The mystery at SWFlorida has been cleared up by keen eyes! There are two females and this helps to explain why all of us were confused and concerned.
The female that is on the branch with M15 at night is NOT the female that jumped into the nest, ate the Es food and pecked and kicked them. M15 got rid of her.
Here is the announcement from SWFlorida:
Now we can all go back and embrace the female with the injured talon that allows M15 to sleep at night…
Thank you SWFlorida and SL Hope for this clarification. Our eyes weren’t fooling us…
I went to the UK as a Commonwealth Scholar in 1990 and received my PhD from the University of Leicester in 1993. After three decades of university teaching, I retired to devote my time to the study of raptor behaviour. I am particularly interested in Ospreys and am working on a long term project on third hatch survival and siblicide in these raptors. My blog is a result of a fascination with my local wildlife and the desire to encourage others to love and care for birds! I live on the Canadian Prairies and prior to the pandemic travelled a lot. I am questioning the use of aviation fuel at the moment as we all strive to help our planet. My early research was in politics and art including British public statues exported to Southeast Asia and Vietnam Resistors that contributed much to Canadian ceramics. Books and articles were published on those subjects over a period of 3 decades. Now I am working on books for children so they can learn about the challenges our raptors face.
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Thank you so much for clarifying this Mary Ann! I was confused and thought it was the same female eagle. It is really something to think about. The one with the injured talons may have fought our Beloved Harriett. 🙏. Prayers for M15 and the babies. 🙏❤️🦅💕💕
Or, she may have taken the owl hit aimed at M several days ago. Whatever the case, it seems certain that she has provided M several good nights of sleep.
I must admit I’m still confused, because in this Saunders Photography video the toe looks black after all: https://www.facebook.com/groups/243241724058357/permalink/725089355873589/ Big confusion over this. I didn’t see the black toe in my screenshot of her feet taken just before she went into the nest, but maybe it was just positioned backwards. Oh my! Of course it’s not the most important thing. All of them could just back off and allow M15 to raise his eaglets till fledging.
Sabine, I think that the eagle in the Saunder’s video is actually of the eagle that perches near M15 at night, however that video is not of the incident where an eagle was eating at the nest while keeping the eaglets at bay. That occurred later on. In that incident M15 showed up and pushed the eagle out of the nest; there wasn’t much of a tussle as is seen in the Saunder’s video. Two different incidents. It appears that the eagle that was eating in the nest is not M15’s night companion.
I am also confused because I was watching the cam yesterday and they zoomed in on Black Talon for several minutes, showing how awful her toe is…and the camera moved down as she jumped into the nest and started eating the fish, lashed out at E22 three times including putting her talon on his back, and then E21 before M15 came back and had a rather vicious altercation with her literally on top of the eaglets because she was firmly resisting being pushed off the nest.
You can see it all in Lady Hawk’s video (“SWFL Eagles ~ FIERCE Fight On Nest! M15 FORCIBLY KICKS Intruder Out To Protect His E’s! 2.15.23”)
There may well be two female eagles. But I don’t see how they can say Black Talon is not the eagle that ate on the nest and lashed out at the eaglets when they begged for food. The video shows she did.
Hi Tavi, Have a look at Mario’s response…where he talks about the Saunder’s video. Two separate incidents with two different eagles. I will try and copy it here..”Sabine, I think that the eagle in the Saunder’s video is actually of the eagle that perches near M15 at night, however that video is not of the incident where an eagle was eating at the nest while keeping the eaglets at bay. That occurred later on. In that incident M15 showed up and pushed the eagle out of the nest; there wasn’t much of a tussle as is seen in the Saunder’s video. Two different incidents. It appears that the eagle that was eating in the nest is not M15’s night companion.”
Thank you, Mario! That actually makes sense. Why didn’t I think of that?! 🙈 Living in a cloud of confusion for the past few days with all the visitors 😂 Too much conflicting info to take in 😅
The Saunder’s video and the Lady Hawk video are of the same incident. The Saunder’s video was filmed from the ground. The Lady Hawk video is from the SWFL eagle cameras. I tuned in when the fight had just started. I didn’t realize that this eagle had also been eating on the nest and keeping the eagles at Bay. This eagle clearly had an injured talon, which leads me to believe that it is M15’s night companion. But now there are stories about two eagles with injured talons.
There was another incident not long after the first one, where many felt that E21 was injured by the intruder. M15 showed up and quickly pushed the intruder out of the nest. There was no struggle across the nest as there was in the first incident. I repeat, two different incidents. It appears that the eagle of the second incident didn’t have an injured talon, but I could be mistaken.
It was certainly confusing Mario! I did not completely understand what had happened until the images of the other female came out and then, going back through all the screen captures, it made sense. I don’t think this hungry aggressive to the eaglets one has been back today. Haven’t seen the other either. Someone said they both had injured talons and a third has fine feet…how complicated can it get, right? — The good thing is that Harriet’s family all ate well today. M25, and both Es…Hopefully the intruders – female or otherwise – will stay back and let M15 get on with raising these eaglets. He looks ghastly tired.
Thank you so much for clarifying this Mary Ann! I was confused and thought it was the same female eagle. It is really something to think about. The one with the injured talons may have fought our Beloved Harriett. 🙏. Prayers for M15 and the babies. 🙏❤️🦅💕💕
Or, she may have taken the owl hit aimed at M several days ago. Whatever the case, it seems certain that she has provided M several good nights of sleep.
Hi Karen, Thanks so much for writing in. Yes, that, too. I think she did take that GHO hit and has allowed M15 to get some much needed sleep.
You are so very welcome, Linda. It was a good today…Oh, and two of the three females have injured talons…we will never know, Linda. So sad.
I must admit I’m still confused, because in this Saunders Photography video the toe looks black after all: https://www.facebook.com/groups/243241724058357/permalink/725089355873589/ Big confusion over this. I didn’t see the black toe in my screenshot of her feet taken just before she went into the nest, but maybe it was just positioned backwards. Oh my! Of course it’s not the most important thing. All of them could just back off and allow M15 to raise his eaglets till fledging.
Sabine, I think that the eagle in the Saunder’s video is actually of the eagle that perches near M15 at night, however that video is not of the incident where an eagle was eating at the nest while keeping the eaglets at bay. That occurred later on. In that incident M15 showed up and pushed the eagle out of the nest; there wasn’t much of a tussle as is seen in the Saunder’s video. Two different incidents. It appears that the eagle that was eating in the nest is not M15’s night companion.
Yes, you are correct here, Mario.
I am also confused because I was watching the cam yesterday and they zoomed in on Black Talon for several minutes, showing how awful her toe is…and the camera moved down as she jumped into the nest and started eating the fish, lashed out at E22 three times including putting her talon on his back, and then E21 before M15 came back and had a rather vicious altercation with her literally on top of the eaglets because she was firmly resisting being pushed off the nest.
You can see it all in Lady Hawk’s video (“SWFL Eagles ~ FIERCE Fight On Nest! M15 FORCIBLY KICKS Intruder Out To Protect His E’s! 2.15.23”)
There may well be two female eagles. But I don’t see how they can say Black Talon is not the eagle that ate on the nest and lashed out at the eaglets when they begged for food. The video shows she did.
Hi Tavi, Have a look at Mario’s response…where he talks about the Saunder’s video. Two separate incidents with two different eagles. I will try and copy it here..”Sabine, I think that the eagle in the Saunder’s video is actually of the eagle that perches near M15 at night, however that video is not of the incident where an eagle was eating at the nest while keeping the eaglets at bay. That occurred later on. In that incident M15 showed up and pushed the eagle out of the nest; there wasn’t much of a tussle as is seen in the Saunder’s video. Two different incidents. It appears that the eagle that was eating in the nest is not M15’s night companion.”
Thank you, Mario! That actually makes sense. Why didn’t I think of that?! 🙈 Living in a cloud of confusion for the past few days with all the visitors 😂 Too much conflicting info to take in 😅
The Saunder’s video and the Lady Hawk video are of the same incident. The Saunder’s video was filmed from the ground. The Lady Hawk video is from the SWFL eagle cameras. I tuned in when the fight had just started. I didn’t realize that this eagle had also been eating on the nest and keeping the eagles at Bay. This eagle clearly had an injured talon, which leads me to believe that it is M15’s night companion. But now there are stories about two eagles with injured talons.
There was another incident not long after the first one, where many felt that E21 was injured by the intruder. M15 showed up and quickly pushed the intruder out of the nest. There was no struggle across the nest as there was in the first incident. I repeat, two different incidents. It appears that the eagle of the second incident didn’t have an injured talon, but I could be mistaken.
It was certainly confusing Mario! I did not completely understand what had happened until the images of the other female came out and then, going back through all the screen captures, it made sense. I don’t think this hungry aggressive to the eaglets one has been back today. Haven’t seen the other either. Someone said they both had injured talons and a third has fine feet…how complicated can it get, right? — The good thing is that Harriet’s family all ate well today. M25, and both Es…Hopefully the intruders – female or otherwise – will stay back and let M15 get on with raising these eaglets. He looks ghastly tired.