There were two nests that I wanted to check on before the end of Sunday. The first was the NEFlorida nest of Samson and Gabby and the second was our dear Ervie at the Port Lincoln Osprey barge.
The winds are still blowing at around 21 km/h and it is 9 degrees C – cold for Jacksonville, Florida – and the NEFlorida Bald Eagle nest of Samson and Gabby. For now, the rain has stopped although the weather forecast is calling for some more light rain before midnight.
Gabby has taken every opportunity to feed NE 26 and 27. Here are some images from three of those feedings. In each, both chicks had crops and were well fed. There is no cause to worry. Even with this storm, Gabby has all of this under control. While she is taking care of the babies, Samson has kept the pantry full and he is being diligent in his security duties. With all of the intruders at so many nests, Samson knows how important this is.
In the image below you can see that both have nice crops. Gabby does a real good job with these two. Any rivalry has been at the minimum even with the storms this nest has had. Great parents!
You can see the thermal down coming in below that soft natal down. There are very clear – it is all good.
Both will have nice crops after the feeding.
Oh, those are the sweetest little babies. I did worry about sibling rivalry between the two but it was so minimal. Gabby has good control and the chicks seem to be aware that both get fed and there is lots of food. Fingers crossed!
If you watch the Decorah North nest in Iowa, the first egg was laid last year on the 16th of February. Everyone is starting to watch and hope in Iowa!
Hope and Chandler at Port Tobacco Eagles have their first nest. It arrived at 16:11 today. Both parents were on the nest at the time.
This nest is in Port Tobacco, Maryland. The couple fledged two chicks in 2019 and two again in 2020. Two eggs laid last year on Feb 7 and 10th. No fledges. I will be checking closer at the history of this nest for you shortly.
Here is the link to the camera. There is no IR. There is a monitored chat during the day.
It has been a lonely day for our Ervie on the Port Lincoln Osprey barge. It is now mid-afternoon. This morning Ervie flew off the nest at 10:36:37.
Ervie is an excellent flyer. He will be away from the nest for 46 minutes. He returns at 11:22:05 soaking wet – I meant wet to the core. It was obvious to everyone watching that Ervie had been fishing. He had no crop but, never mind. He tried fishing again! The toadfish is still on the nest – a reminder of a successful attempt of a horrid fish that not even a pigeon wants to eat!
Here he is soaking wet.
Ervie has flown off the nest and returned a couple of times. Once I believe he flew down to the cave.
At 15:07:07 Dad delivers a fish to Ervie. Oh, thank you, Dad!
Ervie is so loud. They could probably hear him on the other side of the bay.
Ervie was absolutely raveous.
He has been moving backwards on the nest. I really hope he does not lose this fish before he finishes eating it.
This fish delivery brought much relief to streaming cam watchers! Dad is still there for Ervie. Ervie is so hungry he is not fish calling in the middle of the bites!!!!!! His silence and just flat out eating says a lot about Ervie’s level of hunger. Perhaps he will have some energy to maybe go and try fishing again today???
I couldn’t call it a night without checking on Ervie and the NEFlorida nest. Relief all the way around. If you are a Redding Eagle watcher, there appears to have been two incidents of intruders at that nest and a chase.
Intruders into well established nests seems to have been the them this year as breeding season progresses in various areas around the US. Hopefully this will stop at the Redding Nest because everyone is on egg watch and it is the time between now and the 12th of February that Liberty likes to lay her eggs.
That is it for Sunday the 6th of February. Take care everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: NEFlorida Bald Eagle Nest and the AEF and Port Lincoln Osprey Project.