Beauty and the Beak (short film)

note: hat tip to Ellie Elliott (@EllieElliottFDL) at Firedoglake.com for turning my attention to this beautiful piece.

http://vimeo.com/15184546

Decorah Bald Eagles 2012: D12, D13 and D14 Have Hatched

note: If you at first get an error message for the video, simply refresh the page.

Decorah Eagles Siblings Scuffle 3-29-12 10:53am CDT

Uploaded by 989razzle on Mar 29, 2012
D12 & D13 work out the pecking order in the nest cup. This is a behavioral mechanism that establishes dominance and ensures success in the species

Sources: Raptor Resource Project
http://www.raptorresource.org/

Decorah Eagle Cam Link 24/7. Infrared lighting at night dies not affect the eagles.
http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles By the way, I tried to post the nice ready-to-click box with the arrow last night (It worked last year) and I got one of those red end-of-the-world box warnings. I removed the nice picture and replaced it with the link. The internet-destruction-for-sure great big red warning box remained. I finally gave up. This morning, I see that the internet is still operational. A while back, there was mention of some technical classes on this sort of thing. Will LiveCams be allowed? 238,314,750 current Live Views on this cam so far – seems like it would not be a problem, malware-wise. Is this a copyright issue perhaps?

In the above video, D12 and D13 are scuffling. D14 has not yet hatched. Well, here is D14’s belly button. He was hatched on 3-3-2012:

D12, D13, and D14 are the names of this year’s eaglets.

How do you tell Mom from Dad? Here is an instructional. Mom and Dad take turns at the nest. The eggs take 35 days to incubate. During this time, Mom or Dad may leave the eggs alone. This is not to be mean; it is to cool the eggs and keep a consistent temperature. Mom and Dad also turn the eggs frequently to keep the developing tissues from sticking to the side of the eggs. When they finish turning the eggs, they do their famous “shimmy,” where the shake their tail back and forth to position themselves onto the eggs for a sitting session. The shimmy is one of the most adorable things you will ever see.

Here is how to tell Mom from Dad:

Also, if you are a bird or eagle fan, you may also be interested in the Alcoa, Iowa eagle live cam. These babies hatched prior to the Decorah Eagles:

http://www.alcoa.com/locations/usa_davenport/en/info_page/eaglecam.asp

Quote from this site, which, by the way, has the most adorable little wing knobs on any bird I have ever seen:

A pair of bald eagles joined the Alcoa Davenport community in Iowa in 2009. They built their 7-foot nest on our 400-acre facility in a tree near the Mississippi River. In the spring of 2010 they fledged a pair of eaglets and later that year we installed our first Eaglecam. We recently launched a new camera with improved video streaming. Employees and the community helped name the eagle pair Liberty and Justice. In April 2011, an online poll named the single eaglet they fledged this year “Freedom”.

Please have a look at the Alcoa site.

Bald Eagles stand about three feet tall. They are apex predators. Here is a photo comparing the size of their eggs to that of a baseball:

http://eaglenest.blogs.wm.edu/2010/02/04/bale-eagle-egg-size-and-color/

Finally, for more interesting information, please read the Raptor Resource Blog at this link:

http://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html