Quizzical, video of this morning’s flight lesson. Yep, that’s Quiz that just flew across from the upper right. Now watch as Quiz comes back around and gets closer to the nest, to no avail. Bails out. And well, the next few moments I added a slow motion so you can see the crash landing. video is at https://flic.kr/p/Hs5fLH.
In the photo, the blur of wings in front of the nest and to the lower left is Quizzical. Quizzical was unhurt.
At last! A clear shot of Quizzical.
Full of himself and trying hard to look eagle-fierce.
This 3 year old bald eagle was being stealthy.
My friend spotted him way back inside the upper-story of a pine.
The juvenile was strategically placed between 2 osprey nests.
The youngster was willing to wait for one of the male ospreys to fly by with a fish –
that the eagle could steal from the much smaller bird.
Quizzical was intently watching his mom Kate.
I heard an osprey scream the “eagle alert”.
I looked across the cove to see a male osprey, flying with a fish in his talons.
Then I saw Kate heading across the cove, I thought to take the fish from the osprey.
No, Kate had other thoughts in mind.
As she dove towards the osprey nest, the female osprey came up out of the nest and dove at Kate.
To no avail. Kate hurtled past both ospreys and into the trees where the nest was, hidden from my sight.
Both ospreys circled a couple of times. The female eventually headed further up the cove.
The male osprey, still carrying his fish, followed his mate.
Some 4 minutes later Kate reappeared. Beak all wet and shiny. She had feasted on the osprey eggs.
There is a second nest on the burn schedule. At this nest, more than at the first of the burn nests, one of my concerns has been the age of the chicks. The Wildlife Resources Commission has stated that their “safe” chick age parameters for prescribed burns is 2 weeks to 10 weeks old. I cannot find peer-reviewed journal papers that say this is true. By 10 weeks in age, in a panic because of the prescribed burn, chicks of a certain maturity will try to fly and they fledge too early. They try to fly out before they can actually fly and fall instead 70-90 feet to the ground. I have been saying for more than 2 weeks that the chicks are older than WRC says they are. The valid papers that I have seen (research done before the eagle was taken off the endangered list) say that a bald eagle chick at 8 weeks of age (not 10) will try to “pre-fledge”. My best guess and it is only a guess (because no one knows when the mother started incubation) is that the chicks are between 9-10 weeks of age.
I am greatly concerned that 1 or both of these chicks might try to fledge early if they panic. The video below was taken this morning.
doc ellen's journey 