Here comes the sun! We are so happy to have a lovely day with sunshine and well-fed eaglets, although D32 had all of us really worried this morning when it ended up trapped between crib rails after briefly sticking to Mom during a nest exit. Per the video, D32 made its way out of the sticky situation and is enjoying the warm weather and sunshine with D33, while DN9 is so full that DNF didn’t feed the little cropzilla when Mr. North brought a fish in! It’s Sunday night and the eaglets are fed, happy, and stuffed to the gills! I hope you enjoy these videos as much as we did, and thank you so much for the moderators, camera operators, and video makers for finding, sharing, and explaining special moments on all our nests!
Decorah Eagles
4/14/19: D32 gets caught, back to safety – https://youtu.be/DTAjO7brjck. D32 gets caught on Mom’s feathers, gets free but ends up upside down, and gets back to safety under DM2. Start at 1:59 to view a sitation that had everyone chewing their nails, crossing their talons, and clicking and brushing to get D32 back in the nest cup! D32 lays on its back until 5:43 as if stunned. It starts to really struggle (and shiver) at 5:44. At 7:56, DM2 moves forward. He looks at D32, but eventually retreats. At 11:01, D32 manages to foot a stick, turn itself over, and get back under DM2.
We’ve had some very annoyed comments about DM2. Why didn’t he save D32 right away? While we’ve been lucky, we’ve seen other nests where eaglets have gotten caught in sticks and died. We need more data to understand whether a more experienced parent would try to pull an eaglet back, or whether the instinct to avoid grabbing young eaglets with one’s beak is hard-wired into all eagles.
4/14/19: Mom stretch, closeups of feeding – https://youtu.be/FAh1aqPlL6Y. Mom yoga and wonderful feeding close-ups! Look for earholes (while we can see them – D32’s thermal down is coming in), cropzillas (more than one example, but 7:53 gives a nice look), worn egg teeth, and little beaks being stuffed with food! Note that D32 and D33’s cere are much more similar in color now, and check out the piled prey in the nest at 15:41. Nobirdy in the nest is going hungry!
4/13/19: D33 Has A Lot Of Spunk – https://youtu.be/wy3w5ujDE6g. Eaglet beak bonking battles often end with larger, older D32 as the clear winner. But sometimes D33 gets feisty! While D32 won, I enjoyed this video and I also find the dynamics of two eaglet nests versus three eaglet nests to be fascinating! Without a third party to sneak in under the radar and grab food or extend the battle, pecking order establishment tends to be more straightforward. We’re very curious to see if these two become EFF’s as D24 and D25 did prior to dispersal.
4/12/19: Lunch time at Decorah Eagles – https://youtu.be/YsTzvrlaNvY. This is a really enjoyable video, in no small part because we get a great look at what age difference means in eaglets right now, and because super Mom does such a great job feeding! Look for D32 to peaglet down a very large bite at 2:14, Mom to pull back a large bite from D33 around 2:30, D33 to nip at D32 at 3:22, and Mom to pull back bites she judges as to large for herself throughout.
Decorah Eagles North
4/14/19: DN9 super cute closeups – https://youtu.be/2szhdxm-A6s. This video is full of cute overload, including a home alone look at DN9 against the lovely valley of the Norths, a cropzilla at 8:48 (with thermal down) and 9:58, DNF on the nest at 10 minutes, both parents on the nest at 11:05, a tea kettle and mantling by DNF because food!, Mr. North handing the precious fish over to his mate, and DNF taking a few bites before settling over DN9. Why didn’t she feed DN9? One look at the cropzilla provides an answer – DN9 is already stuffed to the gills!
The Raptor Resource Project