Another Shot, Two in one.

This is a real picture, or as Todd put it to me, no photoshop voodoo.

Thanks Todd!

New Todd Photos

Here's two great shots from Todd Harless, taken this AM. Probably the first shot of one of the young eagles in flight. Yahoo.

Friday Morning part 2

Friday June 30

Crisp morning, empty nest.

Late Afternoon

New thread. Not much action right now. The T-storms are staying south of us.

Thursday June 29

Lots of rain last night again. Clear this AM, but very warm.

Afternoon

Afternoon thread.

Sunny Wednesday 28 June

Time to dry out here after alot of rain. Here's another entry from Bent on eagle plumage:

"In fresh juvenal plumage the young eagle is uniformly dark colored "bone brown" to "clove brown" above and below; the flight feathers are nearly black, but there is usually a slight sprinkling of grayish white in the tail. This plumage is worn throughout the first year without much change, except by wear and fading, the under parts fading to "hair brown." After the first annual molt, the next summer, the plumage becomes paler and much mixed with white in very variable amounts. Individual feathers on the back, scapulars, and breast are more or less extensively white, those of the breast and belly being largely white in some specimens. I am not sure whether this is a second or third year plumage, or both; if the latter, the third year is whiter than the second. The tail is more extensively mottled with white than in the first year, and the feathers of the crown and occiput are broadly tipped with pale buff.

After the next annual molt the plumage of the body becomes darker, much like that of the adult, but lightly tipped with white below and mottled with white on the rump and upper tail coverts; the latter and the tail are now quite extensively white; the head is mixed with white above, about half white and half brown, or nearly clear, dirty white below. This is probably the third year plumage. At the next annual molt, early in the fourth year, the bird assumes a plumage that is practically adult, with a pure-white head and tail; but usually remaining signs of immaturity are seen, such as a few brown feathers in the head and some dusky mottling near the tip of the tail. The length of time required to assume the fully adult plumage does not seem to have been positively determined, and it may take longer than I have estimated.

Adults and immature birds have one complete annual molt, which is very gradual, and prolonged through spring, summer, and fall. The flight feathers are molted mainly during July, August, and September."

Raining Cats and Dogs

Tuesday June 27

Looks like they have been staying closer to home. More rain forecasted today.

All There

Here's all three kids. Plus, note the oval shaped object in the lower part of the nest--a turtle shell (box turtle?) which probably arrived on Saturday.

Monday PM

There were two there a minute ago, no only one. Thanks to John for figuring out the problem.

Monday 26 June

New Thread. I am at NCTC and will work to unlock things.

Locked Up Sunday June 25

Just had a chance to look at the cam and I see that it's locked at 9:55. Sorry.

Saturday Night's Alright for Eagles

Saturday June 24

New thread.

Two out of three

Tech Update Friday PM

OK.

We got the live feed up, and someone is in the nest right now as I write! The still cam is locked up in Denver, and we have made a call on that. Hang in there folks!

Friday June 23

I know it's still empty, but I swung by the nest on my way in and one of our young eagle friends was perched on a limb just behind and below the camera.

Empty Nest Blues

Thursday June 23

New thread. Big thunderstorm just rolled through.

Another Shot

Update 22 June

Snip...Just realized that this picture was messed up, that's how crazy it's been here the past few days...Snip

Wednesday June 21

Hi Folks, really hectic days here. Got with Todd, he took the picture posted a few days ago around 9:00am on June 11.

Tuesday 20 June

New thread.

Folks have mentioned to me that our own eagle expert Steve Wunderley was on Channel 25 out of Hagerstown this AM talking about the eagles. Go Steve.

Part 3

All three home.

Part 2

Here's a shot of one of the young eagles away from the nest, snapped by Todd Harless at NCTC.

Monday June 19

John is working on the problem and will hopefully have it solved this PM.

Sunday Blue Screen Blues

Sorry about the blue screen. I suspect it may be the same problem as last time, where the microwave channels have been messed up.

There was an extended, planned power outage at NCTC yesterday, I believe, and that may have contributed to the problem.

Thursday June 15

Wow, can't believe the action on the comments. I'm up in CT with family issues (mom coming home from hospital). I need to catch up.

Wednesday June 14

From a post by Sharon at 6:41 this am:

6:41 a.m. He is at the lauching pad. Been moving his wings a little bit, trying to get up the courage. Just back over to 9 o'clock and did a little poop shoot and then back to the lauching pad. Lightened that load a little bit! Oh my God, he just spread his wings out, he has the look. Nope, folded them back in! Doing a lot of flapping all over the nest. Back at the launching pad, looking around. Just moved a little closer to the edge. He wants to really bad! He is so close to the edge, his head gets out of camera range sometimes. He keeps spreading his wings out like he is going to and then back in. It is 6:50 now. A little head bopping going on. Camera freezing up a little bit. Wings back out. Now back in but head still bobbing. My heart is racing. Head keeps going out of view. 6:56 a.m. Wings back out. 6:58 a.m. SPUNKY HAS FLEDGED!!!

Evening Picture

A Diversion

I know that we talk eagles here, but I just saw this astonishing photograph on the Patagonia Website and had to share it. Please indulge me.

The photo caption reads:

A school of salema cut a wide berth for a Galapagos sea lion. Cousins Rock, Galapagos Islands, Equador. Photo: David Doubilet

Seeing our eagles are fledging , maybe need to get a little wildlife variety going here...

Tuesday Part 2

We're still waiting for something to happen and the eaglet is sleeping. Guess we're on his/her time.

Tuesday 13 June

Fresh thread, more later.

Monday 12 June Midday

Monday June 12

Good Morning. Here's a fresh thread for you.

I'm working to get the live feed up soon.

Also, As I walked in this morning the closed circuit monitor had all three of the eaglets hopping around in the nest.

more soon.

Part 2

Which one is visiting?

Sunday June 11

A bright crisp day. Will the third one fly?

Saturday June 10

And so he/she waits to soar.

Friday #2

Live cam up.

Friday--June 9th The Home Stretch

Here's our last eaglet, looking at its sibling who just fledged, at around 9:00 AM.

more soon.

Thursday June 8

It was a big day yesterday, and thanks to all who kept me up to speed while I was battling the traffic of DC.

I'm out of the office again today, but will check in a the office to see if we can get any additional info about the fledgling or the other two.

Tuesday Picture 6 June

Tuesday 6 June

Acouple of snapshots of the recent eagle watching visit. Top shot is of our own Jo from MD.

More later.

Monday June 5

Lots of activity today and some speculation here that the oldest could have fledged or may fledge soon. More when we know more.

Update: 11:20 had a good visit with some guests from the blog. Our concensus right now is that none of the eaglets has fledged yet. Thanks everyone for coming, we'll post a few pictures soon.

Sunday June 4

A beautiful Sunday morning in WV.

Saturday June 3

Lots of rain last night, forecast is better today.

Part 4

A whole collage of Todd Harless Shots.

Part 3

Here's another shot. You can see the webcam up the right hand tree trunk in the top right corner of the picture.

Friday June 2 part 2

This shot was taken the other day by NCTC Production Chief Steve Hillebrand.

Friday June 2

We are doing a lot of maintenance on our closed circuit tv systems today and that is impacting the cams--they are down right now.

In the meantime, I'll post a number of shots taken by NCTC folks recently. The one above was taken by Todd Harless and shows one of the adults in their watch over the nest mode.

More pics soon.

Thursday June 1

Back from DC. Another hot morning. The live cam is up. Still need to get a report from Karen for everybody.