Spirit fledges!

I just made a post about the raptor chicks I watch getting ready to leave their nests, and then the one nest I left out has a fledge. :D

Spirit, this year's only chick of Jackie and Shadow at Big Bear Bald eagle nest, has left her nest tree, with a beautiful first flight. She is 88 days old.

Wingers on the front porch branch first for warmup.

Exploring and ascending

Screenshots from three of the raptor nestcams I follow, all of which have recently had the chicks take various steps towards leaving the nest. Warning for occasional views of bloody prey.

Lunch at Cal Falcons Peregrine nest. The recently banded chicks are growing fast. Older chick on the right here.

Younger chick shaded by mom, older shaded by camera.

Gatherings

Pachycephalosaur enclosure at my campaign park on Isla Isla Tacaño, housing Pachycephalosaurus, Stygimoloch, and Dracorex - or perhaps adult, subadult, and juvenile Pachycephalosaurus.

Watch your language, young lady.

Also one more look at the Shaximiao Formation enclosure at sandbox Isla Muerta: one from each stegosaurian herd (Huayangosaurus, Chungkingosaurus, and Gigantspinosaurus) meeting at the watering hole.

A Diplodocus funeral.

Frostflower clouds

Raptors and company

Raptor nestcam screenshots. Warning for occasional views of prey.

Dolphins seen near the West End of Catalina Island Bald eagle nest.

And a beautiful sunset as the eaglets wingercise and get ready for bed.

Big feathers for big baby birds

Screenshots from the Cornell Red-tailed hawk nestcam, and later in the post also West End of Catalina Island Bald eagle nestcam. Includes views of prey, but not very clear or close up. But also views of cute raptor chicks both clearly and close up.

Back comparison during a feeding a few days ago. L4, L2, and L1 near mom, L3 closer to camera.

Just hanging out after the meal. L1 next to mom, L2, L3, and L4 in front row. L3, too, is now getting some of that beautiful orange on the chest.

You're right, it's fine like that

Masu helping me change bedsheets.

Fire in the sky

Call of the wider world

Screenshots of Bald eagle chick Spirit at the Big Bear nest. Looking very pretty perching next to the nest, with wind-tousled feathers. Spirit is 11 weeks old, and getting close to fledging.

Track team

Screenshots from the Cornell Red-tailed hawk nestcam from the past few days.
cw: some of the screenshots show prey, and some show a bug (bumblebee), but neither are seen very clearly.

Chicks in the midst of one of my other favorites of their pastimes, aside from napping in a pile: tracking the movement of something together. L2 at the back, L4 and L3 at the front, and L1 standing on the right. L4 is really starting to catch up to its siblings in size!

Masun masu

Gradients and brushstrokes

Island pain relief

A new sandbox park experiment, this time on Isla Pena. The island looks quite different in daylight and without a twister in the middle of the park.

Welcome, can I interest you in... a giftshop and a fast food restaurant? No? There are plenty of those on the other islands and if you want to shop or dine properly you'll just travel back there, perhaps to the island where your hotel is? That's what we thought, too, though it never hurts to have some means for the guests to refuel themselves, and spend some money, too.

The fast food is entirely vegetarian, to avoid its scent attracting our attractions to the tourists too much even when people take food with them to the rest of the island. We also have a shelter for emergencies, and also a bathroom, for emergencies, but what you're probably here for is another monorail ride away.

Raptor chicks fed by mom, self, dad, and... sibling?

Screenshots from the Cal Falcons and Cornell Redtail nestcams, both of which had some unusual feeding arrangements yesterday.

Warning that prey is clearly visible in the feeding screenshots.

A double sploot.

Chicks are woken up from their nap by Alden arriving with prey.

Aspiring terrors of the skies

Screenshots from various avian raptor nestcams I follow.

First Cornell Red-tailed hawks. Mom Big Red feeding the chicks breakfast yesterday. L2 is next to her on the left, and at the front are L4, L3, and L1 from left to right. Warning for prey visible in the nest in some of the screenshots, but not in focus.

Glitches in birbmatrix

More screenshots of my Jurassic Park/World raptor AU characters turned into sims.

Pillow fight! Wait, what are you looking at?

Daydreamer can see the plumbobs!

They allopreen!

Mom Big Red (left) and dad Arthur perching together in the morning near Cornell Red-tailed hawk nest. More screenshots of their adorable 2-3 weeks old chicks in the post, but warning that they also show prey close up.

Vihertää

Wingers, closeups, and beginning and near-complete juvenile plumages

Screenshots from two of the raptor nestcams I follow, first West End of Catalina Island Bald eagles, and then Cornell Red-tailed hawks.

Triplets napping together, using the rock as a pillow. Oldest chick Kana'kini in the middle, and youngest chick Ahote behind her. Middle chick Sky at the front has ended up with a piece of bark as a pillow case.

The next day I got a lot of nice closeups of the eaglets. Here's Sky standing by himself and Kana'kini (middle/back) and Ahote (right) looking like they're judging him for something, lol. Just looking around, though, eagles always look so stern with their brow ridges.

Sky is also nine weeks old on this day! Kana'kini is two days older and Ahote two days younger.

Wake-up rain

A pair of fake crocs

 

Decided the other end of the Isla Muerta sandbox park should house two Suchomimus. These are Cookiedough and her goth gf Verilettu.

I'm also learning to use the capture mode!

Baby raptors in piles and clusters

Screenshots from various raptor nestcams I follow.

First a peek at the newly hatched Peregrine falcon chicks at Cal Falcons. The first chick hatched on May 5th and the second May 6th, and last I checked the third egg is still unhatched.

Gold drops and fly poop

Dirty window at sunset after rain.

Your ratings mean nothing to me now, muhahaha

Liking the morning and evening lighting with the day/night cycle enabled, especially in the guest area I made for my first sandbox park.

I wasn't too fond of Isla Muerta during the campaign because of the perpetual sunset, which made it harder to see the dinos well, so I chose that island for my first to give a second go to with more control over the settings.

So far there's a big enclosure at one end of the buildable space, with a single road and the monorail between that and the area for the guests to shop and dine at in the middle near the entrance (and two hotels with beautiful ocean view, not that they appreciate that, but with nothing to unlock I now have no reason to care if the customer AI likes parks I like building), and a couple of viewing buildings and a bathroom being all that the guests get this close to the dinos. Don't stress them out with too much noise and weird smells from restaurants and such is what I had in mind. I put a pair of Mamenchisaurus there first, and then decided to populate it entirely with the Shaximiao Formation species available in the game (not all pictured).

All herbivores, maybe the other end of the island will have carnivores.

My Huayangosaurus herd: ladies Pepper, Paprika, Pickles, and Pumpkin.

Sprungeth

Many Thursday birthdays

Eaglet Spirit at the Big Bear Bald eagle nest has been perching on the nest rail and a branch next to the camera a lot, giving us many lovely closeups. Spirit turns nine weeks old today.