Time to Nestflix and chill! Tonight we have videos from Decorah and Decorah North. In Decorah, Mom and DM2 continue piling the nest high and deep with warm, soft bedding. Cornstalks and grass make excellent insulation against snow and rain – a good thing, since winter weather will finally be arriving tomorrow! At Decorah North, the male and female eagle are also bust bringing nest materials in. I enjoyed all of these videos but I especially liked Mom’s fish steal in ‘DM2 flies in with fish’, ‘Mom and DM re-shaping their nest’ (check out 7:28 for a wonderful look at the nest bowl and emerging cup), the sticky antics of ‘Eagles busy with a complicated stick’, and ‘Busy day’ at the North nest for a little bit of, well, everything! Check out the woodpecker visit to see the brightest hood I’ve ever seen on a Red-Bellied Woodpecker! Stay warm, everybirdy – and thanks for watching and learning with us!
1/17/19: New nest material – https://youtu.be/dpjzwf-IPf4. The video opens with a nice grass delivery by DM2! He begins spreading it before Mom joins him at 3:22 with another talonful! In between pauses to scan the area, she spreads more. Check around 6:51, when both eagles begin staring alertly at something we can’t see. But it doesn’t rise to the level of a full alarm and at 9:15 in this video (https://youtu.be/h2WsU5mv7ek) Mom goes back to working on the nest. She digs, moves soft grasses, and perches on the Skywalk just down from DM2.
1/16/19: DM-2 Flies In With Fish&Nice Mantle – https://youtu.be/mw8fjOp4NU4. If you looked up the word ‘mantle’ in the dictionary, you might find footage from this video. DM2 flies into N2B with a fish, but he doesn’t feel like sharing! Mom goes in for the steal at 1:05 and gets a nice piece of fish. After DM2 finishes, he flap hops up the Skywalk and feaks his beak. Listen for Mom’s soft vocalizations at the beginning of the video!
1/16/19: Brave squirrel messing with Mom’s sticks – https://youtu.be/wzhyeGUkhGY. I’m used to squirrels stealing corn husks, but this one seems much more interested in sticks! It makes a very quick exit at the end of the video.
1/16/19: Mom and DM2 reshaping their nest – https://youtu.be/EOrMXSnWLvg. DM2 works on the nest bowl, moving soft materials and sticks to get things just right! I especially enjoyed the footage starting around 7:28, which gives us a really nice look at the emerging nest cup. After some more testing and fiddling by DM2, Mom flies into the fortress at 11:48 with yet another stick. She does a little more nestbowl digging (don’t dig too deep, Mom!). He flies out at 16:30 and she follows him at the end of the video.
1/15/19: Eagles are busy with a complicated branch – https://youtu.be/oKjBrw0EN8U. Mom flies in with a wonky stick and the two begin a serious tug-o-war over where it will go!
1/15/19: Busy day, nestoration and mating – https://youtu.be/Y-R7f0eFQTI. This is a long video, but it has some really nice scenes. Check out the cool stick fly-in right away, the nestorations that follow, a lovely seen overlooking the valley that starts around 5 minutes, a fly-in by him at 5:29, close-ups starting at 5:52 and 9:13, and copulation at about 11:06. Both eagles become very alert at around 19:28 and hop on the babysitting branch at about 22:50. We get a fast stick fly-in at 24:56 and a close-up of nestbowl work by the male at 27:29. What’s that greenery in the nest? Check 28:53 – it looks like conifer needles to me! Nestorations continue, with a shot of a visitor at 39:30.
1/14/19: 10:00AM visit woodpecker – https://youtu.be/Qg2SskyHkXQ. This male Red-Bellied Woodpecker has about the brightest hood I’ve ever seen! If visitors keep showing up here, we might have to start calling it the welcome mat branch!
The Raptor Resource Project