Nestflix: Decorah, Odds and Ends

Pacing the delivery room floor? We have some Nestflix from Decorah to take your mind off the tick-tock egg clock! Which eagles will lay eggs first? It’s anyone’s guess, but my bet is on the Fort St. Vrain Eagles…although we’re very curious about what’s going to happen with DNF in her second year. Earlier? Later? We can hardly wait to find out!

We hope you enjoy these videos as much as we did. A thousand thanks to our camera operators and videos for capturing and sharing such special moments, and to you for watching, learning, caring, and sharing!

Decorah Eagles
February 12, 2020: Mom Decorah

February 12, 2020: Mom Decorah

February 12, 2020: Decorah Eagles Close ups on a windy dayhttps://youtu.be/yKosUbW_QpE. Exactly what the title says – stunning close-ups of Mom’s face, body, feathers, and feet! I especially enjoyed looking at the contrast between her older, paler feathers, and her newer, crisply-edged dark feathers.

February 12, 2020: DM2 brings a huge stick, placement is challenginghttps://youtu.be/-RpNNg07Tpk. What’s he going to bring in next – one of the maple trees? DM2 pole vaults into the nest with a huge stick that I suspect he broke off higher than N2B! Placement proves challenging, since he doesn’t want it to fledge, but it doesn’t really fit in the nest! He brings his talons into play a number of times, trying to hold and lever the stick while he moves it. The camera operator gives us a look at the whole stick at 14:33. It takes some panning! Check odds and ends for a link to a blog on how much eagles can carry!

February 11, 2020: Mom on the nest, deer in the creek, pasturehttps://youtu.be/Vm1lxWleYsA. It’s the golden hour and Mom is on the nest. We get some lovely pictures as she feaks her beak, before the camera operator finds some white-tailed deer foraging by the creek. We see two bucks and a doe nibbling at dried plants as they wander along the creek bed. This is a good place to forage and would provide them shelter from the wind.

Odds and Ends

How much can a bald eagle carry? DM2’s Valentine’s tree made me think about this blog: https://www.raptorresource.org/2019/11/06/how-much-weight-can-a-bald-eagle-carry/

Why do bucks get along well enough to herd in the winter? Like bald eagles, hormone levels in white-tailed deer change with the season and are driven by changing day length. Right now, a buck’s testosterone is at a very low ebb and does aren’t reproductively active. Since bucks aren’t competing for or tending does, they don’t react aggressively to other bucks – a good strategy to maximize energy consumption in cold winter weather. You can read more about it here: https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/content/articles/deer-hormones-behind-the-hide