Snow fort for eaglet and egg

A snowy feeding at the Big Bear Bald eagle nest yesterday, and it didn't get any less snowy as the day progressed. Warning for bloody prey in view.

The chick's face is a mess by the end of the feeding, but no time to be elegant about it. In addition to the chick that can't regulate its own body temperature yet and the still incubating egg not being equipped to be uncovered for long at a time no matter the weather, it's getting stormy.

Another quick feeding before Jackie gets back to shielding them from the wind and snow.

And there's plenty of both. Hang in there, Jackie and chickie!

Once the snow stops falling and Jackie gets up, we see the chick is fine. Bald eagles are built for cold weather, and so long as the chick stays brooded under a parent, it'll stay warm and dry. Snow is also good insulation, and tucked against Jackie's brood patch the chick and egg aren't in direct contact with it.

Both parents home in the evening. The day has not been ideal for fishing, but Shadow did bring one fish, and there was still food leftover from the day before, too. Shadow also fed the chick in the morning, but I missed taking screenshots of that.

Shadow would love to spend the night brooding the babies, but it's a job for the larger parent, so Jackie muscles him out of the nest bowl, lol.

ETA: Shadow fed the chick the following morning, too, so I did get my screenshots of dad-and-baby-mealtimes!
 

First a rouse after having brooded/incubated for a while, puffing up and shaking plumage to get feathers to fall to their proper places. Chick is sitting up well now and looking around.

And let's get some food in that little beak. Shadow was a bit clumsy about the first few bites, but quickly got the hang of it and did a good job.

The reason I'm so happy about this is that feeding chicks like this is not very common for male raptors. For most species the male drops off the prey and the female takes it from there, and for the species where I have seen this more finetuned parenting from males, it's been individuals that have the experience of having raised multiple clutches. Shadow is 8 years old, and this is his second clutch that has hatched eaglets. When he first bonded with Jackie, he was a newly matured eagle with still dark spots in his white feathers as remnants of his juvenile plumage. Jackie is two years older, and had raised one clutch with her first mate, so they were both still pretty new to parenting the last time they had a chick to feed. I'm glad to see Shadow join the ranks of raptor dads that know how to get food in their babies.

Also an interesting moment later between the parents. Jackie has returned to the nest, and is eating from the fish while Shadow still broods.

Jackie has a small piece of fish in her beak... and she turns and offers it to Shadow.

He takes it, but doesn't eat it.

Jackie takes it back, and eats it. What that was about, I'm not sure, but I found it cute.

Jackie and the chick, smiling for the camera.

And what looked like it could be a pip on the second egg, but apparently isn't. Well, I hope the egg still hatches, but if not, that's just what happens.