April 16-17th

Fresh Fish Delivery
During all the feedings we observed, both babies were equally fed. Sometimes, it was totally the "one-piece-for-you-and-one-piece-for-you" feeding (and the adult would eat his/her own piece, too). Other times, it was a couple pieces for one and a couple pieces for the other one. The baby not being fed would wait patiently for its turn at a bite. A couple of times one of the babies would even reach down and try to get its own piece of meat without waiting for the parent to feed it. Fish and fsh leftovers seemed to be the meals of the weekend.

We also watched the female land in a harvested cornfield and gather up cornstalks and leaves and bring them back to the nest for bedding. It was raining on Saturday and she was sitting on the nest. Well, actually she could not sit all the way down as the big babies were underneath her using her as an umbrella. So to keep the rain from coming in between her body and the nest, she reached over and grabbed mouthfuls of corn leaves and pulled them up and along side her on both sides and in front to enclose the area beneath her.

Preening
The babies spent many hours preening themselves. They would run their beak along their downy feathers - maybe even their new incoming feathers!

The babies have grown quite a bit in the last week. One of the babies is bigger than the other one. If you compare the size of the beaks, one is much larger than the other one. Although many times an older, larger baby will make sure it is the only baby to survive, that does not seem to be occurring with these two. Every once in a while, there would be some pecking (or should I say picking?) at each other, but it was not vicious. In prior years, we have witnessed some very aggressive attacks by one baby on another one.

Listen To Me
We also saw and heard a baby showing off its voice by calling out to anything that would listen - even when there was a parent right there! How cute was that!

Eagle vs. Crow
Another amazing moment was when the adult male tried to attack a crow. Crows are constantly flying over and by the nest and the eagles just watch them fly by. But this crow was different! We were watching the nest and all of a sudden we saw the male flying very fast from somewhere behind the nest towards the nest. He flew by the nest and went to the left of us - still moving out extremely fast, and he was on a mission! He then sharply banked and attacked a crow that was in flight. Although the crow was much quicker at the turns, it was still amazing to watch the ensuing chase. The eagle even reached out its feet and talons a couple of times in its attack. The crow eventually left and the eagle returned to its perch. Again we were in such awe - and it happened so quickly - that we did not get any pictures of it.