The Harrison Bay Eagles were perched together today. But this tree is so far away from the camera that they appear blurry.
The White-bellied Sea Eagles are still closely watched by their parents. It's hard to believe that they could fledge in two to three weeks!
Look at how the feathers are layered in rows on the wings.
They stood up together, but zoomer didn't pan over to them. This is about as good as it got...
One of the parents came to the nest. It was pretty windy and the chicks were trying to take cover. The parent kept taking little steps back and the chicks kept head butting... until the parent flew away...
Breakfast is served!
I have a critter digging in my earth boxes and dirtying up my bird bath. My guess is raccoon...
It looks like the Africam Black Eagle chick finally has feathers coming in. I see a couple of darker spots in the area where its wings meet its body.
You can see the observation building in the background at the Dyfi Osprey nest. They are in the running to receive lottery proceeds, which they will use to make some improvements.
Lots of s'caps of the Harrison Bay Fledglings today. One of the eaglets was on a distant perch.
Then there was a food delivery and everyone came running! What a cute face!
The parent didn't stick around for long.
But the eaglets hung out for a while.
HB8 was feeling very sleepy. You can see how its eyelid closes from the bottom up.
Then there was another food delivery.
It looks like they have found their perch for the night.
It looks like they've got their heads tucked under their wings and are settled in for the night.
I wanted to see a close-up of the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey chick's new bling, but a close-up of the parent is all we got while I was watching. There is a transmitter antenna visible on the chick laying in front of the adult.
It looks like something has caught their attention.
The babies are facing this way, too bad the parent isn't...
It's hard to get faces with all of the preening that they do.
Look at this beauty!
Dad came to the nest and brought a fish! It was a cause for celebration!
Then Mom took the fish from Dad.
I thought Dad was going to incubate the eggs...
But he took off right toward the camera. Then Mom took off with the fish to enjoy her breakfast elsewhere.
Dad returned soon enough and settled in on the nest.
At the White Rock Eagle nest, I think it's considered to be branching when they have both feet on that branch...
Here's a link to an article about a Momma Raccoon teaching one of her babies to climb a tree. There's a great video included in the article.
Here's a link to a scary Mom Berry video. It's only a minute and a half video. A very scary situation was created due to her bad foot/leg and the high winds yesterday.
Drama last night at the Hays Bald Eagle nest. A raccoon came into the nest and startled Mom Hays off of the eggs. The story says that they don't think that any of the eggs were broken -- she had just laid the 3rd egg that day. (In 2008, both of the eggs at the NBG nest were broken when Mom Norfolk was startled during the night.) I'm surprised the raccoon in this video didn't steal one of the eggs -- it certainly looked like it could have... Read the story and watch the video of the encounter at this link.
There was also a pretty incredible encounter at the Turtle Bay nest today. You might recall that last year was a sad year at this nest. You can read my previous posts if you aren't familiar with the events of last year. This video that was taken today shows the new male "Spirit" on the nest incubating 3 eggs when a very large female juvenile lands on the nest. The standoff is pretty wild. He confronts her. Then he looks submissive. I think it's interesting at about the 6 minute mark that he goes back to incubating the eggs while she's still there. His instinct tells him he needs to keep those eggs warm. But the angle of his head while he's snuggling back down onto the eggs shows that he's keeping an eye on the intruder. I don't know what the intruder was doing. She appears to be three years old. This is not the first time a juvie has joined an adult on a nest. Maybe it was hungry, but I have a hard time believing that an eagle makes it to three years old without knowing how to find food for itself... Strange occurrence, not sure what was happening here. This video is almost 13 minutes long.
There's a lot of drama happening at these nests. I think the more nest cams that are available, the more we will see that there are a lot of life and death struggles in nature.
Yesterday, I asked if anyone was reading my blog and I got 4 responses. I really appreciate everyone that follows my blog. I had considered just going back to posting on the forum. But I like the blog because I don't have to be as "pc" as I do on the forum. Plus, if people click on my ads, I get money that I then donate to various charities that support wildlife conservation. (I have to put in a disclaimer here: I'm not encouraging anyone to click on my ads in order to increase my revenue from them. The program can tell if I'm getting bogus clicks and I can be banned from the program! So, please don't do that! However, if you really do see something that interests you, I'd appreciate it if you navigate to it by clicking on my ad!) Bottom line: I'm happy that people find my posts interesting. Please keep coming back! I'd burst if I didn't have a way to share all the neat stuff I find!
There is a training update for Bald Eagle Buddy. He is still in vacation mode while some of his flight feathers finish growing in. But he is still being trained -- for now, they are working on his manners!
I have some observations from my yard:
I live on wetlands. Half of my property is wetlands. And it's the same for the two neighbors to my left and the two neighbors to my right. If you continue one way, it's water. If you continue the other way, there's maybe an acre of woods. You wouldn't think we'd have a lot of wildlife. But we've got a family of deer. I see ducks and egrets out back occasionally. There's a tree down by the water where Bald Eagles and Osprey like to perch. In the fall I've got raccoons and possum in my yard all the time because of my persimmon tree. The two big nuisance animals are muskrats and rats. And the other night, surprise! A fox!
Speaking of rats... (I'm going to start by saying that I really thought I was being careful. I was mindful of the potential problem and thought I was careful enough...) I'd spotted a rat on my back deck a couple of times. I try to peacefully coexist with wildlife here. But I can't have rats on my back deck. (I have three dogs and rats carry diseases...) So, I bought one of those spring loaded rat traps and baited it with a lump of cheese. I'm not talking about some little mouse trap. I got a big ol honkin' rat trap. And I caught a rat. Then I baited it again and tonight when I checked it. Darn it. I got a bird. (I'm really upset that I killed a bird. It died instantly -- at least it didn't suffer.) I really thought I had placed it where birds wouldn't be interested in going and it's one of the places I'd seen the rat. How do you place a rat trap so it will be accessible to a rat but not a bird? Seriously. Any suggestions?
Tonight I spotted a Cicada in my yard. Finally! On May 28th, I blogged about the Cicadas in Fredericksburg, VA. There were so many! And finally tonight is the first one I've seen here. Another notable thing, this is the first time I've seen one before shedding its skin. It had a slight crack along its back. I just went out and checked on it and took the following picture (isn't it pretty!) If I'd known it was going to shed its skin that fast, I would have stayed out there and watched it:
The other day, I blogged about Hallie Art. Well, I have to admit that I bought one of the paintings... I feel like it's really an over-the-top indulgence. But I love three things about it: It's original artwork. It's done by a (blind) dog. And it benefits a good cause. This is the one I bought. It's called, "song birds." It arrived in the mail today and it's so pretty! I'm happy I bought it -- I've been interested in buying some original art... And I think this counts!
