Hello Eagle Friends,
Today was a great weather day in the valley. The skies were partly cloudy, there was a slight wind, but it was low 60s just as predicted.
I found no activity on nest 7 or 8 again today.
I hiked out and spent the last couple hours of the afternoon with Daedee and the twins. She was brooding her 23 and 21 day old eaglets when I arrived.
The eaglets were quiet for awhile which gave me an opportunity to practice with my concoction of adapters to make my lens approximately 3200mm with about a four stop loss of light. Which means in plain english: I get in close, the shots are grainy and dark. Of course, the point is I get in close, and perfection has to take a back seat for this documentary.
I gave up on my 65x spotting scope. I think my other lens and adapters work better. The view is very narrow, and I find myself spending too much time trying to locate the subject with all these adapters that should probably never have worked anyways.
Daedee left and perched on the Look Out Tree around the last hour of the afternoon. That is usually a sign that Dancer is near as he usually is the one bringing in the evening meal. The twins perked up and began slapping each other in the beak. From
what I can tell, both appear to be males.
I'm just going off the beak which in four years of watching, has always been longer on the females. Of course there is nothing scientific about that note. It's just something I have observed. So from how it looks from the other eaglets in the years past, I do believe these are both males. That should give a new twist to documenting this nest this year.
Now I get to observe the boy's club rituals and bond and how they differ from a male and female sibling relationship.
I hiked out after the two settled down. I moved on to nest 2 which was quiet. Judy was perched on her favorite tree to the north, and 28 day old Terry Gail, never rose to be photographed for his four week picture.
As I was heading to nest 6, I passed the 2 day old goslings swimming with their parents. All had survived their first night. Maybe these geese are smarter by keeping these little goslings in the ankle deep waters where no turtles would think of
making meals out of goslings, they much prefer the deeper water.
As I was photographing nest 6, which was difficult to shoot at all because of the backlighting, I saw white heads pop up.
Both were backlit by the sun and the 2 week old little eaglets literally glowed in the presence of Linda, their mom, who was sitting watching them on the edge of the nest.
They acted like all little eaglets, slapping each other in the beak, taking turns to rise taller than the other, and flapping their eight inch wings seems an important skill to learn at this age. I am so glad to see twins here. I think the solo eaglets are
lonely once they fledge. Of course, that's just my observation. I think of Badger Dick and Linda's 2007 eaglet, and how he
still comes in by the nest area. Why would he do that if he didn't feel a need to be close to his parents? There are other eaglets to play with.
I moved on to nest 5 and found the adult perched above the nest as has been the case most of this week.
Nest 3 and 4 eagles were on their nests. Nest 3 was feeding their eaglet.
There were a half dozen American coots splashing water diving in for something below the surface.
On my way out I stopped at Judy and The Mayors nest again. Judy was pulling up all the grass bedding to the center of the nest. She sure has a thing with keeping Terry Gail covered in grasses. Of course, that is just one difference I have learned in the parenting skills of each nest.
At three weeks of age she had Terry Gail helping her pull up the soiled grass bedding.
I'm looking forward to day 118.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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