Ann and I met up with each other in the morning where we spent a few hours watching the family outside of her office building. This was the first time I had been there since the Eyas had hatched, for further information on it, I highly recommend Ann's Blog, here's the link:
Here they are, after mom's first food-drop for the morning, a stunning butt shot of Miss Piggy chowing down while her smaller and younger siblings observe:
The eggs are laid days apart and therefore hatch accordingly, so if you're the last one to arrive on the scene, it's a tough go, and frequently they may starve to death if they're unable to keep up with the food intake. Usually mom will help with this, but if the eldest is too agressive, it may not work out that well in the end for the younger one(s)...not to mention sibling cannibalism that can occur at any age, eeeeeeeeeeew...
As Ann indicates in her Blog, they have begun to do their "wing-ercise" as they prepare to leave the nest, and it's always humorous to see them discover their wings and eventually practise flapping as they increase in size almost daily and overtake the nest. Here's a sequence of one on the left stretching its wings, he's not quite sure yet what to do with them:
The head of the youngest one can be seen between the legs of the one on the right-hand side:
Check out the wingspan, even at this early age:
A family portrait of the three Eyas after feeding, and just like small children, you can never get all of them looking at the camera at the same time:
In Ann's Blog she mentions me crying out several times when watching them when they back up to the edge of the nest (usually to relieve themselves after eating, like clockwork, again, just like puppies and children- huh). It's worrisome at this age as they're unable to fly, and can easily fall out of the nest if they misjudge the distance to its edge:
Mom arrived later with her prize catch of a rat, Ann saw its tail dangling as the mom flew in with it. Here are some random feeding shots, they did not start in on it immediately, it was almost as if the mother (on the LH side of the nest) was teaching the Eyas what to do with it for future reference, much to miss Piggy's chagrin who no doubt wanted to dispense with the lessons as well as "grace" before the meal:
Tug-of-war between two of them:
It doesn't get any fresher than this, check out the pink piece-du-rat:
Mom's got a tasty morsel in her beak:
Stretching to help with the digestion??
OK, I admit that it may just be the camera angle, but doesn't it look like mom is nuzzling (as much as a raptor can nuzzle!) one of her Eyas???
We waited for mom to leave the nest in the hopes of some flight shots, but she decided to rest for a while with her young, so Ann and I left for the day. I hope to return to see them again over the next few weeks when they begin branching and will eventually fledge!
No comments:
Post a Comment