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.

Mom Jackie in the background.

Wing and leg stretch.

Home alone, sunning feathers.

Crop drop.

Hopping to the branch again later. Dad Shadow is at the nest with spirit at the moment, perching in the background.

And back to nest bowl. Thank you for the photoshoot.

With mom again. Spirit had a lot to say about how she was arranging the sticks.

The three eaglets at the West End nest are 7-8 weeks old - the middle chick Sky turns 8 weeks today, the youngest chick Ahote on Saturday. Waiting for breakfast here, with oldest chick Kana'kini standing up at the front, and Sky (back) and Ahote (middle) lying down.

Zooming in on beautiful Kana'kini.

Sky peeks into the frame, too.

A crop drop for Sky.

And more closeups of Sky later in the day. His ID band is nice and visible in the second one. As is a downy, full crop.

All three on the rock. Sky, Ahote, Kana'kini l-r.

Yes, he's awake, too.

Ahote has a big wing stretch.

Sky (left), Kana'kini (right), Ahote (front).

And some portrait shots of Ahote, too. They've all grown so much.

 

Breakfast at the Cornell Red-tailed hawk nest. Mom Big Red was blocking the view a lot, trying to block the wind blowing from the main camera's direction, but the youngest chick L4 (being fed in the first screenshot, on the left in the second) had a good spot and got plenty. The oldest chick L1 turns two weeks old today, and L4 turns one week.

Warning for close views of prey in these screenshots, though not particularly bloody this time.

A sleepy chick peeking out from under mom. Not sure which one this is, other than that it's one of the older three.

Big Red shaking her feathers dry after shielding the chicks from rain for a long time.

More peeks.

BR preens her back and wing feathers, exposing the chicks more as she leans back. L4 on the right notices it's not covered by mom anymore.

And promptly crawls back under her until just a tiny tail is visible.

The older chicks with more thermal down growth don't mind as much, as they already have some ability to regulate their own temperature. You stay warm until you catch up to them, L4.

Dad Arthur brings a chipmunk for dinner. BR accepts it, and shoos him out to go hunt some more.

Baby pile. The Cornellhawks twitter says the chick on the left in the back row is L2 and the one in the middle is L3, and I'll take their word for it. I can still only tell that L4 is on the right and L1 is the one at the front.

Crop drop by L3. L4 inspects.

 L4 lays its head on L1's back to sleep, and L1 preens L4. Probably tried to preen itself and the little sibling was in the way, but still cute.