Tag Archives: Unusual

Nest N3 destroyed in the strong storms that rolled across NE Iowa on Saturday night

July 28, 2022: The view from the trail behind Walmart. N3 is gone. Many of the dead trees (and some of the live ones) either fell or took damage from the wind and other trees.

Nest N3 – the nest that Mom and DM2 built behind the Walmart in the fall of 2020 – was destroyed when the nest tree fell in the strong storms that rolled across NE Iowa on Saturday night. Based on the debris line and flattened, muddy grass along the upper Iowa behind Walmart, the river was at one point roughly four feet over its current flow level. The discharge in cubic feet per second more than tripled overnight following 4+

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June 14, 2022: Fall at Great Spirit Bluff

June 14, 2022: Falcon falls from Great Spirit Bluff

The falcons at Great Spirit Bluff have jumped out of the box. We originally thought that we were seeing some exploratory behavior, but it looks like the blackflies drove the youngest falcon out before the older two. We’ve been asked if we plan to go down and rescue them. For now, we’re leaving them alone. It is our experience that falcon parents will take care of their young by flying into the understory to find, feed, and defend them. We

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Decorah Eagles Update at N3 with Mom Decorah & DM2

Our new male and female close up and personal! Notice the differences in the two? Male front, female back.

– By RRP Director John Howe We have finally completed our recent assessment of what we believe is going on at N3 and what Mom Decorah and DM2 are up to. ALL the eagles of Decorah are out doing the things that, well…eagles do. We don’t always understand why they are doing what they do, but they really are not obligated to report back to us humans either! First, we can report that Mom Decorah and DM2 appear to be

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As The Nest Turns: Decorah

April 11, 2022: The new eagles. He's left, she's right, and they look a lot like Mom and DM2. I can see some subtle differences up close and we're working on iris fleck and feather catalogs.

If you’ve been watching the Decorah Eaglecam, you know that a new eagle pair appears to be settling into the starter nest we built at N1. I’ll be honest: a lot of us have mixed feelings about that! We hoped the nest would lure Mom and DM2 back to the hatchery, but they chose to nest in N3 again this spring. Still, their behavior this fall gave us a little bit hope that they might make a different decision in

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‘House Hunters’ or ‘As The Nest Turns’? The latest from Decorah…

April 1, 2022: The cast of characters!

‘House Hunters’ or ‘As The Nest Turns’? Why not both! If you’ve been watching the Decorah Eagles, you know a Canada Goose is incubating six eggs in N2B and we’ve seen a pair of eagles in and around N1 for a couple of weeks. We initially identified them as Mom and DM2, although we wondered why they were so far from their nest after full incubation began. But the couple at N1 last night were clearly not Mom and DM2!

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Finally, an egg at N3!

March 28, 2022: D2 in N3. Photo by Mark Worcester.

What has been going on with Mom and DM2 this year? RRP staff and volunteers have been monitoring Mom and DM2 at N3 and the hatchery, and we have a pretty good record of their whereabouts with boots-on-the-ground observations and appearances on the hatchery cams. We have documented her standing in the nest for long periods of time, but she didn’t begin incubating until sometime between Robin’s observations on Sunday, March 20 and Dave Kester’s observations on the morning of

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A Canada Goose egg in the Decorah Eagles nest!

March 24, 2022: A Canada Goose egg in the Decorah Eagles nest!

Mother goose laid her first egg in the Decorah Eagle nest on Thursday, March 24, at around 8:30 AM. After laying the egg, she concealed it under dirt, leaves, and sticks, burying it so completely that I initially wondered where the egg went! Covering her egg helps protect it from predators and lets her delay incubation until she’s laid the full clutch. She will most likely lay egg #2 some time on March 25, or about 35 hours after egg

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March 9, 2022: Two Canada geese at N2B

March 9, 2022: Canada geese at N2B

Two Canada Geese showed up at N2Bon March 9 for a long round of nest testing! If these are ‘the regulars’, they usually nest up on hatchery rock. So what were they doing in an eagle’s nest? Canada geese use abandoned nests and hatchling geese of many species make a leap of faith from their natal nest to the ground. If Mom and DM2 aren’t going to nest here, we’d love to see the geese take it – their behavior

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First Egg Fundraiser: North NestFlix!

February 21, 2022: More North Nestoration Follies. Please keep your tail off my head!

Please join us for our first egg fundraiser on Wednesday, February 23rd at https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-north-nest/! Celebratory chats will take place from 8:30am to 10:30am, 1:00 to 3pm, and 5:30pm to 7:30pm, nest (central) time. We’re celebrating two eggs at the North nest and could be celebrating eggs at Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain nest: Ma and Pa Jr. have been spending a lot of time on the nest this afternoon, the Fort St. Vrain eagle group is on egg watch, and

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Snowy Owl FAQs and Information

January 8, 2022: A Snowy Owl on the Flyway.

By Karla Bloem, Executive Director, International Owl Center Owls are a varied group of birds. Some species are normally resident on their territories year-round (like Great Horned Owls and Barred Owls), some species are more or less migratory (like Northern Saw-whet Owls), some are nomadic, wandering around and settling where the food is (like Short-eared Owls), and some are irruptive, where a bunch show up in random years (like Snowy Owls and Great Gray Owls.) Why are Snowy Owls showing

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