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.

E16 preens self.

...and falls over doing so.

Some cropped pictures of crops. Dad gave both eaglets a good feeding soon after the above preening and wingercising, and E16 (left) and E15 look pretty full afterwards. The crop, the pouch under the neck, is the first place food goes, and the eagle can move food stored there to their stomach bit by bit when needed. Adult eagles can go days without eating because of this. Messy remains of prey were still in frame, hence not showing the full camera view here. A couple of hours later mom and little E16 shared a fish for dessert.

Big crops also make good pillows, lol.

Check out those wingspans!

E15 playing with a stick earlier in the morning while E16 naps behind them. It's not so hot yet, so they're mostly staying in the nest cup at the moment, where they spent the night brooded by mom.

And a little sequence of screenshots, I hope someone captured a video of this to better do the moment justice.

E16 preens self, E15 preens E16.

And more napping and wing-flapping:

E16 working out, E15 spooning squirrel plushie.

As the sun began to set, dad brought in a nice, big fish, which mom fed to the eaglets. E15 ate their fill first, and E16 waited not a second after it looked like E15 was done before swooping in to grab the rest of it.

Looks like they'll be going to sleep on crop pillows for the night, too.