Weekend Activities

Wow what a weekend from Blue Jay Bombings to H taking his first steps to fending for his own  How exciting and entertaining was this.  I have never laughed so hard.  Mom brings in fish for H and Blue jays dive bomb her for the whole entire feeding.  Was expecting more than once to see blue feathers in the nest the next morning.  Mom is so patient.  Now onces we get past this stage mom brings in alittle gossling and what Does Harmon do he goes and steals it from mom.  Major food fight and chasing around nest.  Even a little tug of war.  Mom and Harmon eat the gossling and mom takes off just to hide from dad knowing he will be bringing fish in soon.  Dad comes in Harmon goes and tries to steal fish from dad(actually dad did not eat the head off this fish it was actually whole)  Dad was not about to let go of that fish until mom came flying in and stole the fish from dad.  Dad never does stick around long after mom takes food.  He was gone again.  I have no heard the Blue Jay as of late so have to wonder if I missed something.  Was a wonderful weekend.

Broadband Corp

Time for your eagle story

I had mentioned in a previous post that we would talk about some of the threats that face eagles today.  But before I do that I am hoping that you who are reading this will share with all of us your first eagle sighting. Where were you? When was it? How did it make you feel? What made it memorable? 

These stories are often so vivid in our minds. I feel it is important for the younger generation to understand how close we came to losing the eagle, and these stories will help show that. In a couple of day's I will start my discussion talking about why we came so close to losing the eagle.

I will share first.  

My first experience was when in the 80's when I was in High School and our church youth group took a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for a week.  This was a very different habitat than the area around Glenville Minnesota where I grew up, so lots of things were knew to me.  Moose and Common Loons were new and  fascinating to see. One day though while we were out paddling across a lake, I looked up into the picture perfect blue sky and there was an adult Bald Eagle. I pointed it out to everyone and we all stopped paddling and watched in awe. I was into birds and nature since a young age, so I knew of the plight of the eagle and knew how great of an event this was to be able to witness. The Bald Eagle circled a few times and then landed in a large, old white pine.  With the bird sitting in the brilliant green pine, the azure blue sky and  wispy white clouds behind it,  that scene will forever be etched in my memory! Thankfully I have seen thousands of eagles since, but this one Bald Eagle I will always remember.

Now it's your time to share!

An Eagle’s Trip to the Dentist and the Pedicurist

While eaglets are in the nest, they are growing at incredible rates. They can double their body weight in as little as 4-5 days. Eventually, that growth will level off. Eaglets are full grown at 10-12 weeks of age. However, two things will continue to grow throughout an eagle’s life, their talons and their beak.
  An eagle’s beak and talons are made of keratin. Keratin is a tough, fibrous protein that is the main structural components of hair, fingernails, horns, feathers and hooves.

In the wild the continuous use of the eagles’ talons in catching their prey and landing on a variety of surfaces, will naturally wear down their talons.  Wild eagles also exhibit a behavior called “feaking,” which is when they rub their beaks on the side of a rock or a branch.Not only does this help them to clean up after a meal, it also wears down the sides of their beak so it does not get overgrown.
Our eagle ambassadors at the National Eagle Center no longer use their talons to catch and kill their prey. Since they get their meals served on a silver platter (not literally), their talons grow more quickly than they wear them down. We do provide a variety of perching surfaces to help them wear down their talons to some extent. Sometimes we have to help them with a little maintenance of the talons. It’s not that the talons get too long, so much as they get overly thick.  About 2-3 times a year we soak their feet for about 24 hours which softens the excess growth. Then we can scrape off the excess growth on the talons.

It’s also important to keep their beaks in good shape. Their beak is a tool and when it is overgrown, it is a less effective tool. It can cause the bird difficulty in eating. In order to keep our bird’s beaks from getting overgrown, we “cope” them. Coping is a little bit like going to the dentist, not painful, but not their favorite activity either. We use a small tool to carefully grind of the excess growth and make sure the beak is in the ideal shape. Most often this is done on their regular visits to The Raptor Center. We want our birds to think of us fondly as the ones who bring food, not dread us like the dentist.

Two of our ambassaors, Angel the Bald Eagle and Donald the Golden Eagle had a visit to the dentist today, no not the dentist, I mean The Raptor Center!.They came through their exams just fine!

The Rebirth of the Eagle Story

We have witnessed a great story unfold before our eyes , that of the rescue of Harmon, Harmons return to the nest and the return of the parents.  This has brought to  mind a “story” that I occasionally get asked by visitors at The National Eagle Center and I have also seen it pop up in the chat room as well.   It is how when an eagle gets to be about 40 years old  and wants to live for another 30 years or more, the eagle will fly to a mountain top and go through a rebirth.

This is an inspiring story that has circulated widely on the internet for years. It is a story of transformation and determination to live. The wide appeal of this story speaks to the eagle's extraordinary power to captivate and inspire human beings. While this story is inspiring, and may offer us a way to reflect on our own life journey, the story is just that, a story. It is not accurate biologically.

I have underlined what the storyteller usually says and then I have written below that a rebuttal to that statement.

The eagle has the longest life-span among birds

Eagles typically live between 20-30 years in the wild. As apex predators, they are relatively long-lived compared to many other birds. The oldest wild eagle on record is about 32 years of age.

It can live up to 70 years. But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard decision. In its 40’s its long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey which serves as food.

Talons are hard, sharp and curved throughout the eagle’s life. Talons and the beak are made out of keratin, the same material as our fingernails. Think about how long it takes for your nails to grow.

Its long and sharp beak becomes bent

An eagle’s beak is hooked to rip and tear it’s food. It has this distinctive hooked beak throughout its life, like all birds of prey. Beak and talons are critical to eagles’ ability to catch and consume food. No eagle can survive without a beak or talons for any amount of time.

Its old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its’ chest and make it difficult to fly

Feathers are replaced throughout an eagle’s life. The process is called molting. An eagle does not lose all of its feathers at one time. It is a gradual process, continually renewing the feathers.

Then the eagle is left with only two options: DIE or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days

The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on it’s nest.

An eagle’ nest is used only for the rearing of the young. Eagles do not use their nest except for the few months of the year when they are actively raising their young.

There the eagle knocks its’ beak against a rock until it plucks it out

Beak and talons are critical to eagles’ ability to catch and consume food. NO eagle can survive without a beak or talons

When its new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its’ old-aged feathers

An eagle cannot survive without food for anything close to 150 days. A few days without food might be possible, but no longer.

And after five months, the eagle takes its’ famous flight of rebirth and lives for 30 MORE YEARS

Reading the story definitely makes you feel good, but remember it is biologically impossible  for this story to be true.  Our story that we are watching on this webcam is true, and we all are learning a lot by watching it!

Here come the feathers

With some of the photos that we have seen from our eaglets visit to The Raptor Center, I have been noticing some people in the chat room asking questions about feathers, so let's discuss them in this blog article. We will be noticing the repalcemnet of down feathers with other types that we will talk about below.

Every bird has several different types of feathers. Contour feathers are located on the body, tail and wings. These feathers help the bird stay streamlined and allow it to fly.  Down feathers are fluffy feathers that grow near the skin under the contour feathers.  The down traps warm air, insulting the bird in cold weather.  Semi plume feathers  are a combination between the down and contour feathers and like the down will help trap heat next to the body.  Lastly, bristle feathers are located near the eyes or nose of some birds. Bristle feathers are stiff  and may help keep bugs or other debris out of a bird’s eyes.

  Bird’s feathers continuously wear, become soiled and lose their effective qualities, so birds replace feathers through a  process called molting. Old feathers are molted and new feathers grow in place of them. S Some birds such as ducks, geese, swans, and pelicans are called “synchronous molters”, which means they molt all their flight feathers at the same time. During this period of time, they are unable to fly.

  Raptors rely on flight for survival and thus have a different kind of molt.  Raptors molt a few feathers at a time and are never flightless. In fact, they ususally molt the same flight feathers on each wing, so they remain perfectly balanced, maintaining their agility in flight even during a molt.

  Generally raptors in this area will begin molting feathers in April and continue through the fall.  Eagles don’t molt every feather during one season. It can take two to three years for a complete molt in many raptors.

  A captive raptor might undergo a modified molt because factors like daylight, temperature, weight control and stress can impact the timing and duration of a molt. 

How does a new feather replace an old feather?

  The replacement feather grows inside a feather sheath, a thin, pencil shaped structure.  This is known as a blood feather or blood quill.  The sheath is soft and engorged with blood supplying the growing feather inside.  As it grows, it displaces the old feather.  When the mature sheath splits, it reveals the new feather rolled up inside.  The length of time it takes for a new feather to grow depends where it is located on the body among other things. Some of the larger feathers, like flight feathers, may require up to 75 days to develop.