We are moving closer to a third eaglet at Xcel Fort St. Vrain, hatch at the Decorah and Decorah North nests, and peregrine falcon eggs at all of our falcon nests! At last report, we had a first peregrine egg at Genoa (which has a cam), although we are still waiting for eggs everywhere else. Given all of the courtship, pair bonding, and what Bob used to call ‘eggy’ females, it won’t be long!
Tonight we have videos from Decorah and the Flyway cam! I liked every one of these videos, but you have to see Mom’s surprising stick and the draft from the wind! Both of these were interesting and a little surprising. They also show just how aerodynamic bald eagles are, and how wind can provide an assist or cause trouble, depending on the situation. We hope you enjoy these as much as we did, and thank you to our camera operators and video makers for capturing and sharing special moments in the nests (and on the river) with us!
Decorah Eagles
3/28/19: 2 44PM eggroll – https://youtu.be/KJCDbXmdAbs. Nice close-ups of DM2 and a glimpse of the eggs! Note that there appears to be something stuck to one of them. My best guess is a down feather. The oldest egg would be 33 days old today – a little early for hatch!
3/27/19: Mom surprises DM2 with a big stick – https://youtu.be/8WPRIPCwoDE. From Tulsa – “Check out Mom’s vertical harrier landing in the wind, and DM’s look when he sees her and her stick.” This is a very cool landing and not quite like anything I’ve seen before. Start watching at 33 seconds for the whole sequence! Slow the video down and watch Mom float in, stick first, with the large stick. There must have been a good deal at Nest Depot!
3/27/19: Mom gets a little draft from the wind – https://youtu.be/QATfm7LIc5U. A warm weather front moved in on the 27th. Mom is sitting peacefully in the nest under IR candlelight, her feathers stirring slightly in the breeze that is coming from her rear. It intesifies around 11 seconds, really intensifies at about 20 seconds, and tips her over at 26 seconds. This is a very rare thing to see since Mom is aware of the hazards that wind can present. When it is windy out, she usually lies very flat and facing into or a little crosswise from the wind. She recovers well and turns into the wind.
Mississippi Flyway Cam
3/25/19: Bald Eagles squabble about a left-over fish – https://youtu.be/DCESM6F87-E. A mixed age group of sub-adults and an adult dispute a fish, a subadult chases an adult, and an adult takes a bath (the last starts at 8:55 and it is pretty cool!). We often get asked whether any given sub-adult is leucistic because they have so much pale and white plumage. They aren’t! While they share some general similarities as they molt into their adult plumage, two and three year olds especially have a really wide variety of colors and patterns. This is a nice look at that!
3/24/19: Sunset – https://youtu.be/5aYoyy–H7o. A zen sunset in muted pink, blue, rose, and purple. Lovely and very relaxing!
The Raptor Resource Project