A puzzle

She does her best.

Pastel sunset

It was snowing.

Big babies!

(Content warning for a messy carnivore nest full of bones of old prey, and some shots of partially eaten fish)

E15 and E16 having a good "food coma" nap at SWFL Bald Eagle nestcam. The little ones are between 3 and 4 weeks old, and are starting to be more challenging to tell apart. E16 has really started to catch up in size. E15 is at the top of the screen in this case.

Their contour feathers are starting to grow in as well, E15's are a little further along. That wing stretch shows them off quite nicely. And the comparison to the plushie shows nicely how much bigger they babies have gotten. They were both smaller than it when it was first brought to the nest!

3-week-birthday wing hug

E16 (on the right) is 3 weeks old today, and exactly so at the hour of this screenshot.

The eaglets stayed like this for a while after feeding, both still awake. The behavior may not be 100% synonymous to a hug as humans would understand one, but it's a cute interaction all the same, with the eaglets deciding to be close to each other and getting along. (link to nestcam)

Venus

I took a photo of the bright spot in the sky that I'm pretty sure was a planet and if so I'm pretty sure it was Venus, but I didn't remember that taking a photo in the dark takes a long time and you need to have the camera stay still for that. I took another one with the camera propped up on something, but I kind of like this handheld mess better. It looks neat!

Masu supervising a painting process

A day with little birds of prey

Some eaglet antics from today (or yesterday, it's past midnight here) that I caught while watching the SWFL bald eagle nestcam. Just cuteness this time, instead of the heavier musings from the previous post about these guys. The babies are hanging out at the nest rails where it's breezier, when not shaded or fed by a parent.

E16 exercising tiny wings as E15 watches.

Sunset season

Starting to be the time of the year again that I have a great view of the sunset from my living room. Days are too short in the winter for that.

Who's ready for paint?

This girl is!

Raptor pants

Adding more feathers to Skyefigure's legs where the plumage stops at her ankles, to give it a bit of a fringe.

It's mostly the same technique of adding individual feathers I've used elsewhere on the figure, just not flattening them as much, to get it to look fluffy, but made of big feathers instead of wispy, more downy ones. I started at the ankle on the first work session, and finished one leg on the next.

Checking in on the SWFL eagles, and raptorwatching thoughts

E15 and E16 are now about two weeks old, a little over and under, respectively, and have already grown quite a bit.

Mom Harriet feeding, currently giving food to E16. Special guest appearance by the squirrel plushie Harriet brought to the nest the other day and was confused not to find any meat in. It's since been used as eaglet pillow a few times.

E16 napping in the background, E15 in the foreground. E16 has a fashionable sprinkle of fish guts on their back from an earlier feeding. Both are starting to grow their second coat of feathers, the darker grey thermal down that will let them regulate their temperature better, and look a little like eagle-shaped dandelion puffs.

Various sculpting tweaks

Small additions and details to the Skyefigure.

Two more strands of fluff to the beard for starters.

Snowy eagle flirting

Shadow and Jackie being cute at their snow-covered nest. (Shadow on the left, Jackie on the right.)

Footnotes

Sculpting something for the Skyefigure to stand with.

The claws I already had. Back when I was making Whirlwind, I mixed way too much putty and figured I might as well use it on something since it'll harden regardless. I made a bunch of little raptor claws, in case I'd need them for something. I think at that point I was already planning on making Skye from scratch, though I hadn't quite decided yet exactly how, so they were always meant for her. I picked the ones that looked like they'll work best for the size of the figure. Also, another little reference image, for getting the length of the toes right.

Victoria and one of my fluffy Velociraptor figures (who might as well have a name, too - she's called Kanervikko now) were also present as reference and moral support.

JP/W and misc dinosaur FRM

Frequently Resurfacing Misconceptions, that is. If you didn't know these, don't feel bad about it, I didn't know some of this until very recently, either, and misinformation is often spread more widely and easier to come across without actively searching than facts are. I'm also neither a scientist nor affiliated with the JP/W franchise, so if I get something wrong after all, please feel free to correct me so I don't contribute to that misinformation.

(Spoilers for all JP/W movies out by now, and miscellaneous other JP/W media)

Eaglet cuddles

Babies napping at the SWFL eagle nest just now. Dad is being a parasol.

Little E16 on the left, older sibling E15 on the right.

Wonderful Terrible Claw

How pretty is this Deinonychus! I mentioned when comparing Safari's Velociraptor figures from different years that the 2019 Deinonychus from the same company seems like an even more accurate raptor reconstruction, and seeing it in person now, it really is lovely.

Double the baby

Little E16 has joined the family over at Southwest Florida Bald Eagle Nestcam!

E15 had us worried with a long hatching process, and then their younger sibling had to top that by taking 59 hours and 42 minutes to battle their way out of the egg wing-first.

First meal of this morning, with E15 on the left and E16 on the right, Harriet feeding. Most bites of food still went to E15, though E16 got some, too. E16 seemed to disagree with mom about how ready they are for food already, and gave their older sibling's head feathers a bunch of non-food bites when they got in the way. Both eaglets seem active and energetic.

Videos of the hatching, and of E15 doing baby eagle things around the egg:

Egg tooth seen in the pip, two feedings for E15

E15 climbs all over the egg, a little wing pokes out of the crack on the shell

E15 naps and gets a messy feeding, E16's wing is fully out

The crack is more than halfway around the egg, E16 struggles, rests, and struggles again

E16 finishes hatching, just in time for dinner!

All four of the family together at the nest

Informative commentary on this second clutch and on the hatching of both chicks, from Dr Christian Sasse and Wildlife Biologist David Hancock

The eaglets also already got a second feeding this morning (this one from M), and it looks like E16 got the most in that one, so both have gotten food. Both are also active and energetic enough that there's been some sibling rivalry already, so that's something you can expect to also see when tuning in. Maybe not the cutest baby behavior, but it's a normal part of their development.

And so's cuddling for naps (E16 at the back, E15 at the front, M at the nest with them in this picture).

Ojalla

Smallest Protoceratops

My Protoceratops mini figure from the Safari set has gotten a new friend. Or, a girlfriend, I suppose, since she comes with a nest and eggs.

The figure is a 1:35 scale Protoceratops andrewsi by Wild Past, which I think is a pretty new company at making dinosaur figures. It's quite detailed for its size, looks like a very accurate reconstruction to me, and is absolutely adorable.

I really love the colour and patterns on it, looks like something that would suit an animal that lived in a desert environment. The vertical stripes at the tail remind me of ripples on sand dunes, and could be both camoflage and useful for intraspecific communication, and the frill has that "fake eyes" thing going on.

The inclusion of the nest is fitting, considering the research history of Protoceratops. The first known fossilized dinosaur eggs discovered were originally considered to be Protoceratops ones, due to many skeletons of the species in the area, and the theropod Oviraptor philoceratops ("egg thief fond of ceratopsians") gets its name from having been found at a nest and believed to have been preying on Protoceratops eggs. With the much later discovery of specimens of oviraptorid Citipati in brooding position over eggs similar to those thought to be Protoceratops ones and a Citipati embryo inside one such egg, the context of the discovered scene changed from nest robbing to a parent protecting its own offspring. In 2011 a Protoceratops nest was finally found, too, showing signs that suggest parental care, in Protoceratops and possibly ceratopsians in general, since Protoceratops ("first horned face") is a basal ceratopsian.

Cat for size comparison.