April 22, 2007
Eaglet Videos Pt. 4
Happy Earth Day to all! We hope everyone had a great day.
First, I wanted to mention that our judges with the EagleMan Ironman Triathlon say that they think they'll have our winner or winners for the Eaglet-Naming Contest around Monday or Tuesday. Once we have the names, we'll get the email addresses from WildCam and then contact the winners. And once we have the winners' info, we'll announce the results on the website (cam page and web log). Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to participate.
I also wanted to pass along some miscellaneous eagle cam news -- we did get confirmation from the Maine BioDiversity Research Institute Eagle Cam saying that the eaglets there did not survive the big nor'easter storm that moved up the coast a week ago. We were very sorry to hear that the storm was just too much for the very young birds.
Eaglet Video Clips
In celebration of Earth Day, I'm posting the remaining four video clips of our eaglets that I captured last Saturday from the live TV monitor at the Refuge Visitor Center. Just left-click on the links below to play them or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer.
In the first clip, we see that the oldest eaglet is exercising his wings while the youngest eaglet is pecking at an old piece of food. The oldest moves toward the youngest, who for some reason unwisely decides to peck at the oldest, and so the oldest promptly shows the younger bird who is boss and takes the food.
 |
| 5.5 MB |
In the second clip, we see that the eaglets have made up, and the oldest is lying with his head on the youngest. Then the older chick raises his head and calls out to the parent who is nearby, letting them know that the chicks are hungry and want something to eat.
 |
| 4.7 MB |
In the third clip, the parent has arrived with food, which appears to be from the lower portion of a bird, as we can see what looks like the foot of a water bird. At the beginning of the clip, the youngest is feeding first and we can see how the eaglets' feeding method has changed as they've grown. When they were smaller, the eaglets used to have the food placed in their beaks by the adult; now the eaglets stab at the food with a strong, predator-like motion. In this clip we also get a good look at the youngest eaglet's face.
 |
| 5.7 MB |
And in the final clip, we see the end of the feeding session. Here the youngest eaglet tries to commandeer the last piece of bird-foot for himself but it seems he can't quite handle such a large piece, so the parent picks it up again, only to have the oldest eaglet grab it and swallow it whole. Kinda gross, but very impressive. :-)
 |
| 4.7 MB |
We thank everyone for their patience as we got our cam problems straightened out. We think the issue is fixed, but we'll be keeping an eye on it in case any other issues arise.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)