What happened to time speeding by and wishing to have more hours in the day? I remember my mother telling me when I was waiting to be old enough to drive a car that when I really got ‘old’, time would fly by. Of course, she was right. Today has been a really slow day of doing nothing but waiting.
I am waiting for Samson to arrive at the Northeast Bald Eagle nest in Jacksonville to bring food to Legacy! Where is he? No, seriously, where is Samson? For days he waited at the nest for Legacy and I have not seen him now in 48 hours.
Gabby arrived at the nest tree at 11:18:02. Legacy spent the time food begging. Gabby leaves and returns again at 12:06:31 but no food. Legacy was so excited she flew to the nest mantling in anticipation. Then Gabby left again. It has been very windy with a forecast of thunderstorms but it seems like the wind is calming some.
At 5:54:32 Legacy found an old fishtail in the rim of the nest and ate it.
At 7:16:58 Legacy jumps down from the branch and finds another fish tail. How many fish tails do a meal make?
Oh, Legacy, you are beautiful and if you never learned to scavange for food like Tiny Tot had to in order to survive on the Achieva Osprey Nest, you are learning a valuable lesson today (even if you still have a crop).
As the sun goes down, Legacy remains on her nest tree waiting for a parent to arrive.
The IR camera has come on. Stay put on the nest, Legacy. I hope that you wake up to a big breakfishy.
NOTE: BOOTS ON THE GROUND STATE THAT BOTH PARENTS ARE AT AN AREA OF THEIR TERRITORY KNOWN AS THE LUMBERYARD AT 8:25PM.
One of the moderators of the camera for the nest posted an announcement on the FB page of the NEFL and SWFL Eagles. They said that Legacy still had food in her crop and despite her squealing, she is not starving.
For many we are very used to the parental interaction with E17 and E18 on the SW Florida nest. And I am also used to Samson being very attentive to Legacy. Why wait for eight hours and then when Legacy shows up leave her on the nest alone for 36 hours without prey? I am just a worrisome auntie – it makes no sense to me. So I am waiting.
The vast majority of these beautiful raptors that bring us so much joy starve during their first year. I will use this moment just to gently say to everyone and ask that you tell your friends – if a raptor is hunting – do not disturb them. They are rarely successful and hunting for a meal is time consuming and dangerous. Just think how you feel with Legacy food begging? or watching Tiny Tot shrink before your eyes after not having a morsel for three days? Now imagine that you go ‘shoo’ so they can’t catch a sparrow for dinner to survive. I don’t want to be a nagging Nellie but it is really important to allow them to hunt and eat, too.
Like hundreds of others, I am also waiting for the full hatch of Big Red and Arthur’s first eyass, K1.
Arthur brought in some prey and left it on the nest and the pair had a change over around 18:20:45.
Big Red likes to be on the nest when the eyasses hatch. She took the prey and ate a portion of it returning six minutes later with what was left. She is anticipating needing food on the nest!
There will never be a baby go hungry on Big Red’s nest. She believes in keeping them full to the brim all the time. It keeps peace on the nest but it also makes for healthy strong eyasses with no bone or feather issues. She is an amazing mother.
This was the pip right after noon. It would have grown in size during the day but Big Red and Arthur weren’t going to show us.
Big Red made me realize that bird families are not so different from human families. The eyasses do not pick their parents or where they were born. And those factors are important. Some areas are prey rich – and Big Red and Arthur’s has been plentiful historically. Let us hope that this year is as much a bounty as it was in 2020 when Arthur brought in 2x the normal amount of food.
I don’t think the little one is going to cooperate and hatch while I am awake so this is another thing to be waiting for
The two Osprey who lost their nest and their egg to vandals in north Wales at the Lyn Brenig site are getting a new nest structure on the same site. There is another nest nearby and a dummy egg has been put into it. And the North Wales Police have thanked the public for all of the tips. Apparently they got a tip late last night about a motive that they have not considered when trying to find the culprits. They said they would be using all modern technologies to locate the vandals. So sad. Their lives are hard enough. They are waiting for a place to lay that second egg! Everyone is waiting. I hope they are more patient than I am.
Thank you for joining me and waiting with me. I cannot helicopter a delivery of fish to Legacy’s nest although I sure wish that someone would stock a pond close by like the Bald Eagles have on the Pritchett property in Fort Myers.
Thank you to the NEFlorida Bald Eagle Cam and the AEF and the Cornell Bird Lab Red-Tail Hawk cam. These cameras provide the streaming video where I take my screen shots.