I've got a bunch of s'caps again today from the Dyfi Osprey nest. When I go to bed at night, I bring up one of the nests that has daylight and record it overnight. I was in the bedroom getting ready for bed when I heard Mom calling. I was so worried about the babies that I came out to the living room, hoping it was food. And it was! Look at this whale that Dad brought to the nest! Mom hopped right up. It had been probably 16 hours since they'd been fed. I read a report that the wind was blowing at and it was still very windy today.
Mom was so hungry, she ate a few bites. Look at the grip she has on that fish!
The babies are crying for food.
Mom only took a few bites for herself before turning to feed the Osplets, making sure they each got bites.
I just like this s'cap of the baby looking toward the cam.
Then it started raining again. I spent two years in Scotland. You can count on it being cold to chilly with some rain every day.
Dad flew in from the back perch, flapping hard against the wind.
He hovered over the nest before gently setting down.
It's still extremely windy at the nest. The wind was hitting Dad broadside and almost blew him over a few times.
Yes, these are two separate incidences. You'd think he'd turn and face the wind...
There was another feeding. That big fish went a long ways.
Dad tried to block the wind. Notice that he curls his talons in whenever he is near the babies. And he finally turned to face the wind!
Later, Dad was on the nest while Mom stood on the edge of the nest eating. When she was done, she let Dad know that she was ready to get back on the nest. But he didn't move. So she hovered over him for a while.
Then the jockeying for position started, with the wind only complicating matters.
Happy Mom, back on her nest.
These s'caps are taken from video. I leave it streaming/recording overnight, which is their morning. Then I do the same when I go to work, which is how I captured the s'caps of Mom and Dad both in the nest yesterday. Well, when I got up this morning, I discovered that the cam had frozen after 4 hours. Then when I got home from work today I found that it had frozen after 2 hours. I guess it's a good thing, since I got 15 s'caps off of 6 hours, so it's not like I needed any more. The bad thing is that the 3rd egg hatched and we missed it...
In the morning while I'm getting ready for work, the first thing I do is run out and start recording the Africam Black Eagle nest. I get what I get until I come out to the kitchen, when I switch over to Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest. And I get what I get and switch over to Dyfi when I leave for work -- since I was hoping to catch that egg hatching. I focused more on Loch of the Lowes and Africam Black Eagle nests when they had were on hatch watch. Usually, the Dyfi runs without freezing. Loch of the Lowes usually does pretty well too. But the Africam Black Eagle cam freezes horribly for me. I don't know what the problem is. It freezes all the time and usually only with a few minutes of run time before a freeze. I do have Verizon coming out within the next 48 hours to repair my phone line. It rained today and I've got noise on my line, which indicates water is getting somewhere that it shouldn't. And since my DSL rides on that line, it adversely affects my internet. Maybe I'll get better streaming of that nest after the repairs are done... I have a never-ending string of problems with my Verizon DSL.
Having said all of that, this is what I got this morning at the Africam Black Eagles. I will try again tomorrow...
Both of the Harrison Bay Eaglets have branched now! While I was watching, the one with the injured nare sneezed. I wonder if it's starting to itch... Anyway, the lighting is horrible, but they are both on the branches!
Here's a great article by the Center for Conservation Biology about the recovery of the Bald Eagles along the Rappahannock River. CCB is one of my favorite conservation organizations.
It was a horribly stormy day at the Dyfi Osprey nest today. Mom and Dad were doing their best to protect their chicks. Here's the s'caps from the day. When I first brought up the cam this morning, Dad looked like he was surfing the wind out on that stick. This is the stick that pokes out from the nest.
He joined Mom on the nest during the rough weather, crouching over Mom.
Dad eventually left and Mom put her head down to ride out the storm.
Sticks blew onto her head and neck and debris blew onto her back. But she didn't get up off of her babies.
She tried to move the stick off of her back without getting up...
...but just put her head back down when it wouldn't budge.
Another stick had landed on her back when Dad arrived. I thought he was going to move the stick, but he just picked it up and set it back down.
Mom shrugged off the sticks when she stood up and took the fish that Dad was standing on.
Look at that little face!
Both chicks appear to be ok at this point. But they will have a long time to go before they can stay exposed long enough for a feeding.
Dad got right into position so Mom could eat the fish.
As soon as Mom finished eating, she started shoving Dad off of the nest.
Dad did not want to move and they had a pretty good shoving match going on.
Even with her wing hitched up on Dad, Mom did the wiggle to settle in on her babies.
Dad figured out that if he was going to help, that he needed to be on the windy side. So he stepped on Mom to get there!
He crouched next to her for a few minutes.
Then he settled in next to her...
And they stayed side-by-side like this for the next 3.5 hours. Incredible! It is very touching to see how these two care for their young.
Finally, Dad left the nest and we get a zoomed-in look at Mom.
I got a quick peek at the Africam Black Eagle chicks during their overnight. They are at the bottom of the s'cap, among her talons. It's funny how chicks burrow under Mom, always face first:
Then I got another peek when Mom stood up. The chick closest to Mom is more obscured in the frame before and the frame after this s'cap. This was a good as it got...
The Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Osprey didn't appear to have as bad of weather as the Dyfi nest. It was still windy, but didn't seem as bad. At least during the time I could watch.
I had made a statement before that turtles don't stand a chance at the Harrison Bay Eagle nest, since I've seen so many turtle shells picked clean in the nest. Well, apparently I was wrong. Turtles do stand a chance, if they wait until cover of darkness when everyone is asleep, and bravely make a run for it... The eaglets are down for the night, with just a lazy wing stretch here and there.
Everything looks peaceful at the nest.
Then, movement from under one of the sleeping eaglets.
The coast is clear!
Run! (I can't believe how fast this turtled ran. Look at how blurry it is. It was hauling shell!)
Over this branch...
Under this one...
I'm cheering for the turtle!
Freedom is in sight! Will he make it?!?!
This is the last that the turtle was visible. Good luck on the fall from the nest!
And the eaglets are none the wiser...
From earlier in the day, HB8 is looking comfortable on the branch. It also went out on the back branch today. Not very far, but it was out there...
I just found that Mike Inman posted pictures of Bald Eagle Dad Norfolk, his mate HE, and their fledgling! Check it out at this link.
