DH19 self feeds and gets a crop, Big Red lays egg 3…late Tuesday and early Wednesday

5 April 2023

Good Morning Everyone,

The promised snow storm from that Colorado Low dumped more than 30 cm of snow in my garden and drive! It is hard to know what is happening elsewhere, but, I will not be driving to an appointment any time soon.

There is some news that I want to bring to you and it centres on DH19 at Dale Hollow. My friend ‘A’ watched the nest for me – what a great research assistant she is – and provides the following information.

“Today was the hardest day for little DH19. He was beaten so badly and so often by DH18, I actually worried for his life. The attacks were prolonged and unprovoked, and occurred when 18 had a massive crop. It was terrifying and emotionally traumatising to watch. Over and over again. There were several occasions when River used food to stop the attacks, and there were also occasions when DH17 definitely intervened to protect its sibling.”

“Realising this, River flew off the nest, leaving the tail and about four to six inches of nice flesh attached to it. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the little one got to the tail, and began self-feeding. It was getting excellent bites from the tail, holding it down well and really twisting and pulling with all its strength to pull off really big juicy pieces. It was doing so very well. It ate and ate but there was still half the flesh and all the tail left when 18 decided to steal the fish.”

“

DH19 had to work really hard as the flesh started to get close to the tail. He pulled and tugged and got everything he could from the fish and then set to trying to swallow the fish tail. His first attempt fails because he cannot get the angle right. The second try almost succeeds, but although he gets the correct angle, he gives up before completing the task. On the third attempt, he got the angle just right, finally horking down the tail with the remaining attached flesh at 06.47.25. Cheers, then tears. Jonathan was a little amused by my cheering on this little eaglet on a REPLAY as if my urgings and pleadings could affect what I was watching. 

Little DH19 has a crop! She earned it entirely by herself. Not a mouthful of it was fed to her. What a brave, clever, determined little person she is.”

Thank you, ‘A’. Everyone. Send your best wishes to this determined eaglet.

‘A’ was also watching Achieva for me and she notes the following:

“Assuming the one on the right as we look at the screen is the youngest, with the Middle Bob on its left. Big Bob has come up behind Little Bob, who is not intimidated by its presence. As I said, I cannot guarantee which of the two osplets in front is Middle and which is Little – I am guessing a bit here – so I suggest you watch this feeding for yourself. I do think that Little Bob gets by far the best of the first ten minutes of the feeding. It is not a large fish, certainly – by Dale Hollow standards, I would call it small-medium. Here, they call it a big fish apparently. 

At any rate, the little one is at the table and right at mum’s beak for this feeding, which goes on for well over 40 minutes (Flo was still feeding at 21:00 but was finally cleaning up any last dropped morsels at 21:03), so I can only hope it got enough to eat. The bad light made watching the feeding a particularly frustrating experience and afterwards, it was hard to see who had what sized crops.” Let us hope the baby got to eat. That camera is horrible!

Connick is now being cared for by CROW. If you missed it, he fell off the nest last evening, Tuesday 4 April. There was some earlier concerns about Connick losing flight feathers as shown in this video by Hancock Wildlife. Thanks, ‘H’ for sending this to me.

Send Connick your best wishes, too!

Gabby and V3 were together at the NE Florida Eagle nest. I haven’t reported on them for awhile. They are just hanging out, eating, working on the nest, and being an adorable couple. I hope that M15 gets a good mate.

For all the White Stork fans, Bety is now at home with Bukachek in Mlady Buky. Yeah. They made it!

Our Black Stork family for the Karula National Forest continues to move – or, at least the adults. Karl II is in Moldova and Kaia is in Bulgaria! Waba is still in Sudan.

And last but never least, Big Red has laid egg 3 of the 2023 Cornell Red-tail Hawk season on the 5th of April at 0609. Congratulations Big Red and Arthur.

Sleep while you can, Big Red!

Thank you for being with me for this brief catch-up on some missed news. Continue to send your best wishes to the Achieva and Dale Hollow nests. Take care all. See you soon!

Thank you to ‘A’ for all your hard work and ‘H’ and the following for their streaming cams and videos that helped make up this blog: Cornell RTH, Mlade Buky, Looduskalender Forum, Hancock Wildlife Foundation, NEFL-AEF., and Dale Hollow Eagle Cam.