Nest Update June 21, 2013 - The First Day Of Summer

June 22, 2013

Good Evening, Fellow SeasonChangers!!

Well, summer roared in like a lion at the nest today. Harmony and Peace had a great first day of summer (and of BranchWatch) eating, wingersizing, napping, and generally having a good time. They started the day in the wee hours of the morning being serenaded by a thunderstorm that blew in to drench them in rain. Not getting much sleep overnight they were pretty tired most of the day. They had a true breakfish early and a second one just after midmorning of another aquatic avian. The pond is going to run out of birds one of these days. While consuming the bird Peace accidentally locked beaks with Mom and got chastised for it. Her look of contrition was a sight to behold. In between the two feedings Mom delivered a clump of grass that Harmony took a fancy to and treated to a tour of the nest. She finally lay down on it and Peace came over to help the clump finish the tour. They sparred over it a bit and it finally ended up with a nice view of the river. After filling their crops for the second time they both took naps to make up for the lack of sleep overnight. Early afternoon they were getting some exercise to work out the kinks and BBC panned around to follow them. We saw Harmony’s new twigging spot near the trunk and watched her try to adjust the cam mount for BBC. These two are are the best of buddies. We are very fortunate on this nest to have such well behaved eaglets as that is not often the case as is demonstrated at many other nests on the net. Razzle put together a great vid that demonstrates their affection for one another.

In the late afternoon Mother nature again showed her fury with another thunderstorm that made it look like the sun went down about 3 hours early. Her full fury was spent north of the nest but the kids were blown and soaked again by the edge of the storm. And after dark yet another line of storms hit the nest area dead on and from what we could hear the wind was furious, the rain plentiful, and the thunder crashing. It was sorta neat to see flashes of the nest as the lightning zipped overhead.

On to the pics and vids of the day!

Peace and Mom lock beaks and Peace gets the stink-eye.

MNBound Eagles Peace Hooks Mom's Beak While Feeding

Harmony saves the nest from a dangerous clump of grass.

MNBound Eagles Grass Attack!

A TGIF vid for the first day of summer.

MNBound Eagles TGIF at MNBound

Harmony and Peace are BFF’s and this vid proves it!

MNBound Eaglets Best Buddies

And a great selection of pics for today!

Mom said if you do this cookies fall out of the sky!

You really want this?? It taste like crap!

A clap of the thunder to Razzle and BBC for the great images again today! Thanks!

Summer came on like a lion today and I hope it goes out like a lamb starting tomorrow. Hope you had a super Friday and first day of summer wherever you happen to be!

See you on the nest tomorrow.

TalonStrike

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below or in the chat room. Also, we'll be updating our official MN Bound LIVE Eagles Facebook Page regularly so you can follow along, like, or share with your friends. We have several site moderators this year to help give optimal information to all that want to learn more about these magnificent birds.

Nest Update June 20, 2013 - Branch And FledgeWatch Begin!

June 20, 2013

Good Evening, Fellow NestHoverers!!

We are going on BranchWatch and FledgeWatch starting tomorrow, Friday June 21st. The kids are getting so good at hovering and wingersizing that they could branch at any time. Some have stated that the trunking Peace did yesterday was really a branching. We like to think of branching as that leap into the unknown to a place they have never been before. Seems more adventurous that way. The tree trunk is their buddy and hiding place from the wind. But, to each their own.

The day on the nest started with a late breakfish of gosling? that Peace scored a clean takeaway and a perfect mantle on. Harmony didn’t let that last too long as she scored her own takeaway from Peace. Mom visited for a few minutes while they were eating and left quickly. She returned a few minutes later with another avian entree’ for the kids. They both had a really good breakfish. Early afternoon BBC treated us to some panning that tried to follow Harmony as she hovered. The effort was pretty amazing as Harmony bounced up and down flapping those huge wings of hers. Thanks, BBC! The rest of the afternoon was taken up by flaps, naps and guard duty. The kids found a spot off camera to hide in and scare the chatters into thinking they had left the nest. You could hear Peace and Harmony giggling at the comments in SS or maybe they were just squeeing for more food. Mom delivered a huge tasty fishy early evening and all three of them proceeded to nosh down dinner. Peace and Harmony threw a couple of elbows and body shots during dinner but all in all it went pretty peacefully. As darkness fell one was hiding in the corner and one was standing guard. They switched a couple of times just to keep us confused as to who was where. It looked to be a lovely MN sunset again this evening.

On to the pics and vids!

Harmony gets the cam gnomes to follow her hovering. Wonder if that was in her contract??

MNBound Eagles Loving the Wind

Not to be outdone, Peace get some exclusive close-ups.

MNBound Eagles Beautiful Peace 9 Weeks Old

A snack fish is delivered mid afternoon and Harmony has to wait her turn to eat again.

MNBound Eagles Harmony Wait Your Turn

And a selection of great pics of the day!

Jeeez, you two! Back off! Dinners here!!

Your boss and HIS boss are behind you today!

Can't you let me win a takeaway?? Just once?? Please??

Wheeee! I can see Shakopee from up here!

And a retro pic of the day from March 10th. Harmony's first day as an egg.

A flip of the fishtail to Razzle and BBC for the great vids, pics and panning today! Thanks!

Hope you had a wonderful last day of spring today. Summer officially starts at 1:04am Friday morning. Wish I was at Stonehenge to see the magic moment as the sun rises. Oh well, the nest is the next best place to start a new season!

Have a great Friday and well see you on the nest!

TalonStrike

Nest Update June 19, 2013 - Hovering, Trunking, and Food, Oh My!

June 20, 2013

Good Evening, Fellow BarkGrabbers!!

What a busy Wednesday this turned into. It started with duck for breakfish and a squeefest as Harmony and Peace were each trying to steal from each other. Late morning there was a huge lunch (2 fish and another avian) delivered by the local deliveryman (Dad) that had them squeeing and noshing with joy again. They settled in for some napping and rest after all that tearing and gulping depleted their energy. About mid afternoon Harmony and Peace were getting in some stretching and a little wingersizing when Peace decided to wow the crowd with an excursion up the tree trunk. We Have Trunking! We call it trunking, some call it branching but it looks like Peace got there first again. Not to be outdone Harmony achieved a great hover a little later. Mom delivered a furry snack late afternoon and Peace scored the initial takeaway. Harmony was not to be denied this time. She got control with a quick nip and a great wing check to Peaces’s midsection. Mom tried to get in on the action and Harmony denied her too with a couple of good spin moves and a quick take-back. Finally in the evening just before the sun set Peace proved her moves of the afternoon were no fluke by trunking not once but twice more. That kid is gonna go far some day. LOL As darkness fell they were watching and playing on the nest. Peace was searching for nestovers to fill up the empty space left by Harmony’s steal and consumption of the afternoon snack. The search proved fruitless and instead Peace made a bed of all the dried up nestovers she had found and lay down to sleep off a very tiring day.

On to the pics and vids of the day!

Peace thrills the crowd with the first trunk of the season.

MNBound Eagles Peace Climbs the Main Trunk

Not to be outdone, Harmony hovers for the first time.

MNBound Eagles Harmony's 1st Hover Lift Off

Harmony goes for the snack steal and keeps it from Mom too!

MNBound Eagles Peace & Mom Get Robbed

Peace and Harmony practice being eagles in the evening. Two more trunkings are seen. Vid is 10 minutes long.

MNBound Eagles Peace & Harmony Get Their Eagle On

And todays selection of Razzle Pics! Thanks Razzle!

Ok, this will be a three and a half gainer with two and a half twists into the pond!

Ok, so Dad does this all the time. My turn!

Wadda ya mean "share and share alike"???

Please be patient as we work the kinks out with the new website and a new way to post the blogs. I should have it down by the end of the week. LOL

Well, chat was flying today and we were running almost as hard as the eaglets were working out just to keep up. It was a marvelous day on the nest and I hope you were here to see it with us!

A brush of the bark to Razzle and BBC for the always excellent pics and vids of the day! Thanks!

Have a good evening and we’ll see you on the nest tomorrow!

TalonStrike

Nest Update June 18, 2013 - Torpid Twigging Tuesday

June 19, 2013

Good Evening, Fellow NestNappers!!

First off, a hearty wing waggle and a big thank you to Firetruck1988 for his excellent blog on captive eagles. Great information and a well written piece. Thanks Firetruck!

We have another blog exclusive vid from Razzle! Thanks Razzle!

Tuesday started with a good breakfish of duck ala nest with the kids self-feeding and getting in a little food wrestling. Later in the morning more foodstuffs were delivered and the kids played a little keepaway again. Most of the day was spent relaxing, wingersizing and picking targets for the after fledge graduate course in survival. About 1:30 pm Dad delivered a fish that still had some life to it and Peace got the snatch and grab again. Harmony tried to steal it twice and in the process it looked like the fishy was lost over the edge of the nest. Peace managed to rescue the fish and proceeded to chow down. Harmony and Peace have both taken to perching on the twigs at the edge of the nest both to help develop talon strength and to scare the chatters once more before they fledge. A little beak bonking was seen today but no major disagreements. As darkness fell they kids were playing on the nest and getting ready for the long nap ahead.

On to the pics and vids of the day.

First the blog exclusive vid of the day.

Peace tries to get some air and BBC treats us to some good panning

MNBound Eagles Pull Up a Branch & Sit a Spell

Peace scores the live fish from Dad and the fun begins

MNBound Eagles Peace Takes Live Fish From Dad

Peace gets the sneezies from a feather in her nose. Recorded June 12th

MNBound Eagles Peace Sneezes 22 Times

And a selection of pics of the day.

You have another bearclaw? We promise not to tell this time!

Pssst! Your boss is behind you again!

Let's fake like we're fighting and maybe he'll leave!

Fish delivery! Hey Wait! Leave the talons!

We are experiencing many pauses and dropouts in the cam video stream. This seems to be coming from Ustream but BBC is looking into the problem and hopefully will have a solution. Thanks BBC for all you do for us eagleaholics! And a big thanks to Razzle for the pics and vids from today!

I hope you had a great Tuesday wherever you are and we’ll see you here on the nest tomorrow!

TalonStrike

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below or in the chat room. Also, we'll be updating our official MN Bound LIVE Eagles Facebook Page regularly so you can follow along, like, or share with your friends. We have several site moderators this year to help give optimal information to all that want to learn more about these magnificent birds.

Firetruck1988 Is On The Blog

June 17, 2013

Good Evening!

Hello everyone, for my guest blog I thought I would cover something a little different. I am going to be covering bald eagles in captivity.

Many of you may have seen bald eagles in zoos, these eagles along with all eagles that live in captivity are non releasable birds which means that they have some problem that prevent them from ever being returned to the wild. All raptor rehab centers try to return injured eagles to the wild if possible. A captive life is the best thing for these non releasable birds because they will get to live out the rest of their lives in a safe environment and will be well cared for. Captive bald eagles live a lot longer than wild ones do, which is normal for animal in captivity to live longer than their wild counter parts. The oldest bald eagle in captivity lived to be 48 years old. This is due to the medical care that they receive in captivity and due to the fact that they do not need to compete for food. The first time I ever saw a bald eagle was in a zoo.

The American Eagle Foundation has a breeding program that involves their captive eagles. The American Eagle Foundation is only of the only places to currently have a breeding program for captive bald eagles. The offspring of these eagles are release into the wild when they are old enough. This is done by taking the eaglets from their parents and raising them using eagle puppets and then placing them in special towers that they will fledge from. One of the most famous captive eagles is Challenger, who is trained to fly during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner at major sporting events such as the Super Bowl. Challenger was blown out of his nest during a storm and was found by some people, when he was old enough they tried to release him, but he had become imprinted on people, so he was sent to the American Eagle Foundation where he still lives today. Challenger was named in honor of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger.

I hope you enjoyed my little blog on eagles in captivity.

Firetruck1988

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