as these so conservation efforts can be best directed toward the areas that will make the biggest impact for the animals being studied.

White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 75, Africam Black Eagle New Pictures

The White-bellied Sea Eaglets are still growing like weeds. SE16 is up and down the perch branch. SE15 is keenly watching SE16 and even looked like he was trying to get enough height to get up there. But he just couldn't make it. He was going crazy hopping and flapping around the nest once SE16 was out of the way up on the branch. Fun times to watch this nest!

There are some new pictures of the Africam Black Eaglet Kendi.

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:

Africam Black Eagle Day 106 Fledge Watch Continues, Big Sur Condor Day 119 Branching!, White-bellied Sea Eagles Day 37, Wildlife Center of Virginia's Coverage of Yesterday's Bald Eagle Release

The Africam Black Eagle chick greeting the morning with a big stretch.

I haven't seen any food in the nest in a few days. The chick is going to be lean and hungry - fledge ready... Some people  think that parents push their babies out of the nest. They don't. But there are other ways to encourage them to jump. Lack of food in the nest is one. And frequent fly-bys like yesterday are another.

Once the chick fledges, they will continue to use the nest as a home base, bringing food to the nest. I haven't watched this nest post-fledge, so I don't know if the chick will continue to sleep in the nest or if it will choose to perch on the rocks overnight with its parents.

The chick got some big air here. I think fledge is coming soon. Maybe tomorrow...

The chick is taking a lot of interest in what's beyond the nest.

But we finished the day, again, without a fledge... I'm thinking the chick was waiting until the weekend when more people could watch...

I saw something new today at the Big Sur Condor nest. The chick started standing in the doorway.

She actually climbed up a little bit.

Suddenly, she was gone! Check out this video of her disappearing act, branching for the first time (that I've seen). Branching (1:05):

The chick picked a funny way to lay down, with her head all smooshed into the wall.

At the White-bellied Sea Eagle nest, SE15, while trailing behind in the feather department, is looking like he's catching up in the size department. Or maybe it's how they are sitting or proximity to the camera...

I see them both get bites during the feedings.

There's a moment of golden light with the rising sun hits the nest just right.

There is a difference in the size of their heads and shoulders in this close-up.

SE16 is showing a fat crop.

It looks like she swallowed a golf ball!

SE15 has a fat crop too!

I didn't see any sibling rivalry today.

Here's a link to the Wildlife Center of Virginia's coverage of yesteday's Bald Eagle release. Dr Dave wore a GoPro camera on his chest for a bird's eye view of the release. Here's the link.

White-bellied Sea Eagle Egg!, Africam Black Eagle, Dyfi Osprey, Harrison Bay Eagles, Loch of the Lowes Osprey, White Rock Eagles

I have Verizon DSL which goes out when it rains. And it rained last night, so I couldn't do a blog post. So, I'm doubling down tonight!

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!

The lighting at the Africam Black Eagle nest was not very good yesterday.

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!