Tag Archives: Dulles Greenway Bald Eagles

It’s Sweet Eaglet Dreams at Dale Hollow and…other news in Bird World

24 March 2022

The image below pretty much says how the day has gone for Little Middle (notice my new nickname for DH15) at the Dale Hollow Bald Eagle nest. I do not have the time stamp but it was mid-afternoon. River had fed the kiddos all of the food on the nest. You can almost hear the two siblings comparing their crops – Little Middle insisting that his is ultimately larger because he is so much smaller than Big!

It has not been a day without its troubles, without Middle Little striking the submission pose to protect its head when Big would get up to eat. But, so far, it has been nothing like yesterday at all.

At 16:56 Obey? arrives with a fish. Big and Middle Little are too full to even think about having any bites of that fish.

Obey takes the time to aerate more of the nest.

Obey? begins calling and flies off. River? returns with a small Sucker.

At 17:11:46 s/he tries to feed Big.

Nope. Too full. Little Middle turns to face parent for a feeding but, ultimately, he is too full. Big does not even acknowledge that Little Middle is moving by the fish. Talk about a 360 degree turn.

Parent begins to bury the fish in the nest. By 17:24:25 Little Middle is ‘thinking’ about fish and drops its crop a bit. But Little Middle is just thinking and not eating. At 17:43:52 Little Middle moves over by the fish and does a couple of pecks at it.

It is now 18:09. The nest is calm.

There are two fish (Suckers) on the nest and whatever else River has hidden. Neither of the two eaglets are interested in eating. So, how to have a happy nest? how to stop intimidation? Keep the fish coming in for several days in a row. Are we beginning to turn the corner at the Dale Hollow nest? Gosh, I sure hope so!

River is looking at them and she knows bedtime is coming. Will she try to feed the pair again?

Yes. At 18:36:51, River unzips the large Sucker at the top right of the nest.

At 18:37:07 River offers the first bite to Little Middle. Is this a mistake?

Little Middle wants to move around to the other side of River. Good move. River feeds Big.

Smart. If Big gets mad, Little Middle is protected by being on the other side of Mum.

At 18:48:25 Little Middle takes a chance and moves up between Mum and Big. What is he thinking???!!!!!!

Goodness. Little Middle gets some bites and also reaches down and eats some of the flakes of fish off the nest. Talk about brave! Whoooooaaaa.

Wow. That worked out. Little Middle is totally stuffed and walks away from the feeding area at 18:53.

You could set an alarm by Obey’s regular 19:00 visit to check on the nest. He must be happy with what he sees – two full healthy eaglets.

The feeding is over. There is one fish hidden and half of the large sucker remaining for tomorrow morning. Sweet eaglet dreams everyone. It has been a good day at Dale Hollow.

Other Nests: There is a pip in the first egg at Decorah North for Mr North and Mrs DNF. That pip started at 12:46. Just after I was thinking that the Cal Falcon scrape of Annie and Grinnell was secure, Annie flies off to hunt or something and Grinnell entertains one of the five juvenile females that are trying to entice him. Grinnell, behave yourself! BTW. This is not normal behaviour and ‘B’ suggested today that Grinnell has not been the same since his injury 29 October. I agree. This scrape is certainly better than the old soap operas that used to be on the telly that my Grandmother watched!!!!!! There is also a pip in the second egg at the MN DNR nest of Harry and Nancy.

Parents at Pittsburgh Hayes are doing great with their two wee ones. Dad hauled in a massive fish after the following video was posted.

Jasper and Rocket at the NEFlorida nest of Samson and Gabby are still home, still self-feeding, and still adorable.

The two little ones of Liberty and Guardian on the Redding Bald Eagle nest need a bath! It is not clear if it was a coot or a duck but they are now being fed one of the organs. They have not injured one another – it is just the feeding!

Thunder brought in a really nice fish to the West End Bald eagle nest. The trio lined up nice and straight and very polite for their feeding.

At the Captiva Osprey Nest Lena is using her peripheral vision and is really hoping that Middle doesn’t hit her with a PS.

Lena has moved over because she knows that Andy is incoming with dinner. The kids are excited to see a fish on the nest.

Martin has at least 5, perhaps more, super large fish on his nest with Rosa at Dulles-Greenaway. Wish he could courier a couple of those over to Dale Harbour.

And if you want to imagine a spread in hatch days, these are the dates for Big Red’s eggs: March 14, 17, 20, and 23. Yes, the difference from egg 1 to 4 is 9 days.

Arthur would really like Big Red to move so he could have a turn incubating those precious eggs.

It has been a good day! Thank you so much for being here with me. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Cornell Bird Lab and RTH, Dale Hollow Eagle Cam, West End Bald Eagles and the Institute of Wildlife, MN DNR, Pix Cams, Dulles-Greenaway Eagles, Redding Eagle Cam, Captiva Ospreys, and NE Florida Bald Eagles.

The Good, the Ugly, the Terrific in Bird World

23 March 2022

I am going to start with the ‘Ugly’ so that the ending of this posting can possibly be joyful. Please forgive any typos or grammar today. It has been crazy!

The Dale Hollow nest continues to be quite unsettled. Yesterday morning both of the chicks enjoyed about half an American coot each. They were still filled late in the afternoon. As many of you know the camera was turned away from the nest for some time. It was speculated by many, including me, that River had been digging in the nest and fed Little Bit’s body to Big.

There was, however, an unidentified object on the nest that I have now IDed. I finally put a scope up to view it. Go down to the bottom. Those are the whitish-pink feet and talons of a nestling Bald Eagle. Move up. You can see the wing. The ‘fur’ is the thermal down of an eaglet and it is not Little Bit who did not have her down and was not that big. This object is no longer on the nest. But it is decidedly a nestling eaglet.

Is it possible that the reason the camera was turned away was the delivery of live nestlings to be eaten taken from another nest?

Middle has had nothing to eat since the Coot. There was an unidentifiable object that appeared to be a pelt of some kind brought on and today at 13:24:29 River flew in with what looked like a sheet of dry fish skin. Big clearly wanted to send a message to Middle. “There is only enough for me!” and Big went on the attack before the dried skin landed on the nest.

There needs to be a couple of big fish or another Coot brought on to this nest right away to calm Big’s warpath down! So where are the fish? or the Coot? It is nearly 14:00 – every other Bald Eagle nest had food early this morning!

Update for Dale Hollow: At 14:18:49 a big fish with head is brought on to the nest. The adult begins to feed Big immediately.

Middle is listening and carefully watching. He begins to mov slowly around to the right of the nest rim at 14:26:22.

At that same moment, the adult moves the fish and Big who stopped being fed notices Little and goes on the attack.

Middle is so terrified that once it gets up to the beak of the parent – thankfully they turned to face the rim so it could be on the opposite side – it first refuses. Middle takes its first bite at 14:40:36.

It is extremely difficult to see how much fish – during the feeding – that each of the eaglets got.

At 15:16:07, you can see that Middle has a nice crop. There is also some fish on the nest.

So, Middle has eaten today and that is wonderful. There is enough fish for each of them to have something later but…that will depend on the mood of Big. It is terrifying to the garden birds when Sharpie comes and is successful in its hunting. I cannot image what it would be like to live with something like a ‘hawk’ right in the nest with you. Middle will need to continue watching and listening. He did well today. It was only when the adult moved the fish that Big noticed Middle was moving. If that did not happen, Middle would have quietly gotten up front. Still, after being beaked many times, he moved up to eat. It is wonderful.

I was getting ready to close and well, Middle gets the ‘Gold Star’ of the day. It quietly went up to one of the two pieces of fish and began self-feeding. Not the full blown self-feeding we think of but it was holding the tail piece down and getting fish. Big had no idea what was going on!

River has flown in to feed both of the eaglets the remaining fish. Big did beak and tower over Middle because it was already up there ready to eat.

It did, later, get some of the fish.

Middle has a nice crop and has moved away from the feeding area.

At the Dulles Greenaway Bald Eagle nest, Martin has been fishing. He brought in another big one for Rosa’s pantry with several on the nest! This little one is never going to have to worry about being hungry.

Martin took time to feed Rosa some of the fresh fish before the baby was fed. Sweet.

No one is going to mess with the three eaglets at the West End nest of Akecheta and Thunder. Dad is doing a great job shading the babies from the hot California sun today.

For those of you who might have missed it, Big Red and Arthur now have 4 eggs on their Cornell University campus nest. Four. The newest egg was laid at 12:17:40.

Here is the link to Big Red and Arthur’s camera, one of only two RTH cams:

My first and continuing loves were hawks and falcons. While Big Red was laying that 4th egg, Annie was spending an awful lot of time in the scrape box. In fact, it is 13:47 in Berkley California and Annie is still there. She first arrived at 07:39 staying until 10:18. She returned for a really quick visit at 11:06 returning at 12:40. She has been in the scrape since then.

If you have not watched Peregrine Falcons raise their chicks, I highly recommend that you do. You will learn a lot and can compare them to the bigger raptors.

Congratulations to Harry and Nancy at the MN DNR nest. Their first egg hatched yesterday. Poor Nancy was soaked to the skin but she kept those eggs and that baby warm and dry. This is a really beautiful couple. Here is the video.

This is today. You can just see the one fur ball. Harry was an amazing day last year at the age of 4. Looking forward to this season. Just hope the rain and cold will blow away!

‘B’ sent me a note while I was out shopping for birdseed. R1 at the WRDC nest flew back into the nest at 13:10. Thanks ‘B’. I would have missed it. This is wonderful news.

If you are looking for the eagle cam link at the Miami Zoo, here it is:

https://www.zoomiami.org/bald-eagle-cam

E19 has been enjoying the pond at the Pritchett Farm. I wonder how many times the eaglets watched their parents enjoying the water? Beautiful view.

Mr North is on the Decorah North nest in Iowa. We are on pip/hatch watch.

It is time to turn the attention to the Ospreys in the UK. At the Loch of the Lowes nest, LM12 or Laddie has been working to create the most wonderful nest for Blue NC0 since March 13. NC0 arrived at 18:19. The same bit of cool greeting for Laddie when he flew in as met Blue 33 (11) at Rutland. Go and get a fish Laddie. She has flown a great distance to get back to you safely. Oh, it is getting dark. Hurry up! or she will be hollering all night.

Last Osprey breeding season, person or persons took a boat and chainsaw and cut down the Osprey platform at Lyn Brenig. This halted the breeding season of the Ospreys that were there. They never recovered. A new pole has been installed and the streaming cam is now live.

At Rutland Water Manton Bay, Blue 33 (11) and Maya are working on the nest. Maya is supervising after Blue kept hitting her with that branch.

Here comes Maya with soft nesting material. Blue brought Maya a nice fish later and there has been mating on the nest.

Reports of an Osprey just south of Loch Arkaig. Is it Louis? We will find out tomorrow!

It is all good. Middle at Dale Hollow is full and sound asleep.

If you missed the talk on restoring Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands, here is the link. Explore.org does a lot of very interesting presentations – not just on eagles! The one prior to this was about the need to maintain the large Sequoyah Forests and how this might done.

It has been a pretty terrific day in Bird World except for the Sauces nest of Jak and Audacity. It appears that their egg might not be viable.

We are almost at the point that other than tossing him off the nest, Big’s actions will not mean much other than intimidation. Thank goodness. Both hatched on 28 Feb so they are 25 days old today. Oh, River started feeding the remaining piece of fish. Big ate first but she positioned herself and Middle moved up and is being fed. It is 17:17:41. Look at middle’s fat legs and bottom. This eaglet is filling out. Tears!

Will close on this magical moment.

Thank you for joining me today. It is lovely to have you here with me and the raptors. Take care!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Dale Hollow Eagle Cam, Dulles-Greenaway BE, Rutland Manton Bay, Loch of the Lowes and Scottish Wildlife Trust, Pix Cams, Decorah North, WRDC, MN DNR, Cal Falcons, Cornell Bird Cam RTH, and the West End Bald Eagles.

Friday in Bird World

Where is Ervie? I cannot tell you. Yesterday he spent the day with Dad. Right around 17:25, Dad left the barge and flew out to fish.

Ervie moved up to the nest to receive the fish from Dad about a minute or so before he lands. Fabulous eyesight!

There’s Dad. The day before he brought Ervie 3 fish – yesterday, as far as I know, it was only one.

That was a nice fish and Ervie was still eating quite awhile later.

Ervie was still on the nest and had a nice crop as the sun was setting. The camera has tipped and at the time of my writing this blog, it was positioned so you could not see anything but part of the barge.

Ervie does not expend much energy sitting. That nice big fish would do him just fine – our home-body boy.

Just had to check. The Port Lincoln Nest is up and running and there were a few really good close ups of Ervie on the nest. He has flown off of it and I bet he is down in the cave with Dad.

The snow is really hitting the nests in PA and NY. Big Red and Arthur’s Red-tail hawk nest on the light stand of Cornell University has had a lot of snow. They were even in a snow fall warning area. That snow is due to taper off in the next hour. It is currently -7 C in Ithaca.

Yesterday I kept checking on Pittsburgh-Hays and US Steel Bald Eagle nests. They had lots of rain and now that has turned to snow.

It looks pretty peaceful at the US Steel Nest. One of the eagles is looking out over the territory.

We are still on egg watch for the Pittsburgh-Hays nest. No Eagles seem to be about.

In Hillsborough, New Jersey, the female at Duke Farms is incubating two eggs. It is rainy with some sleet.

In contrast, Missy and B15 are having a not so bad day!

The two eaglets at the Hilton Head Island Bald Eagle Cam are really changing. Those juvenile feathers are quickly coming in on top of that dark thermal down. Both had huge crops. It is not a great image. There is no re-wind on that camera and it is difficult to get good images. .

These two have changed so much since I last checked on them! They are also walking around – not completely steady but getting there. They are adorable. You can see that the one standing has many more dark feathers coming in than the smaller, younger eaglet being a duckling.

Speaking of growing, NE26 and NE27 are changing. Look closely and you will see that they are no longer round fluffy balls. Enjoy them while you can!!!!!!!

Gabby and Samson are both experts at feeding the babes. A bite for you and one for you. Things have been very civil on this nest and the pnatry is kept full. Devoted parents. And the weather is grand. It is 27 C in Jacksonville, so warm on the nest. Quite a contrast with Ithaca, NY!

I decided to check into a few of the nests without eggs. There was snow on the Denton Homes nest in Iowa.

There is still snow on the nest at Decorah Eagles also. Iowa has been hit with a lot of storms this year. Thankfully, it is not time to be thinking about eggs on these nests – not just yet. Soon enough.

The male Bald Eagle is on the Dulles Greenway Nest at the moment. They are anticipating the second egg will be laid there today. We are now over the 72 hour mark from the laying of the first egg. The weather looks good.

Here is the link to this Bald Eagle streaming cam in case it is not on your list.

The Bald Eagle community is saddened by the continuing deaths of the eagles by lead ammunition. Lead ammo is outlawed for waterfowl why not just outlawed? Those that keep track of Bald Eagle numbers anticipate a drop because of the large number of deaths. The hunters could take the entire carcass with them and dispose of it instead of leaving the innards with all the lead shot in the woods. Or they could by all of the various non-lead ammunition. What humans do not realize is that the lead actually gets absorbed through their skin by handling the bullets and the lead expended at sport shooting ranges gets absorbed into the ground – the spent ammo is, apparently, never cleaned up!

Raptors are also dying because there are people who actually shoot them. Someone just shot and killed a Bald Eagle in Iowa. Here is the notice on the Bald Eagles Live FB Page:

I want to leave you with something a little more light-hearted. Can you figure out where Grinnell is and what he is doing? That is Annie on the ledge.

It is a bright sunny cold -27 C day on the Canadian Prairies. I am happy to report that for some reason the Starlings were away from the garden for quite awhile. They have just returned but this gave the Sparrows and the Chickadees a chance to feed in peace. Oh, and yes. Dyson. Dyson was complaining that the large suet cylinder needed replacing. I must go and do that right away! I hope to get some good images of him and the other birds this weekend.

Thank you so much for joining me. Take care everyone! See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Explore.org, Pix Cameras, NEFlorida Bald Eagles and the AEF, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Berry College, Hilton Head Island Bald Eagles, Dulles Greenway, Duke Farms, Cornell Bird Labs, and Bald Eagles Live Nest FB.