I wanted to start out this web log post with a small correction. In our last update, we mentioned that our white pelicans had been seen at Blackwater Refuge during the Eagle Festival, and we thought that was the first spotting of the birds this winter. We have since been informed that as far back as January 27, a pelican was seen, so they’ve been around a bit longer.

As a treat, we have a video on YouTube of our pelican gang at the Refuge. In this clip, which was taken recently, you see our pelican group along with some tundra swans and Canada geese that were all hanging out together in the marsh. We expect the swans to be heading north any day now.

Eaglet Update

Our eaglets are now three weeks old, and they’re making remarkable progress each week. We can see the first traces of pin feathers on their bodies (we’ll talk more about pin feathers in the next post), and we’ve also seen a couple shots (like the one on the right) where the eaglets seem to be trying to pull off food for themselves.

In this post, we have several videos that offer further insights into our eaglets’ rapidly maturing personalities, so we hope you enjoy them. But before I get to them, I wanted to offer two quick Eagle Cam mentions. First, for those of you watching the Carolina Raptor Center Eagle Cam, be aware that they’re saying Noah will be moved to a hacking tower on March 27. He has captive parents, but Noah will be a wild eagle, so they need to move him to a place where he can properly fledge.

And second, we want to offer a big congratulations to our good friends at the NCTC Eagle Cam in West Virginia. No Eagle Cam had a worse time with the snow than their cam, and out of four eggs, only one has hatched — but that was still a surprise. We hear that the great folks at the NCTC Eagle Cam blog have named the sole eaglet Palmer, after Deb Palmer, who was a wonderful person and big supporter of both the NCTC cam and our Blackwater cams, and even helped with reestablishing the osprey population in her home state of South Dakota. Deb unexpectedly passed away at the end of last year, so the NCTC fans wanted the eaglet named after her.

Videos

And now on to our videos. Please note that the videos below are also being offered on our YouTube channel for those who prefer to view them that way. For the clips below, left-click on the link to play the Windows Media Video file or right-click and choose “Save As” to download to your computer.

In our first video, which is from March 11, we see the mother eagle indicating that she wants to feed the chicks, so the father gets off the youngsters. Next we see the younger eaglet take an unexpected peck at the older bird, and considering that the younger chick is smaller, this is a bold move that naturally produces a strong reaction from our older chick.

Cam watchers have asked me about sibling rivalry, considering how much food is in the nest this year. We do see some pecking, because it’s in the nature of raptor chicks to peck, but the rivalry has been much less this year. Often the older chick will get fed first, but before long, the younger bird steps up and gets fed right beside its sibling — like a little chorus line — where in years past, the older bird was fed until it was almost full, then the younger bird was fed.

In our second clip, which is from March 14, we see an example of a very democratic feeding session. The younger bird is facing the parent in the beginning of the session, so it gets fed first. Then the older bird joins in, and even though the younger bird acts a bit submissive, both birds continue to feed together.

Something else to notice in this clip is how at one point the mother twists her neck to pull off a piece of fish. Tearing off fish pieces — especially from a newly caught meal — can be hard work, which is why the parent does the ripping at this stage of the eaglets’ development. Eventually the eaglets will have strong enough necks and beaks to do the ripping themselves.

In our third clip, which is the first from March 19, we see a good example of the chicks trying to cool off. Last week we had some mild temperatures and bright sunshine, and since the eaglets are sporting their heavier down, they got a bit hot. To cool themselves off, they spread out their legs, pant, and try to find any shade they can. Sometimes the shade they seek out is created by the parent’s body, as we see in this clip.

And in our final clip, which is the second from March 19, we see the mother eagle arrive with some fresh grass in her talons. She promptly puts the grass on the eaglets, covering our younger bird. We then see our older bird backing up to the edge of the nest to slice, and then the mother settles over the chicks for a nap. These days, however, the eaglets are just too big to fully cover.

We hope you enjoyed the latest installment of our video clips. In our next web log post we’ll discuss the development of our eaglets’ feathers and what they’ll look like when they turn into impressive immature eagles.

Also, we’re making plans to start our Eaglet-Naming Contest in about two weeks, so start thinking up your names. Normally we prefer gender-neutral names (since we don’t know the gender of our eaglets yet), but we’ll take all kinds of submissions.

To give you some guidance, last year our chicks were named Chesapeake and Choptank because Blackwater Refuge is near the Choptank River and the Chesapeake Bay. Other name combinations have been Intrepid and Destiny (2008), Justice and Majesty (2007), Waiwash and Nause (a local Indian tribe near the Refuge, 2006), and Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (The Three Musketeers, 2005).

Until next time,

Lisa – webmaster
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eagle, wildlife refuge, eaglets, eagle video, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Eagle Cam, Eagle Videos, Eaglets, Pin Feathers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.