The eaglets are hatching! One here, others on the way.

[Scuba]

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Dennis Donovan]

2. I'm only seeing the mother eagle...

:shrug:

[Scuba]

3. Can you see the "bunny lunch"? Baby is underneath, keeping warm.

[Dennis Donovan]

5. Yep. I see the dead rabbit. The eaglet is underneath it?

[Scuba]

6. Sorry, the eaglet us underneath mommy, not the rabbit....

...that's one poorly constructed sentence.

[boston bean]

7. there is a dead rabbit??

[nc4bo]

9. The carcass is still there. It's slight left of center at the bottom of the screen :)

If you look real close, you may see two ears ;)

At least it looks like 2 ears LOL

[nc4bo]

4. I think she just felt a breeze under her breast and adjusted to nesting

to seal it up.

Awwwwww.....such a good mama.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. She just fed the baby a little while ago...

that's what she was doing when I got up this morning. Such a cute little ball of fuzz! Adorable.

[elocs]

10. Interesting, but I don't have the patience to watch and watch hoping something will happen.

Fortunately at this time of the year I can walk to the river a block from my house and see all kinds of eagles on the ice, flying around and harassing the gulls.

The bad news about the eaglets yet to hatch: http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/trips/eagles/EAGLE_FACTS.HTM

Perhaps the greatest survival challenge for eaglets in the nest comes from each other. Since the eggs are laid a day or two apart, the first-hatching chick will have a head start on second or third chicks. The larger chick will peck at and attack the smaller chick(s), gobbling up the lion's share of the food that the adults bring to the nest. Many second- and third-hatching eaglets fail to live beyond the first two weeks. Strangely enough, adults do not try to protect the eaglets from each other.

My guess is that after that the number of people watching will drop off sharply. Nature is cruel. Maybe it would be better to stop watching after the last eaglet hatches and pretend every ends well.

[eleny]

30. According to the FAQ this pair has been quite successful...

"They successfully hatched and fledged 2 eaglets in 2008, then 3 in 2009, and 3 more in 2010."

To me, this isn't like watching a movie or reading a novel where interest builds to a climax. Observing wildlife is a different experience.

I've also enjoyed watching kittens while they sleep and birds at my feeders. Different strokes for different folks.

[elocs]

34. Like I said, I can observe eagles right near my house--flying low and high, catching fish,

harassing the gulls, doing something rather than just sitting there. It's nice to watch action.

[eleny]

37. We've had a pair of big hawks nesting here every year

They were in our cottonwood last summer season. I watched them teach their little ones to fly right from my driveway. They got here already and I saw one catch a songbird and have that meal under our quince bush.

What I would give to be able to observe their little ones hatching and growing this year.

"just sitting there" - :rofl: Hardly.

[calimary]

44. We have a pair of redtail hawks in our neighborhood too. They've taken residence

near the local dog park. They circle around and call to each other. Gorgeous when they'd swoop around and angle a little and you could see the flash of the red tails! We've seen coyotes down in the arroyo, and there are probably thousands of gophers in there - you can see their tunnels all over the place. Sometimes they rustle the leaves and mulch as they're tunneling up to the surface. Major menagerie there! So much fun to watch the dogs in the dog park hunker down on the other side of the fence from where the gophers are digging, OR a coyote is prowling. The dogs go nuts!

Many advantages to living near the Santa Monica Mountains.

[eleny]

46. We're just west of Denver between the mountains and the city

It's an older suburb developed slowly after the war. So we get a lot to see. But not as much as you've got going on!

The hawks that come back year after year always select a different cottonwood to make their new nest. I hope they choose one nearby so we can get some good observing going on right from the house.

[calimary]

49. What was kind of frustrating is that those two redtails were nesting in some very old

and very tall pine trees on the hillside overlooking our backyard. But eventually the neighbors up on the hill brought some landscapers in and redid their hillside. No trees were cut down but there was a lot of digging and installing some outdoor lighting and a footpath zigzagging down the hill, and I guess it was enough of a disturbance that the redtails moved over the ridge to the trees around the dog park.

The crows in the neighborhood did not like the hawks. They'd go to war against them sometimes. One time I saw one of the hawks zooming across our nextdoor neighbor's back yard and across ours - carrying something in its mouth, with several crows in hot pursuit. It was really flying LOW! I saw it drop whatever it was carrying. Later I went out and checked and it was a dead mouse. I threw the mouse over the fence and then went back inside and watched for awhile. Nothing happened. But the next day, the mouse was gone. At the time, the house next door was vacant so nobody was around to come out and move anything. So I guess the hawk came back and got it. The day before, it had come back and sailed overhead a couple of times, looking for the mouse, I think.

We also had a skunk appear out front, about six houses down from us. Out in the open, in the front grass, between the sidewalk and the curb, picking grubs out of the ground. Tore up the grass quite a bit. And we were trying to figure out if it was a pet or wild because it was NOT spooked by cars driving by or people on the other side of the street out walking their dogs. It just kept digging and feeding. We watched for quite awhile and our dog Goldie was going absolutely insane, straining against her leash, to run after it. We got in the car to go to dinner and drove by and stopped and took pictures, and it still was just out there picking and digging and feeding, and every once in awhile it'd flash or fluff its big gorgeous tail. When we came back from dinner about an hour later, we drove by to see if the skunk was still there. And it WAS! It had wandered back across the sidewalk and into the front yard of the house, and just inside the wrought-iron fence - and it was SOUND ASLEEP! Curled up against the fence with its back to the street. Just sound asleep! We were thinking it was so well-adapted to the neighborhood noise that it must have been a pet. Who knows? I used to smell and sometimes see skunks in the neighborhood a lot, but not so much in the last few years. And then THIS one!

[eleny]

52. Your neighborhood Pepe Le Pew has some nads!

I wondered if it was sick. But if it was eating then maybe not.

We have an irrigation ditch running through our place and it attracts the critters. Several summer nights each year we jump up to shut the windows or turn off the ac. Sku-u-unk! It has such an oily smell.

I've seen our neighborhood hawks chased by grackles and even the a bunch of smaller songbirds. They do their best to protect themselves. But everybody needs to eat.

I can often tell when we have a predator raptor on the back fence - the whole place gets so quiet and there's not a squirrel in sight. There can be all sorts of birds singing and then the mute button gets pressed and everybody disappears in a flash.

[calimary]

53. Doesn't that just blow your mind!

I've noticed stuff like that too.

But I never seem to have the presence of mind to be watching just before an earthquake.

Often, I've noticed that just before it's gonna rain, the neighborhood gets really quiet. No noise. The crickets stop chirping. It's like everything's battened down.

[calimary]

50. One of my favorite things!

We've taken pictures of our kittens sleeping. We got two litter mates. They're a riot! Just so fascinating to watch the ongoing behavior. I love that stuff SO much!

[dems_rightnow]

11. The FAQ says...

... the nest weights about 1.5 tons. Can that be right?

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. It's HUGE. 5-6 ft. circumference and I saw pics of 2 adults sitting in it

while they were installing the cameras. Not only is its circumference huge, it's also deep with a LOT of sticks, leaves, and debris. I suppose it could be 1.5 tons if it's strong enough to hold 300-400 pounds (guesstimate) of two adults?

[NV Whino]

15. Eagles don't weigh that much

I've held a golden on my arm and was astounded that such a large bird weighed so little. Hollow bones and all that. (Hollow isn't the right word – bones are very porous and light weight.

[in_cog_ni_to]

18. The 2 adults were HUMAN adults.

They were installing the cameras and both sitting in the nest when they did it. If the nest can hold a male and female human adult, it's a pretty hefty nest. I have no idea if 1.5 tons is way off on the weight or not. I'm just saying, it has to be pretyy damn strong to hold 2 adult humans.

[NV Whino]

51. Whoops

:blush:

[dems_rightnow]

16. They also list it

As 5-6 feet deep. It's clearly not. There's a link to some video showing only the nest on that page. I wonder if they were describing the previous nest referred to in the FAQ.

[in_cog_ni_to]

20. That could be. n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. Dad just showed up! n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. he's feeding the baby. n/t

[Iterate]

17. Two now.

Saw them both a little over an hour ago now.

[in_cog_ni_to]

19. OMG! The second egg hatched! How cool!

:bounce:

[malaise]

24. Fabulous

:hi:

[Greybnk48]

21. The chicks are adorable! n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

22. Eaglets are being fed again! n/t

[dems_rightnow]

23. Amazing......

.... how much more coordinated and lively the first one is, with only 1 day on the other one.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. I know. The newest eaglet is still so new.

I do hope it gets its fair share of the food. :( I don't know that could watch any of this if all of them aren't thriving.

[Habibi]

36. It can be tough to watch what happens in bird nests.

A couple of years ago I was glued to the peregrine falcon cam at Kodak in Rochester, NY. Actually witnessed the death of one of the small babies from a rain storm that blew into the nest box and drowned the little one. Couldn't tune in for days afterward.

[in_cog_ni_to]

26. Mom's back! n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

27. Looks like they're in no hurry to switch places this time.

SO majestic! They're gorgeous creatures.

[in_cog_ni_to]

28. Mom left, just came back again and is feeding eaglet #1....eaglet #2

hasn't had any food yet. :cry: If it has been fed, I missed it.

[Karenina]

45. #2 doesn't seem to be doing very well at getting fed...

[eleny]

29. I've been enjoying them as well as the stork pair that just returned to their nest in Poland

Stork nest is here --> http://www.bociany.edu.pl/stream-ustron.php

I love this time of year!

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. Oh no...now I'll NEVER get anything done! A stork nest!

How pretty! They're both in the nest now. GORGEOUS birds!

[eleny]

32. I've got a novel handy here so I can read, watch my bird feeders and view these nests

But I do have some laundry going! :D

These storks had an unsuccessful time last year. I recall that when the little ones didn't make it, they were examined and found to suffer from a fungus.

Yesterday, someone kindly replied to one of my postings about these storks informing us that they spend the winters in Turkey.

[eleny]

33. P.S. Here's the url for viewing the storks at night

http://www.bociany.edu.pl/

:hi:

[in_cog_ni_to]

35. Thank you! Do they normally stay on the nest together?

I have yet to see either leave it.

[eleny]

38. Yes, one does leave now and then when the eggs are there

These two just arrived this past Thursday so it might be a bit before we see some eggs. I'm not sure when they mate - if it was before they left Turkey or after they settle into their nest. I don't read Polish but I see that they're doing some translating of their info below the images.

Btw, since there's lots of Polish text at the site, here's a page that translates whole sentences from many languages (even paragraphs). http://translate.eu/

[in_cog_ni_to]

48. Thanks!

:hi:

[kath]

39. Feeding them pieces of a fish right now! Awesome.

[eleny]

40. Eagle screen captures

Feeding two. The first one got fed and then it turned away from more rabbit being offered and fell asleep on the spot. Then the second one popped into view ready for a meal.


Two adults and two little ones

[malaise]

41. I saw that live

Fabulous

[calimary]

42. YEAH! That's the one!

[eleny]

43. .

:hi:

[in_cog_ni_to]

47. I feel much better now that eaglet #2 got some food!

:bounce:

[Rhiannon12866]

54. Oh, they are so cute and so small...

Thank you. I hadn't seen them yet, must look at the wrong times. :hi:

[Canuckistanian]

55. Eaglets, I've had a few

But then again, too few to mention....