Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting our fledge fundraiser. You donated $16,000 dollars to support our education and research work yesterday, which is amazing! Your donations keep cameras streaming, scopes trained on peregrine falcon bands, autumn banding stations open, classrooms learning about bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and so much more! So again, thank you – and a special shoutout to our volunteers for a wonderful day. John and I had a great time chatting and hanging out!
Speaking of stream, I hope you enjoy tonight’s NestFlix! Our videomakers are giving us wonderful glimpses into life at the North Nest, Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain Nest in Colorado, the Trempealeau Eagles in Wisconsin, and some super adorable ducklings on the Flyway. I’ll always make way for ducklings! Happy Fri-yay, everyone – NestFlix and chill!
Decorah North Eagles
DN17 at the North Nest: growing, learning, and adapting. I love this stage of eagle life!
June 20, 2024: DNF brings breakfast to the rootball – https://youtu.be/s44VFsPfYk8?si=a89KwzbqpHws9A-q. Parenting a hungry teenager isn’t easy! I love DNF bringing food to DN18, who mantles it – nice job! – and begins feeding as if DNF might steal it away. She quickly flies out, perhaps to find a perch free of hungry fledglings!
June 21, 2024: Sibs DN17 and DN18 hanging out on the rootball.
June 20, 2024: DN18 flies to T4, then rootball, meets a kingfisher, back to T4 – https://youtu.be/AZWGUVbL4Os?si=elTJ31xiikreKJGk. Who are the people in your neighborhood? Watch the whole video or go to 8:21 to see DN18 encountering a kingfisher! It flies out at about 9:03 when DN18 clambers up the branch.
The fledglings have so much to learn: how to fly, how to land, how to hunt, how to eat, how to perch, and who else lives in their neighborhood! Their new world is rich with sights, sounds, and experiences, including close-up introductions to everything else that inhabits their world. It is filled with endless, ever-changing forms, beautiful, profound, and entangled in ways we are only beginning to recognize. Won’t you be my neighbor? https://www.raptorresource.org/2024/03/01/wont-you-be-my-neighbor/.
June 20, 2024: The North’s don’t like the subadult in their area – https://youtu.be/1CxSy5rWgqI?si=AIXvrdNauBmLURJk. They really, really don’t like the subadult in their area, which is fascinating to me because they often tolerate subadults, especially once the eaglets have fledged. The video opens with DNF fighting with a subadult on the ground. At about 2:21, the subadult manages to climb into a thicket of multiflora rose. It isn’t comfortable, but it is safe! The subadult eventually climbs out, but Mr. North has joined the fray. At 6:36, one of the Norths knocks the subadult off the rootball and into a willow thicket. It stays there a bit before clambering on to the log and flying off.
The subadult was nowhere near the remains of the nest or DN17 and DN18. So what’s going on? The Norths are doing well, but it has been – presumably – a stressful week since the nest fell. Falcons sometime exhibit what we call redirected aggression when we are banding. We’ve collected the young and are banding them. Their parents are protesting and upset when another bird – an eagle or a turkey vulture, perhaps, flies into view. The falcons target that bird and don’t let up until it is well out of their territory, responding with much more force than we are used to. Perhaps the same dynamic is at work here – Mr. North wouldn’t appreciate any strange eagle after his food, but this was a pretty big response by both Norths!
June 19, 2024: DN17 closeups, preening – https://youtu.be/fSbYs-ZJT00?si=4Kbs7ORvzk9gLSGQ. A beautiful look at DN17! I loved seeing DN17 chilling out on the branch and engaging in a little self care!
Fort St. Vrain Eagles
A Barn Owl visits FSV49 and FSV50 at Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain plant in Platteville, CO! We established this camera in 2003 – basically a million internet-years ago – but I don’t recall seeing a Barn Owl here before. Owls, we have a nestbox for you not too far away!
June 10, 2024: Barn Owl Visitor – https://youtu.be/malJ75uxgqY?si=tgaHFTHRpzevFBQZ. Whooo’s that? It’s a barn owl looking at FSV49 and FSV50!
Not familiar with this nest? It’s located at the Xcel Energy Fort St. Vrain Plant in Platteville, CO. It has a long and very cool history and was actually – all the way back in 2003! – our first eagle cam. Watch it here: https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/xcel-energy-cams/.
Trempealeau Eagles
June 19, 2024: TE1 discovers selfies! This is a (fairly) regular phase of eaglet development – the fledgling eagles hop up to the camera, discover their reflection, and seem quite curious about it. We’ve seen similar wary-yet-attracted behavior in peregrine falcons.
June 19, 2024: TE1 on selfie branch hops to the nest and flies back – https://youtu.be/O3cXu2UG0x4?si=U-5GJRFiOBf3Y7Fl. We’ve got branching in Trempealeau!
I apologize for not covering this nest more closely. We weren’t sure this nest was going to be successful early on and then – as always! – we got busy. This is a wonderful nest in a beautiful place and we’ll have more coverage next year. Watch it here: https://www.raptorresource.org/trempealeau-eagles/. And don’t miss this video from Tulsa – I love the selfie stage! https://youtu.be/rFv0bJelUi8?si=enpLCbmWBd25pU9d.
Mississippi Flyway Cam
Make way for ducklings! I’m overloading from all the Mallard cuteness!
June 20, 2024: Mom Mallard and ducklings – https://youtu.be/7fAKXyb4qSk?si=iFkgFUp0s_f8LAub. I am a sucker for ducks and this is beyond adorable. They will quickly grow up and, after fall and spring migration, leave their families and strike out on their own. But for now, they are content duckling siblings on a log!
The Raptor Resource Project