In a loblolly pine far away
You do know about the EagleCam, right?
It’s a camera high in a tree at Norfolk Botanical Garden in Virginia, trained on an eagle’s nest 8o to 90 feet up a loblolly pine tree. There were three eggs; one chick hatched Saturday, another hatched Monday, the third is due to hatch any moment.
It’s enthralling. You can see whichever adult is on the nest get up, a fuzzy bobblehead appear, then the other fuzzy bobblehead join it, then the adult rip bits off a fish (fly-covered, at this point) or a squirrel (caught yesterday) and offer them to one or the other fuzzy bobblehead, who will eat it. You can also see the older bobblehead attack the younger one. You can lose hours watching for this…
It’s warmer today, and the eagle on the nest (the female at the moment) is gaping to cool off. An hour ago she was gaping a little; now her beak is open farther; clearly it’s warming up in Virginia.
Do check it out if you haven’t, and rejoice at modern technology.
EagleCam is totally addictive. And I can access it on my phone, which means portable cuteness!
Also, when Jerry posted his “Second Eaglet Hatches” post the other day, I first read it as “Second Eagleton Hatches”. That’s the plot for a terrifying science-fiction book waiting to happen! “Eagleton and Fish team up to create SuperEagleton, a half-human/half-robot with never-before seen powers of pretension, dullness, cattiness, and ridiculousness…”
Hahahahaha – that’s a good one.
Eaglet is poking its head out and squirming around now.
Feeding time. The younger one got no food at all this time. It also attacked the older one, which made a change.
Oh dear it is hilarious watching it try to stay vertical though. It manages it for a second or two and then reels backward like a drunk. I’m up, I’m up – whooooooooooooa.
“clearly it’s warming up in Virginia.”
Yes. Forecast for saturday is 80 degrees. Spring is well underway; lots of things starting to flower and the daffodils are everywhere this year. There are two pairs of ospreys already nesting and I think there are eagles back again on the island at the mouth of the creek. The blue herons are back in full mating plumage……even the mallards are starting to sound amorous. Haven’t seen a merganser for several days, I think they have left already. There are some compensations for living in the theocratic state of Va.
80! Yikes – the eaglets will fry.
Spring is way behind here – it’s been remarkably cold. Just a few flowering trees starting; just a few daffodils; just a few trees starting to leaf.
Our eagles aren’t nesting, either – I saw both of them together yesterday evening. What’s the holdup?! (Well maybe it’s the cold…Do they time egg-laying according to temperature? Seems highly likely, but I have no idea.)
Heh! Far away from you, perhaps. Norfolk’s a few hours away – I might have to talk the girlfriend into a trip up this weekend.
A brief, and really crummy, video clip from this morning, demonstrating the rivalry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cYM0GODx5I
And a few screen captures of the bobbleheads two days ago, when one was new: http://wading-in.net/Add/2bobbleheads.jpg
Meanwhile, I’m splitting my attention between the EagleCam and a trio of local red-shouldered hawks who are performing overhead. Some older pics found here (I might include a blog update if I get something really decent today.)
Ophelia, don’t get me started on wildlife…
I’ve seen that nest before and I think the chicks will be fine. At that time the person from the Botanic Gardens said the eagles will shade the chicks if it gets too warm. Anyway sunday is supposed to be in the 50s again and our weather is about the same as Norfolk – we’re 50 miles away on a river close to Chesapeake bay. The mating season seems to be highly variable but based on weather, I guess. At Vancouver, which should be close to the time for Seattle, it’s supposed to be late march – early april
Heh – I know, Al. I was being deliberately solipsistic.
I’m sure the chicks will be fine, sailor – apparently these eagles raise 3 per annum without breaking a sweat. I was just emoting.
I looked at the garden via GoogleEarth; it’s right near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Fancy that.
I know it doesn’t count, but last weekend driving near home my wife exclaimed ‘what’s that bird!’ and a second later I saw a Wedge-tail gliding over the trees not more than 20 meters above the road. It looks huge that close up. Then we saw another up high circling on a thermal and then two more nearby. I think two of them must have been this years brood. We’ve seen the adults from time to time. No Eagle cam though.
Did I mention I see kangaroos every day when walking my son in the pram? Also see Rosellas (Eastern & Crimson), Cockatoos, Galahs, Orange rump parrots, Black swans, various duck species and other water fowl…….No Eagle cam though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge-tailed_Eagle
Woo hoo – third chick is hatched! Damn that I missed it, but woo hoo that it’s hatched.
This is so cool. Anybody who wants to can see something that only a few people in blinds with binoculars could have seen in the past. Lucky lucky us.
When I click on Eagle cam it doesn’t work. Is it restricted to a geographical region?
No I don’t think so…I hope not.
It works for me. Damn, Brian. Sorry.
I saw her asleep – her eye was closed. Then she opened it. You don’t see that often.
I tried again and it worked! Someone needs to pan the camera up. The top of her head is missing.
What time of day is it in Virginia? It’s about 10am Friday morning here.
Oh good!
Don’t worry, they tweak the camera a lot.
It’s just after 7 pm in Virginia – it will be dark soon.
Thursday evening, that is.
7pm and still light? How far north is it? Maybe there’s daylight savings like they have here?
Wikipedia says Norfolk Virginia is 36 degrees and a bit North. Not as far north as Melbourne is south (37 degrees). I’m surprised that it’s daylight at 7pm in early spring.
Yes we changed to daylight savings last Saturday – the second year the change has come so early. (Congress changed it, as an “energy-saving” measure. snort) I don’t like it, it feels weird and off – it’s still too wintry to be light so late.
Once upon a time, we would have finished daylight savings, but because we got the F1 Grand Prix in Albert Park our ex-Premier got it extended from the start of March to the end. Seems we have about six-months of daylight savings. Strange.
(Congress changed it, as an “energy-saving” measure. snort)
I thought energy saving was what those foreign, commi, pinko, latte-sipping, chardonay drinking, anti-american haters from San Francisco or Europe did. Not an act of Congress with its SUV driving, woman at home in the kitchen with 12 kids, bible hugging, coal burning good ol’ boys.
Of course, my understanding of US politics doesn’t rise above stereotypes.
Nope, close enough. The earlier hours in the spring and later hours in the fall add up to extra energy usage, despite claims, and thus the energy interests are happy. Some stereotypes are amazingly accurate…
DST is such a ridiculous concept. I wish we’d just switch to Zulu time and be done with the whole thing (says the guy commenting on blogs after midnight local…)
My wife sent the links to the EagleCam and the HummingbirdCam to her Granddaughters (7 and 5) who live in Russia, one in Moscow and one 2 time zones further east in Ufa. My wife, using Skype, talks to the girls several times a week after they get home from school. They used to do school lessons together but now everybody has the Eagle and the Hummingbird windows open and they switch back and forth.
The girls have never seen anything like this before and are very excited about the whole experience. There are a lot of squeals and a lot of ewww’s and a lot of questions depending on what’s happening in the nest. And of course they talk about this at school.
Questions are fun. The girls speak Russian. I don’t. So, they ask their grandmother the question in Russian; she translates and asks me the question in English; I give her the answer in English and she translates that into Russian for the girls. I often wonder if the answer the girls get back after all that translating has anything to do with the question they originally asked.
Well most people have never seen anything like this before, or at least, only in the last few years. That’s part of what’s so thrilling about it: something that used to be the provenance of people willing to spend months up a tree with binoculars is now available to anyone with access to the internet. We get amazing stuff from science programs on tv, from cameras in burrows and under water and all sorts, but even those are edited down for us, and we see them long after the events. This is real time and current time. It’s exciting. The granddaughters are totally right to be excited.
Daylight Savings – no, you were right the first time, Brian – it’s a pathetic joke. Don’t do anything real or difficult by way of saving energy, just fiddle with the clocks. Please.
No one has tried the saving energy gambit here. We don’t get prolonged, freezing winters that I understand some parts of the US get. We do get some pretty hot spells most summers (not this one, where it rarely got to 40 degress, and was more humid than hot and flooded a lot. Curse la nina!) and it doesn’t matter if you call it 3pm or 4pm in the middle of summer there will still be no energy savings when the air conditioners are in full swing because of a heat wave.
Hmm- I feel like a peeping Tom. I felt the same when David Attenborough was poking something similar in to a beaver’s lodge. Surely the beavers have a right to privacy, and should be able to mate, bring up their kittens and defecate in peace.
Well now Rosie any passing crow or gull can see them, so why not us?
:- )
I don’t know if we’re homo sapiens, but we are homo voyeuristic.
(Wouldn’t passing crows and gulls avoid eagles as fast as their wings can carry them?)
Nope, crows especially go toward eagles, not away from them. Crows mob eagles. Usually they spot them before anyone else. They were slow yesterday late afternoon though – I spotted an eagle in a tree and was walking along looking at it, and only after a couple of minutes did the crows start arriving. Poor eagles spend their whole lives being hassled.
And to add to their miseries they now have papparazzi and Big Brother reality TV eyeballing their every move.
Accch they don’t mind. The camera’s in one of those sinister black orb things, they have no idea it’s there. Besides, we luvvvvvvvvvvvv them so how can they possibly mind?!
Ophelia, your comment about crows mobbing eagles is correct I reckon. We have magpies and crows (probably ravens, but let’s not quibble) that try and mob Wedge tailed Eagles because the Eagles are well, big and nasty looking with the ability to eat smaller birds. Anyway, I had a quick browse of the web to see if I could find something to back up the point….
Have a look at this photo to get an idea of the chutzpah that takes for a magpie (which isn’t that small a bird) to approach an Eagle. The wedge shaped tail is clearly evident.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2010/10/07/3032185.htm
Another one, but I think it’s tame birdies
http://photos.calvinbradshaw.com/keyword/magpie/1/204962047_Q7U5S#204962047_Q7U5S
Sorry, I’m a bit fond of the Wedgy. Such a magestic bird.
I know I’m right, Brian. I could make a lot of money if I could get anyone to bet the other way. :- )
Crows are famous for it. They also mob people during breeding season! It can be quite annoying, especially if you’re not expecting it. I’m on to them, so when I see one getting ready to mob me I turn and brandish my fist at it. Srsly. I don’t like that feeling when they swoop just overhead. If you make eye contact and threaten them, they don’t come close. Much better. They’re just protecting nest and young, so they calm down when you walk harmlessly away. But don’t turn your back too soon!
Crows are smart. Way smarter than eagles.
This is probably a repeat comment. I apologize, but my computer has gone homeopathic and thinks that a 30C output is better a normal output. So, I, harshly perhaps, formatted and reinstalled the non-homeopathic software. Well, enough of it to reply to the formidible and generous Ophelia.
I think our Crows would be your crows pimp. Our crows know enough not to bother a Wedge tail. In fact our crows (which I might have mentioned have sometime been scurrilously termed ‘Australian Raven’ sit back and go ‘Fark!’ That’s it. It’s Fark!’ Pull out a gun, and even though you thought they were above you. No. They’ll be in a nearby wood going ‘Fark!’.
The Magpie on the other hand is not so sanguine. It’s quite prepared to take on the Wedgie, if needs be, but has no scrupple about swooping bike riders, power walkers, or just things that move through its nesting area. It will draw blood from you scalp if you’re not wearing a helmet or kevlar on on your head. But don’t hate the bird. It has a beautiful song.