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By eagle family report 5-19-15: Respect

in the VIDEO at http://youtu.be/Nxw8xvvBxdY Petruchio, the father bald eagle, delivers a fish. Wynd, the fledgling, comes to the nest.
She piles into her father and then she immediately mantles – places her wings – over the food as a sign that she now owns the food.
Wynd is telling dad he better not try to take it back. Petruchio stands his ground, not moving away.
When Wynd finally gives to his presence – she lowers her head, mouths with her beak and doesn’t try to look him in the eyes, Petruchio calmly leaps up onto a limb.
Wynd waits quite a while to see what her father’s plans are and when she realizes he isn’t going to demand the fish back she picks it up and moves it out of the confrontational area.
All young ones have to be given a chance to be independent and yet cooperative.
Even eaglets have to learn that some fights are better won by giving the respect they hope to earn back someday with a potential mate.
There is a slow motion portion that shows the interaction.
in the photo below Wynd is mostly hidden behind Petruchio

WALK8934 May 18 2015 10-21-11 New HopePetruchio respect

By smallest shorebird in the world

In the hours that happen, more often than not, in between seeing eagles to photograph –
I get to watch the rest of Jordan Lake’s diversity.
So it happened a week ago that I saw a pair of tiny, tiny, wee, small birds.
My first thought was “who put the bent stilts on those sparrows”.
I had a wonderful 15 minutes photographing what turned out to a pair of least sandpipers.
The smallest shorebirds in the world, wow!
For size reference, note that the bird has a foot on a piece of pine straw.
They are common on the coast but very rare at Jordan Lake.
There is a 2m 46s video of one of these “peeps”, as they are called, at my YouTube page https://youtu.be/R1clry4ut9s

WALK7384 May 11 2015 10-51-53 New HopeLeast sandpiper

By eagle family report 5-14-15 Wynd’s Jam

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/AU0WXlefF04
Wynd gets into trouble: she hasn’t yet learned how to judge wind gusts.
In the video: Wynd is way down below the nest. She is to the left of the trunk of the nest tree.
Watch for her bright yellow feet.
She decides to try for the nest. But the wind catches her.
She would make a great gymnast! There is slow motion of the action.
I wish I had had a bigger viewing area but am glad I at least caught the action.

WALK8641 May 14 2015 09-29-27 New HopeWynd cartwheel