We have a lot going on at our nests right now! Our nest round-up looks something like this:
- Decorah: D34 and D35 have hatched. We’re still waiting for the third egg, which was laid 32 days ago
- Decorah North: DN11 and DN12 are both six days old. DN11 explored outside the eggcup yesterday – a milestone in an eaglet’s life!
- We have four eggs at Great Spirit Bluff and are expecting hatch there on or around May 3rd.
- We also have falcon eggs at MPL Hibbard and Cohasset, DP Alma and Genoa, Red Wing Grain, and Bay State Milling. All of these nests can be watched on our website: just roll over ‘Watch Birds’, and select your site!
- Chat hours have expanded! You can chat with us from 8am-12pm and 4pm-8pm daily. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, chat closes at 9pm.
And now, we present your megaroll video round-up from Decorah and Decorah North! We hope you enjoy these videos as much as we did – just watch out for the cuteness overload that is sure to follow!
Decorah Eagles
April 6, 2020: D34 and D35 in Decorah. D35 is at front
April 6, 2020: D35’s first feeding – https://youtu.be/cgrY9sc7qiU. Close-ups and feeding start at 4:37! ID promises to be a challenge here, but I believe that D34 is in the back/left and D35 is in the front/right. Look at those little wings! D35 gets its first bite at 6:27 as Mom reaches past D34’s gape to feed D35. It’s hard to see their tiny crops in this position, but I’m guessing that D34 is stuffed by the end of it!
April 5, 2020: Nice long looks at D34 and D35 – https://youtu.be/S-Gzwx4OHjs. The balmy Iowa weather meant that we could get some nice long looks at both eaglets not long after D35 hatched! Watch the video all the way through or go to 2:19 for eaglet close-ups. D34 is sitting up tall – well trying to sit up tall – and D35 is still recovering from hatch! Look for tiny pink footpads at 4:30 and, if you pause the video, tiny pink feet and a yolk sac scar at 4:48!
April 5, 2020: D34’s first feeding – https://youtu.be/x_pbig0ldPY. The first feeding is a big moment in an eaglet’s life! It needs to be strong enough to sit up and coordinated enough to lunge for food. Expert Mom feeds tiny bites, but that first meal is still a lot of work! D34 takes a few bites before Mom settles over for brooding.
April 5, 2020: Welcome to the world D34 and D35! Hatch videos:
Decorah North Eagles
April 5, 2020: DN11 and DN12 at the North Nest
April 5, 2020: DN12 escapes! https://youtu.be/6ll6cU_vFP0. DN12 is five days old and determined to see the world! Beginning at 3;37, the tiny terror strikes off on a journey around the nestbowl – or at least out of the egg cup! Keep in mind that this is DN12’s first real look at the world around it! It sits up tall next to Mom DNF, catches the breeze, and responds to the vocalizations of other birds. At 6:58, DNF accidentally bonks it as she fine tunes the nestbowl with a cornhusk. Mr. North comes in at 8:04 and we get a really lovely family dinner with dual feeding.
April 5: Feeding & Cuteness Overload – https://youtu.be/he7GqIEzcl8. If you need some cuteness in your life right now, this video is for you! It’s a wonderful look at the little pom-pom eaglets including a nice tall sit-up sequence starting at 3:51!
April 4, 2020: Fresh fish and feedings – https://youtu.be/ZB99ftwune0. An extremely fresh white sucker – a favorite eagle food this time of the year – is brought to the nest. While the feedings were cute, my favorite moment comes at the very end of the video, when we see DN11 and DN12 peeking out from beneath Mr. North’s feathery pop-tent. The downy eaglets might feel ready to take on the world, but they can’t yet thermoregulate and need brooding…like it or not!
April 3, 2020: A bonky morning, aka rumble and rain! – https://youtu.be/aaTRslISRgc. Watchers wondered: would we see less bonking between eaglet ‘twins’? The answer appears to be ‘no’, although we’re not sure how the pecking order is going to fall out since one eaglet doesn’t have two or three days of size and growth to its advantage. I love the IR feeding, in which the masked bandits look more like little ET’s or maybe baby yodas than eaglets. Hungry heads poke up and DNF pulls out the nestovers while the eaglets alternately wait their turn, battle for bites, and lunge – sometimes simultaneously, for food! Lizzy Eaglespirit’s video, taken just a little later in the day, shows color footage, eaglet feedings, and rain! https://youtu.be/zKTd0aXkc_I
April 2, 2020: A brand new day with eaglet cuteness – https://youtu.be/u_Jp-qrmubg. I also saw a version of this titled ‘pom poms feeding’, which is accurate and adorable! I especially liked the ‘periscope up!’ moment at 2:41, as DN11 pops up from underneath DNF’s feathers to ask for a snack! We see her deftly feeding the two masked bandits in the third minute, while Mr. North comes in to help her – and ends up getting some bites of his own. It’s a true – and very cute – eagle family dinner!
The Raptor Resource Project