Wet buzzards, wobbly osplets, and mantling falconets

A rainy morning at the Cornell Red-tailed hawk nest.

[Warning for some screenshots showing prey, but only slightly and from a distance. The nest has gotten a lot tidier as the chicks have grown, as it usually does at this stage. Also a bit of dried blood on a chick.]

A few closeups for starters.

This is K-1, the oldest chick, and I think the reason for the zooming is that viewers had reported signs that the chick had a cut near its ear. You can see tiny a bit of blood behind one ear hole, but it's dried already now. Cornell Lab has stated there's no cause for concern over this, seems like a very minor scratch, so I'll just focus on admiring the adorable birb.

Baby buzzards are so cute at every age. Also yes, Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) are taxonomically buzzards, not hawks, despite the common name.

Rain or shine, the kids need to eat. Another good look at their backs here. Their juvenile plumage of pennaceous feathers is growing in, the youngest one's a little behind the older two.

Before stretching wing, check for small sibling.

The youngest, too, is doing fine, though, as far as I can tell. They're each growing normally for their respective age, and competition for food is hardly an issue.

Sleeping next to mom with beak tucked into back feathers like a big birb.

Big Red shielded the chicks during the worst of the rain, somehow still fitting all three under her, but as the rain let up the older two can mostly keep themselves warm though they still don't have a full waterproof plumage. The little one is drying off all warm and toasty brooded under mom.

As shown from the alternate camera at the other end of the platform they're nesting on.

Preen preen.

A pile.

Allopreen the baby.

 

The two Osprey chicks that hatched this week (nest #1) continue to be tiny and squeaky. Here's the whole family at the nest for a bit. Dad Ossi on the left, mom Alma feeding the chicks on the right.

Older chick on the left, younger on the right. They're surprisingly easy to tell apart; the younger is considerably darker. They can both hold their head up now, but not do much else. The third egg's estimated hatch day is tomorrow.

Honestly, osplets are some of my favorite baby raptors going by appearance. If buzzards never have an awkward-looking phase, osplets don't really ever have much of a conventionally cute phase and always look a little weird. They don't even get very fluffy. They just look so pathetic when they're tiny and kind of perpetually offended when they get bigger, and I love them.

(>ʌ<) (>ʌ<)

 

Also some Peregrine screenshots. As the text on the image indicates, the oldest of the chicks - named Fauci and the one with a red leg band - is already a fledgling. Here's the younger one of his two little brothers, having a scritch.

And the other foot.

All three brothers hanging out near the nest.

[Warning that the rest of the screenshots will feature bloody prey remains.]

The chicks are getting better at self-feeding, but holding onto the food is still a challenge sometimes. Here are a few shots of Fauci having a go at it.

Looking pretty majestic from some angles.

From some others, less so.

There we go.

Maybe it's easier if two hold the same piece of food at the same time? I don't know if this was teamwork, exactly, but it didn't look like fighting, either. Maybe just two bird kids learning next to each other but independently of each other.