Decorah North Eagles and Blogs

June 11, 2024: DN18 Fledges!

June 11, 2024: DN18 gets ready to fly!

DN18 fledged today at 11:50AM. The eaglet appeared strong and confident as it looked all around, gathered its strength, spread its wings, and winged its way into the great wide world! Watch the video at about 50 seconds and you’ll see DN18 fly off across the pasture, where it was joined by Mr. North on T4. Will DN17 fledge tomorrow? Stay tuned! Mr. North with DN18 on T4: https://youtu.be/lXOQ8ryk-pA?si=rAdIdQ9zU-6DC72S

Branching at Decorah North!

June 6, 2024: Branching at Decorah North!

DN17 branched at 8:33 am CT yesterday and has been busy practicing its flight skills: https://youtu.be/FthKvsM92Ig?si=5e6clv4E9PVT6-ml! DN17 and DN18 turned 74 and 73 days old this morning. Will fledge – their next big adventure – happen tomorrow? We almost had a fludge this morning! https://youtu.be/7Q1cE4bdm_g?si=0Ds4B897t90l_QIU.

May 28, 2024: NestFlix and News!

May 27, 2024: Kids being kids! DN17 top, DN18 bottom

We have your NestFlix and news! The dynamic North nest duo turned 65 and 64 days old today. As we mentioned in an earlier post, fledge could happen in as little as five days, but is most likely to happen until ten or fifteen days from now. A few people brought up blackflies. Female blackflies, like female mosquitos, take a blood meal to obtain the protein they need to lay eggs. They are a normal part of nest life and

May 1, 2024: News and NestFlix from Decorah North and Trempealeau

April 30, 2024: How do I eat this thing? DN17 nibble at a bone as they swap it back and forth.

DN17 and DN18 turn 38 and 37 days old today and we’re getting asked about their likely sexes. We’ll be looking and listening for differences, but we wanted to address a couple of interesting factors when it comes to eaglet size and sex. After about 30 days, the weights of the two sexes begin to diverge as females gain weight faster than males. Mark Stalmaster tells us that three major circumstances influence the relative sizes of nestmates: early hatchers are

DN18 Update

April 27, 2024: DN18 and DN17

DN18 update! The eaglet cleared the line some time last night and it is no longer hanging from his or her mouth. The North nest is not easy to get into and entering it while the eaglets are in it puts them at risk. We have canceled our plans to get DN18 from the nest, but are still watching closely. Our camera operators report that the little eaglet has been busy today playing with sticks, cuddle puddling, warbling, eating, and

Problem at the North Nest

April 26, 2024: DNF. DN18, DN17

As North nest watchers probably know, DN18 swallowed fishing line that appears to have come in with a sucker fish that DNF brought to the nest on April 24. We’ve been monitoring it closely to see if it could clear the line by pulling it out or casting a pellet. The eaglet is eating and behaving normally, but it hasn’t yet managed to remove the line. Eagles eat a lot of indigestible stuff, including sharp bones, and we were hoping

News and NestFlix from Decorah North and The Flyway

April 24, 2024: Family portrait: DN17, Mr. North, DN18, DNF

DN17 and DN18 turn 30 and 31 days old today! The dynamic duo are tracking and paying attention to life outside the nest: the place that their parents come from and go to, often bearing food, and the world that their parents see, hear, and respond to: birds overhead, animals on the ground, other eagles, one another. It’s a wonderful look at the ways in which instinct and imprinting unlock an important behavior and all the learning that goes with

Eaglet Growth and Development: Week Four

April 19, 2024: DN17 and DN18

We’re writing a series of blogs about the first few weeks of an eaglet’s life. An eaglet spends roughly 75 to 80 days in the nest. For about the first half, it grows and gains weight. For about the second half, it grows flight feathers and starts developing the skills it will need post-fledge. We will focus on week four in this blog. During week three (fourteen to twenty-one days), the dynamic duo shed most of their natal down, gained

Oh poop shoot! What is bird poop and how do birds poop?

April 16, 2024: Mr. North, DN17, and DN18. It's hard to separate food and metabolic waste when they exit from the same place.

Oh poop shoot! After a long, wet morning snuggled under Mombrella and Poptent, DN17 and DN18 needed to let it fly! Wonderful moments like this inevitably lead to questions and comments like “What is bird poop?” and “Does bird poop stink?” and ‘Ewwww…where did I put those wet wipes?‘ So what is bird poop and how do birds poop? Defecation and Excretion If someone tells us their dog pooped, defecated, or excreted, we know that the dog dropped a solid.

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