Time to Nestflix and chill! At Decorah North, our grey grey tweagles are eating fish tails, sprouting pinfeathers and mohawks, coughing up pellets, and making all of their milestones! At Trempealeau, Mrs. T brings in an impressively large suckerfish and she and Mr. T defend the nest from a barred owl. The geese jumped this morning. Five of the six survived and the little family paddled downstream this morning. Perhaps we’ll see them below N2B or at the hatchery pond! We hope you enjoy these videos as much as we did.
Decorah North Eagles
April 15, 2024: Pinfeathers! You can see three types of feathers in this shot: white dandelion puffs of natal down, grey thermal down, and juvenile feathers unfurling from their keratin sheaths.
I pay attention to our other nests for a few days and, when I turn my attention back to Decorah North, our little poopcassos are all grown up! Their mohawks are developing, their talons are nearly black, and they’ve turned into tweagles, or teen eagles – a little awkward and always hungry! If DN17 and DN18 aren’t raiding the pantree for nestovers, they might be wingercizing, warbling, preening, or sprawling. Pinfeathers are peeping out along the edge of their wings and they’ve become quite skilled at shuffling around the nest on their tarsi, although they aren’t yet standing on their feet. Given the size of their clown clompers, it won’t be long. DN17 and DN18 turned 21 and 22 days old today!
April 15, 2024: Sweet eaglet dreams! DN18 and DN17 slumber blissfully in the nest, rocked to sleep by birdsong and the gentle swaying of the tree.
April 14, 2024: Decorah Eagles North Bieliki DNF, Mr North, DN17, and DN18 Karmienie Silny wiatr (feeding, strong wind)! https://youtu.be/3V0sIi6hxf8?si=dZQNlTHpQX6Q7chF. Who doesn’t enjoy breakfish in bed? DN17 and DN18 lay side by side as DNF feeds them and the nest rocks back and forth in the wind. Go the 19th minute of the video to see DN17 choke down its first fishtail – a meal that looks much larger than its head!
DN17 has grown enough that a fish tail can fit inside its gape and dexterous enough with its tongue and beak to work the fish tail down. It’s an important milestone on the road to self-feeding, which will proceed by leaps and bounds once the eaglets are able to stand and hold food with their feet.
April 15, 2024: The eaglets’ feet have grown large enough to stand on and their middle toes will provide balance and traction: think crampons or studs! It won’t be long before they are walking on their feet instead of shuffling on their tarsi!
April 13, 2024: Late evening close-ups, pinfeathers, clown clompers – https://youtu.be/tMM5jmIw9g8?si=RTLUGQaI8RDXyEqz. The video opens with a look at a snoozing eaglet’s foot as geese honk, red-winged blackbirds sing, crows call, and a killdeer vocalizes: a lovely evening in rural Decorah. At 55 seconds, DN17 startles awake and stretches, showing us pinfeathers at 1:11. The camera zooms in even closer for wonderful, detailed views. Note DN17’s foot movements in the second minute – perhaps somebirdy is having sweet eaglet dreams! At 5:24, DN17 gets up and moves next to Mr. North and DN18. The two laze in the nest, alternately dozing, preening, and playing with nest materials. What a wonderful end to the day!
April 15, 2024: Fish make the very best pillows! Except maybe for siblings.
April 12, 2024: DN18 finds a piece of food, tries to eat but drops it – https://youtu.be/zUeo3IbpUD8?si=Qt4AV8ADkTdhkxKp. There is plenty of food in the nest to choose from, but since the eaglets are still learning to use their feet and talons, the first bites tend to be small enough to swallow whole. DN18 finds a piece of fish and prepares to gobble it down, but ends up spitting it out. Slow the video down and you’ll see that the piece looks spikey – perhaps a fin or bone? It’s too spikey and thin to go down easily and DN18 eventually drops it. Eating isn’t as easy and Mr. North and DNF make it look!
April 15, 2024: Left to right: DNF, DN17, DN18. DN17 is a little farther ahead in feather development right now, but if she is a female and he is a male, he might surpass her as their juvenile feathers come in. We’ll look for clues to sex as the two grow and change.
April 11, 2024: DN18 casts a pellet – https://youtu.be/4HjfAla8SzE?si=_nsOB6fojB4zGy7g. For your milestone journals! Pellet-casting looks alarming, but it is how eagles get rid of indigestible bits like scales, fur, bones, and fins. Look at 1:03 and you’ll see that it is an impressively large pellet – for all DN18 might be younger, it clearly hasn’t missed too many meals! It clears the pellet at 1:16.
Trempealeau Eagles
April 15, 2024: Adults on alert at night. A Barred Owl is hooting – https://youtu.be/FnN8f7I8sZo?si=QamYqa2ht32kQ-6x. Mrs. T is sleeping when a sound wakes her up. She peers alertly into the darkness and begins vocalizing. Someone – perhaps Mr. T – lands nearby. We hear a barred owl at 3:33 and she wingflaps at 3:53, although we still can’t see the owl. All is silent, although she loses her footing at 6:25 and works to carefully right herself without stepping on the eaglets. Things stay quite until 10:52, when she gives another wingflap warning before calling out again. Mr. T answers and the eaglets wake up for PS’s at 11:57 and 14:14.
April 14, 2024: A nice big fish – https://youtu.be/eswzV2UBthg?si=skEOarUIO48Q10pv. Mrs T lands, panting, with a large suckerfish. The hungry eaglets are vocalizing, but she needs to get her wind back before she can feed them. Forget the benihana bunny – the eaglets are hungry and it’s time for the Squeeez-in-nart! Nothing fillets food as fat and furiously as an eagle parent with squeeing eaglets in the nest!
Decorah Geese (N1)
April 15, 2024: Goslings below the nest after the Leap of Faith.
There is a veritable galaxy of goose content out on explore.org for anyone who needs a little cute overload in their lives: https://explore.org/snapshots/decorah-eagles/. The geese started hatching on Saturday the 13th, finished hatching on Sunday the 14th, and jumped this morning beginning at 8:02. The jump went very quickly and five of the six geese survived. Dave Kester reported that the goose family had moved downstream into deeper water and appeared to be doing well.
April 13, 2024: A neat look at the eggs and eggshells. The remains were eaten by MG and trampled by the goslings. The shells are relatively thin since the embryos absorb calcium from the shell to build their developing skeletons. Young waterfowl have a high percentage of chondroid bone, a springy skeletal tissue intermediate between cartilage and bone. This makes them springier and helps them survive the leap.
April 15, 2024: The goslings jumped – https://youtu.be/UuBboAuJl44?si=zVtAD_R4bEKZQjAK. This video opens with the leap and contains almost 45 minutes of the goose family afterwards: parents and children foraging beneath the tree, the goslings entering the water, and the family’s first float. I especially enjoyed the swimming scene at 31:31!
More goose videos…
The Raptor Resource Project