Bald Eagles in a nest...

[Dave Schwartz]

Check out the live EagleCam from the Channel islands.

http://chil.vcoe.org/eagle_cam.htm

[JustRalph]

Great Link! Thanks!

Channel Islands is one of my fav places.

[Shenanigans]

Wow, that was so neat. One of the babies had it's wing around it's brother. Then the mother slowly, carefully nestled her self on top of them. She straightened out the nest while sitting there. Tossing a few pieces off to the side.
That is a great link.:ThmbUp:

[Dave Schwartz]

Apparently Mom (#10 I think) and dad (#26) take turns hunting. Every once in awhile one comes back with a fish. While that one feeds the kids the other goes off for more hunting.

They are a very progressive couple.


Dave

[Tom]

Great link, Dave.:ThmbUp:

[Grits]

Thanks for posting this Dave. I've never seen a live cam shot of Bald Eagles nesting. I've followed birds around since I was a child, trekking all over, in and out of thickets and deep woods, up hillsides, down mountain ravines, along shorelines, everywhere. I've seen Golden Eagles several times, but I've seen Bald Eagles only twice in my lifetime. To look upward and see the biggest wingspan there is with a pure white head and tail takes one's breath. Just the wingspan alone, is unbelievable. They're beautiful birds and so powerful.

This is good work being done by these caring people.

[Dave Schwartz]

When Beth and I were in Ketchican, Alaska a couple of years ago we went on a Hummer tour. It was really very cool.

At one point on the tour the guy pulls the vehicle over and says, "Look at all those eagles."

We look up in the trees and see... well, nothing.

He says, "Just think - golf balls in the trees."

That's when we realized that the trees were just covered with white heads. There must have been 50 of them spread out across the trees.

Golf balls in the trees... Perfect description.


Dave

[JustRalph]

Dave, email Eliott Spitzer the link to that Hummer Tour..............

Seriously though........ I will be here all Week............


I had a house on about ten years ago on a 500 hundred acre lake just twenty miles west of Columbus Ohio. We had some Eagles living there. They were some serious birds. Huge. You could see them circle the lake early in the mornings............ sometimes it can surprise you where you see these things.

[plainolebill]

Late summer my wife and I have a spot we like to visit southwest of Bend (Oregon) on the upper Deschuttes - called Sheep Bridge. There's a big shallow, gravelly area where the Kokonee come up from Wicciup reservoir to spawn: The eagles are thick; Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles and Osprey.

If you sit quietly you can see them fishing and stealing fish from each other - if a Bald Eagle gets close behind an Osprey with a fish the Osprey, weighted down, has two choices - let the eagle have the fish dinner or be the eagle's dinner.

[46zilzal]

All one has to do around here is go outside near a river, wait for awhile and then simply look. I have seen trees with 10 or 12 in the branches.

[Dan Montilion]

They have saddle clothes... Can we bet?

[Dave Schwartz]

Dan,

I can't tell the stud from the mare... what shall we bet on?


Dave

[wonatthewire1]

We have some here in NJ too - there are a few pairs on the Delaware River near the Water Gap, some in southern NJ near Cape May and a few near me in Warren County at a place called Merrill Creek

Awesome spot and the reservoir is huge - with the eagles there can be as many as 40 - 50,000 snow geese on the water. When the baldies take a flight over the water all the geese take off.

http://www.merrillcreek.com/eagles.html

[Dave Schwartz]

Okay... some additional info from the website.


#10 is the male.
#26 is the female.

Eagle Cam FAQs (http://chil.vcoe.org/eagle_faq.htm)

[lilmegahertz]

Pretty cool link....thanks.

[DJofSD]

Kind of beats the heck out of my view of the birds I can watch nesting in my backyard.

Thanks, Dave.

[russowen77]

Kind of beats the heck out of my view of the birds I can watch nesting in my backyard.

Thanks, Dave.
One of my views is a lot of eagles. They use a large pine to watch the lake.

The one thing I will say is that you don't want to stand under any tree an Eagle is using. :p

[DJofSD]

The one thing I will say is that you don't want to stand under any tree an Eagle is using.

That reminds me of the story about the explorers and what happened when they didn't believe what the native's told them about the legendary bird only found in the jungle.

[bill]

so can find easy

[wonatthewire1]

Story from the Newark Star Ledger recently about the rebound of eagles in the state:

http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1207716700218700.xml&coll=1

We can't even get out of our house, there is a House Finch nest on one side of the house and a Cardinal has a nest right outside the kitchen window - she is sitting on eggs and the male comes by to feed her.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/House_Finch.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Cardinal.html

[Hosshead]

Wow, that was so neat. One of the babies had it's wing around it's brother. One of these eaglets is much more aggressive than the other, thus dominating dinner-time, thus getting much bigger than his (now much smaller sibling). Now he has started to attack the head and eyes of the smaller one. When the smaller chick sits up and stretches his wings, the larger one sits up, towering over the smaller, and viciously attacks the head of the other, sending him to a "dead" position.
The parents couldm't care less. They feed the larger one (he won't let the other feed first) until he is so stuffed that he lays down and goes to sleep. Then they feed the smaller one.

The attacks on the smaller one are getting more vicious the older they get.
Unless somebody steps in to remove one or both for "hacking" (technique for rearing them), I think there is a good chance that the larger one will kill the other. Either in the nest, or forcing him to fall from the nest.

[russowen77]

One of these eaglets is much more aggressive than the other, thus dominating dinner-time, thus getting much bigger than his (now much smaller sibling). Now he has started to attack the head and eyes of the smaller one. When the smaller chick sits up and stretches his wings, the larger one sits up, towering over the smaller, and viciously attacks the head of the other, sending him to a "dead" position.
The parents couldm't care less. They feed the larger one (he won't let the other feed first) until he is so stuffed that he lays down and goes to sleep. Then they feed the smaller one.

The attacks on the smaller one are getting more vicious the older they get.
Unless somebody steps in to remove one or both for "hacking" (technique for rearing them), I think there is a good chance that the larger one will kill the other. Either in the nest, or forcing him to fall from the nest.

That is the way it works. The dominant chick will probably kill the smaller one shortly by one way or another. Natural selection at work. Eagles are sure not the only birds who use that method.

[Hosshead]

Yes, I know that is the way mother nature works in the wild.
But since this is a man made restoration program, there IS the option here of saving an eagle. Rather than watching the carnage live in color on "national tv'.
You would think that with the trouble and expense put into getting these birds to this stage, they might want to keep them both alive.

[JustRalph]

Now I know why my brother and I fought so much................

I just couldn't get the bastard to jump out of the nest :lol:

[Pace Cap'n]

Here is a video of a golden eagle dragging a goats off a cliff, and picking up and carrying a young goat back to its nest. These are some seriously bad-ass birds.

It's about 7 min. long, but worth watching all the way through...

break.com/index/eagle-drags-goats-off-cliff.html (http://break.com/index/eagle-drags-goats-off-cliff.html)

[DJofSD]

These are some seriously bad-ass birds.

Thank God Franklin did not get his way.

[Overlay]

Thank God Franklin did not get his way.

Ever seen a riled-up wild turkey? (And, despite my wife's opinion, I'm not referring to myself.) :D

[wonatthewire1]

Ever seen a riled-up wild turkey? (And, despite my wife's opinion, I'm not referring to myself.) :D


I'm near the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and we've seen the males squaring off - sort of funny looking but I wouldn't want to get hit by one of those wings at the speed they are flapping!

[DJofSD]

Nope. Never seen that.

[Dave Schwartz]

PaceCap,

Wow! That was unbelievable!


Thanks.

Dave

[Pace Cap'n]

Anyone still keeping up with the eagles? Clicked them up a half-hour ago and no one is home but the kids.

[Dave Schwartz]

We check 'em out every day. Mom & Dad have been leaving the kids for ever-longer periods of time.

My wife says she thinks sometimes for hours.

[DJofSD]

I see the runt has survived. I expect that one will be one tough homre once it's an adult.

[Dick Schmidt]

All gone. Fun to watch while they were still home.


Dick

[Pace Cap'n]

Now wait just a minute here--Dave sees eagles and Dick doesn't, and DJ saw a little one. Hmmm...

[JustRalph]

I saw momma or poppa sitting on the back of the nest tonight around 10p East coast time.

They look awful bored.............. :lol:

The birds chirping in the background get my cats attention, that's for sure!

[Hosshead]

The parents (K-26, K-10) have been leaving them alone for many hours at a time, to look for food.
When you see the small amounts of food they bring in, you realize how tuff life is, even for an eagle.

The fish they catch are very small compared to the salmon that the Alaskan eagles catch. Usually the fish are about (from what I've seen on this nest) 3-5 inches long. That doesn't go very far with 2 hungry mouths to feed, which are growing more and more every day. So as soon as they feed, they're off again looking for food.
Sometimes they'll bring in a bird, but then it takes a LOT of work to de-feather it (one feather at a time) before they can eat. They have a hard life.

As far as the 2 chicks go, the big one (probably a female) was hatched 2 days earlier than the other (probably a male). (Nicknamed Bobble and Wobble respectfully). The big one, (big because of getting 90% of the food) has attacked the smaller one so much, that she has "conditioned" the smaller one to run away from the food and put his head down (in a submissive position), when the food arrives.
Then the big one will gorge herself (as the parent will only feed the mouth in front of him), and finally will be too full to eat anymore. She then will plop down (too full to stand), and too full to attack the other.
That is when the small one will get his chance to eat, IF there is anything left.


However IMO, this situation has caused the small one (Wobble), to actually become smarter than the big one (Bobble). He (Wobble) has gotten so hungry, that he's devised ways to get a bite here and there anyway. After assuming the submissive position, he will slowly move behind the adult, and place the adult between him and the bully. He then will crawl under the parent and quickly snatch the food out of the parents mouth before it can be given to the bully.
The little one is the one you can hear peeping most of the time (when they're alone), because (even though he gets a good meal here and there) he's almost always hungry.

There are thousands of people all over the world looking at this nest because of the great camera view and the introduction this year of live sound.
At this stage they look a lot like (their ancestors) .. raptors.
Most people are hoping that the big one doesn't kill the small one.

It's interesting that the web site for the channel island nests has probably 15 pages per day of viewers "nest observations".
But the "rules" state , NO Derogatory Remarks !
So the other day a new poster commented about how the big chick is trying to kill the small one, and the word "kill" was edited out.

This makes PA look very generous !

In a couple weeks, there will be a team that will climb to this nest and band the new birds, take blood samples, and run DNA tests on the gender. (I'm sure they'll be wearing helmuts !)

The members of the site will vote (this week) on a list of names that were submitted before the deadline, for each bird at the 4 nests. The names that will probably be given to this (Pelican Harbor) nest, will be Spirit and Skye. I'm guessing the little one (Wobble) Should BE named "Spirit".

[DJofSD]

Hosshead, thanks for the synopsis and history lesson.

How much longer before we see the pin feathers being replace? When do you think they'll start getting their first inclination to test their wings -- flapping, building muscles, perhaps lofting ever so slightly over the nest when a sufficently strong breeze gives them enought lift, etc.?

[Hosshead]

They get banded at about 2 mo. They fledge at about 3 months.
But this big one will probably fledge ahead of time. She's already trying out her wings. I say "her" because female eagles are bigger than males. So there's a good chance it's a "her". When she sits up, she towers over the other, and looks very menacing.
The feathers are starting to come in. But when the little one spreads his wings, it sets off an instinct for the other to attack. I think wings spread is an intimidating posture. Plus, the nest is looking smaller and smaller every day. That's when the little one is going to have some problems.

Soon, they will not have to have the food broken into little pieces. The parents have shown them how to strip the food (by standing on it and gripping it with talons).
The little one (being so hungry) has already started trying to do this with the "leftovers", after the parents leave the nest. The big one hasn't shown as much of this behavior yet, because she hasn't had to go hungry, and has been "spoon fed" at the front of the line.
Soon, the parents will be able to fly in, drop it off, and leave. The little one will have problems then, when they both go for the food, with no parent to intervene.

It would be a relief to see the big one leave first. Although they still hang around after fledging and the parents still feed them.
They will soon turn a darker color, but won't get the white "bald" head feathers until 5-6 yrs. of age.

This is the first time this couple has produced 2 eggs.
The father (K-10) has been tracked (some time ago) as far away as Oregon.

[Dick Schmidt]

Well, I thought they had flown the nest, but apparently they can get off camera and go for a stroll then return. Just saw one walk back into the picture, and it looks like it will be a while yet until it is ready to fly. Interesting to watch.


Dick

[bill]

they think the nest was attacked

both are gone

im sad i watched every day

[Dave Schwartz]

A post from the "team":

Both eaglets are alive. One has a cracked beak and the other may have a fractured right wing. We are going to fly them to the mainland to have them examined by a vet. When they are ready, we will release them from our South Hacking Tower. We'll update you on their status as it is known.


Apparently they were attacked by a "rogue juvenile eagle."

[bill]

thanks dave

i went to the bb but didnt find this info

thanks again ,because i have really watched them grow

[wonatthewire1]

Xcel energy has a bunch of them on their site in Boulder, CO

Main page

http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/index.html

The Kestrels are easy to see - they are commonly called Sparrow Hawks, they are actually small falcons - we get them here too, the males are a slate blue gray and the females are an orange/rust color.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/American_Kestrel.html

There is an owl cam too - I happened to see a Great Horned Owl hunting a few weeks ago on my way to work - gotta keep those kids fed - right at daybreak

[Hosshead]

Here is some footage of the attacks on "Skye & Spirit" at the PH (Pelican Harbor- Santa Cruz island) nest.

The assailant is a juvenile also from Santa Cruz island (blue tags). They will try to analyze the numbers on the wing (wingbling).
But coming in at only aprox. 168 b/ps in Windows Media Player it is pretty blurred. I think they will eventually be able, by tracking devices placed on some birds, and careful examining of the video, to identify the eagle.

There was another nest recently found to have both chicks killed, and it could be the same eagle. However that nest was built on the ground, so they don't know what really got to them.

Unfortunately this is what happens when they release way too many (territorial) eagles, year after year, into a relatively small area (an island).
Good intentions - bad idea !

Towards the end of the video you see the mother (orange Catalina Island #26) coming to the nest, and calling out in horror. Looked like she was bringing back some food.

By chance there happened to be a team camped on the island doing work and preparing to climb to the nest and band them in a week or two. They hiked full speed (after viewers saw this happening and somehow got word to them), and got there within about an hour. The nest is on the top of a tree.
They said that while hiking, they could see one of the parents in an aerial battle with the would be killer.

The attacking eagle must have dropped them (kicking and fighting) close to the tree. With one chick having a broken wing, and the other having a broken beak, they probably won't be brought back to the nest.
A sad day.

Link to attacks: You can see the attacker's head in the lower right.
Without the white feathers, it's absolutely a juvenile. After he gets the first one, he comes back for the second.. with velocity. That is the chick whose wing he broke in the process.
And in the blink of an eye, ... the chick is gone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHe4wSlRzlY

___________________________________________

[Hosshead]

This story about the eagle chicks being attacked was on the NBC News in Los Angeles today/last night. When they were being held by hand, they looked huge ! Watching them in the nest there was no scale to judge their size, but they are BIG.

[JustRalph]

http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=254075

here is the whole story and video of the attack

[JustRalph]

Peregrine Falcon nest video from Columbus Ohio

http://ohiodnr.com/wildlife/dow/falcons/live_nestbox_video.aspx