Turtle Bay nest, new Eagle behavior, Camellia's location, Azalea out-of-touch, SW FL nest, Connecticut River Bald Eagles, another thought on the pesticide poisoned Bald Eagle, disabled Bald Eagle on cam, Bald Eagle scuffle, nests in North Dakota, Feathered Photography post

Lots of material today. Yesterday's post was short because I just wasn't feeling it after the bad day at Turtle Bay. They are trying to piece together what happened at that nest. Here is an article.  I disagree with the article. I think the intruder is male and most likely got into a fight with the resident male. The intruder's feet look damaged on the web cam. I think that the resident male is either dead, injured or just chased away by the intruder. I grabbed this screen capture of female #4's feet last year. No doubt she was scrapping with the other females that were seen at the Norfolk nest last year.

With the increase in the eagle population, we will see more fights over territory. Here is a timely article that discusses how we are learning new things as eagles are adapting to areas that have reached saturation.

We have a new location map for Camellia. He is still local, hanging out on the south-side. Reese has also made an entry for Azalea, that he has received his last transmission from her. I had thought that the battery on her transmitter would gradually die. I didn't expect it to work one day and then to kaput! I was hoping that it would last for another year so we could see where she builds her nest. Oh well. Maybe we'll still luck out with ground reports...

I took this screen capture the other night of the SW FL Eaglets. They both have their heads tucked in, asleep. I'd wonder what they were if it weren't for the feet...

They are branching now, so there's only one in the nest this evening:

Here's an article on Bald Eagles on the Connecticut River. I'm posting the link here because I love the first picture in this article! This 4 year old Bald Eagle has the most awesome eye stripe I've ever seen! So pretty!

I mentioned recently that there was a Bald Eagle that died from pesticide poisoning. It also had lead in its system. I should have mentioned that it's possible that the Eagle consumed fish that was poisoned when a toxic substance washed into a body of water. It's concerning since we eat fish too...

The Bald Eagle nest cam Eagles4Kids is also giving us something new to learn about. The resident female showed up for the 2012/2013 nesting season with serious injuries to both of her feet. As the season progressed, she lost her right foot and is now making do with a stump. This resident pair has stayed together despite her disability. You can read about her disability here. And she is defying the odds -- she laid an egg on March 9th!

Note to self: Do not release a rehabilitated Bald Eagle near another Bald Eagle's nest... Good video of two Bald Eagles interacting with each other -- at one point one Bald Eagle flips over so they can face each other, talon-to-talon. No surprise that their feet can get pretty ugly!

North Dakota's Game and Fish Department is asking for the public to report the locations of Bald Eagle nests.

I love Ron Dudley's blog, Feathered Photography. Here's a link to his posts for 3/22 and 3/23. An American Kestrel and a Short-eared Owl. Wonderful pictures and explanations!

Camellia's location, Buddy training update, sad news at Turtle Bay nest, pesticide poisoned Bald Eagle

There is a new location for Camellia posted on the CCB's Eagle Trak. There is no location for Azalea. I checked Seaturtle and her location isn't shown. I've seen this happen before -- I guess their data doesn't all download from the satellite at the same time. Just guessing. We'll just have to wait to see if she checks in. I'm figuring we should have a fix on her by tomorrow. NX hasn't checked in since 3/14. It's normal for her to miss checking in as she wanders in and out of areas that have cell coverage.

Raina has posted a training update for Buddy! His training seems to be coming along nicely. If you have any questions about Buddy's training, here's your chance: Raina and Dr Dave are going to be on WCV's moderated discussion at noon tomorrow (3/21). You can ask questions then, or you can ask questions in advance and then read back later. The link to the moderated discussion is included in the training update.

Disturbing news out of the Turtle Bay (Redding, California) nest. One of the Eaglets had hatched, but the next morning it was killed by an adult. Intruder Bald Eagles will kill offspring in a nest to reduce competition for resources or to make room for their own offspring if they are trying to take over the territory/nest and remaining mate. There is some speculation that it was one of the parents that killed the Eaglet. But there has been an intruder in the area for a couple of weeks, which I think played a role. I am speculating that something happened to one of the residents, maybe in a conflict with the intruder. Or perhaps the resident went away when the intruder appeared, as happened at the Norfolk nest in '08. This story points out that one of the residents stopped coming to the nest to help with incubation and stopped bringing food to the nest after the intruder arrived -- about two weeks prior. I think the remaining resident probably gave up on trying to handle all of the nesting duties alone. It doesn't help that the camera isn't pointed correctly at the nest. We may never know what happened at this nest... I've seen a lot of disclaimers on nest cams recently, that the cams show what happens, sometimes it's life and sometimes it's death... Something to keep in mind as we observe these nests. The cam can be found here -- the picture is really clear, but the angle is pretty bad:

 And here's a story of a Bald Eagle in Oklahoma that died of pesticide poisoning. That's a new one on me. They said the pesticide is commonly found in rat poison. I had a termite company tell me once that a poison would kill the animal that ate it, then kill the animal that ate the dead (poisoned) animal, which would then poison and kill whatever animal ate it. So if you poison a mouse, and it gets eaten by a snake, the snake will die. And if the snake then gets eaten by a raccoon, the raccoon will die. I think I'd rather not use a product when you can't control the domino effect like that...