I stayed up late last night and was rewarded with seeing SE15's first feeding and SE16 hatch! Technically, most of these s'caps are from their day 1, I'm just writing the post on day 2... Here, you can see the egg is cracked in half.
I think we've been spotted! What a cutie-pie!
SE16 is struggling to get free of the shell.
SE16 has gotten a wing free, but its head is still tucked inside of the shell and SE15 is preventing SE16 from pushing the shell open.
Mom brooded the babies for a few minutes, which moved the shell out of the way. When she stood up a few minutes later, SE16 was free!
And these are truly day 2 s'caps, taken early in the morning the day after hatching. These babies are just perfect:
Getting a bite from Mom:
The Africam Black Eagle is colored for camouflage!
Two of the Osplets were at the Dyfi Osprey nest, and either a parent or child was on the perch behind the nest.
At the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest, FR2 (on the right) was eating while one of the transmittered Osplets (FR3 or FR4) watched.
I can see four beaks at the Soddy Daisy Bluebird nest. Three are facing toward the top and one is at the bottom left.
The first hatchling, after a 37 hour struggle, has finally made an appearance at the White-bellied Sea Eagle nest! During the overnight hours, we got our first look at the baby, here resting its head on the other egg.
Then it shifted its head away from the camera and we can see the pip in the second egg.
It's hard to see with any real detail under the Infrared light, but here you can see the baby's face.
In this s'cap, a really nice pip is visible in the second egg.
Here's a good look at SE15 in the light of day! What a cutie!
Here's a video showing SE15 and a nice crack in the second egg (6:06):
The Africam Black Eagle folks have a new blog post. They speculate that the baby is a female. I agree with their reasoning. I questioned how slowly this chick was developing, which makes sense if it's a girl since they are bigger. Here's a link to their post.
They Dyfi Osprey were sharing their perch with a blackbird...
At the Harrison Bay Eagle nest, HB7 was in the nest. Suddenly, with a Hop, Skip and a Jump, HB7 was out on the Y branch. I don't know if it had gotten bitten or stung... Here's the video (1:18):
Here's HB7 out on the branch.
It looks like HB7 is going to spend the night in the nest tree, but in an area too dark to see once it gets fully dark.
FR2 was home alone at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest. Since food wasn't delivered, FR2 flew away. Pretty tail feathers! There is a new post about this nest as well, showing the adventures of the two Fledglings that have transmitters. Here's a link to their post.
The Soddy Daisy Bluebirds were all laying in a heap today. I can't make heads or tails out of their heads and tails...
There was a feisty moment at the Berry College nest today. I thought it was funny. This video is 12 minutes because it continues with some "day in the life" stuff, wingercizing and searching for nestovers. If you are short on time, just watch the first minute for the feisty moment. Otherwise, much of the day seemed like "monkey see, monkey do"
A few other moments, "coming and going"
Wingercizing:
When I first saw this, I thought one had tried to get under the other to stay dry. "Any shelter in a storm."
I finally got a look at the second hatch at Harrison Bay. The hatchling was in face plant mode, worn out from the hatching process. Its natal down still looks wet:
Later in the day, we can see both little cuties! I got this after getting home from work.
The sibling rivalry has already started. It's in their nature... Here, HB7 on the left is going to get a beakful of HB8's face. Here's a link to a video of this feeding and the little spat (4:55).
At dinner, they both got bites. HB8 was in front and got some good bites. The still below is taken from this video (6:24). That's HB8 getting that bite. (There's a baby poop shoot in the video too.)
Earlier this evening, Mom made a strange hissing sound while flexing. I think the downstairs residents were trying to come upstairs... The still below is from the video of Mom flexing (1:06).
The fun part of the adventure has started at Berry College. Look at that 1-day old cutie. This was during a feeding and its attention was on the parent. A pip is visible in the second egg. Last year, the second egg didn't hatch. So, I'm excited to see two chicks grow in this nest and pray that they don't have any problems. The egg shell from yesterday is gone, either removed or eaten by the parents. The pip in the second egg is toward the top of the egg:
This late at night, Mom is asleep... Sometimes she tucks her head under her wing and sometimes it's face-plant mode. I don't know what prompts the different positions or if it is random. It looks like there is a food item to the left. Once a chick has hatched, Dad is driven to provide food, food, food! Get ready to see a lot of nestovers laying around.
I'm happy to find that Pam Monahan is making regular visits to Honey Bee Golf Course to check on Bald Eagle HK and his lady Sterling. Here's a link to her latest post. She is doing a fantastic job of documenting this pair. I haven't seen HK's nest in a while -- it is pretty impressive!
Reese recently reported that Bald Eagle Camellia's transmitter has finally stopper reporting his location. Here is Reese's post with some interesting facts about Camellia.
