Week in Review
June 24, 2007

Sherri: "I think I just witnessed a major lesson being given to the 'lets.
(link to full discussion and series of photos on the Maine forum)
When I checked in, they were all standing around the prey, not doing anything with it; just standing and looking around. I believe they were waiting for Star to come in so they could teach the 'lets how to take the prey apart. I could be wrong, but that is what it seemed like. They stood this way for 7-8 minutes before the tearing apart started.....it could have been longer but that is how long I was watching."
JudyB: "The Kent eaglets are 4 or 5 days younger than the one at Puget Sound, so this may be leading up to the part where the parents let the eaglets get hungry enough to serve themselves."

55 days old (almost 8 weeks)
Sherri's photo - June 20

We observed that the parents spent a lot of time with the eaglet on the 19th, but on the 20th, while they made a couple of brief visits, they didn't appear to bring food until late afternoon. When food arrived, the eaglet did mantle and appeared to be feeding itself. We are speculating that this may have been done to encourage the eaglet to be more assertive about grabbing the food from the parent and feeding herself - behavior that's been observed at Santa Cruz (2 weeks older) and Sidney (one week older). The parents were around frequently on the 21st, and provided many food drops that day, so the day of fasting is unlikely to do the eaglet any harm.
(link to discussion on the Puget Sound thread on the Maine forum)

(the egg finally disappeared June 19 - probably knocked out of the nest by flapping practice)

Sidney, BC
hatched
April 20

Skye

62 days (almost 9 weeks)
terrytvgal's photo - June 21

Skye is branching up on the perch where Mom usually sits -
a major leap from the twigs at the edge of the nest!

Santa Cruz, CA
hatched
April 13

Limuw

72 days (about 10 weeks)
Lori's photo - June 24

Limuw (his name is the Chumash name for Santa Cruz Island) has been branching in a variety of spots, and grabbing food away from his parents (and even went as far as to push poor old Dad out of the nest a couple of times). Please see the Santa Cruz thread on the Maine forum for a lot more pictures of his antics!

SharonFeeney's photo - June 23
(11 weeks old)

Not a lot of branches here - but they are definitely branching!

And check out Sharon's Pictures of her June 20 trip to the nest

Two Harbors
Catalina Island, CA
hatched
April 6
April 8

75 - 77 days (11 weeks)
Naturegal's photo - June 24
from the IWS Two Harbors photo thread

The eaglets, especially male K-78, have been exploring the ledges around the nest - the equivalent of branching for eaglets in a rocky nest.

78 - 81 days (11-1/2 weeks)
EagleDuo's photo - June 21
from the IWS West End photo thread

They're very close to fledging - and the camera relay system broke June 22.
IWS is going to try a replacement part - or else we'll have to rely on weekly reports
from ground observers to let us know when these guys fledge.

Norfolk, VA

hatched
March 10
March 12
March 14 or 15

fledged
May 29
June 1
June 2

(almost 15 weeks)
Aline's photo - June 24

All three are still seen regularly - with luck I'll do the page for these guys in a week or so.

Nest Updates from Blackwater
06/18/07: "More photos from this morning show both eaglets with fish;
sometimes more than one, which means the eaglets are likely
finding their own food part of the time.

06/24/07: "Sometime in the next week,
we'll be shutting down the cam for the season.
We'll return in November or December."