Bright things

SE29 branches

Screenshots from Sydney White-bellied Sea Eagle nestcam.

The older eaglet has discovered perching on a branch! He hasn't ventured very far out of the nest yet, but it's an important step towards fledging. He's been visiting the branch several times, and little sibling SE30 has been paying attention, so perhaps she'll soon start joining him in exploring the nest tree.

There he is again this morning.

Standing around is the new lying around

Screenshots from Sydney White-bellied Sea Eagle nestcam.

Dad keeping watch on a branch while Lady feeds the eaglets at the nest.

Traffic at the raptor paddock

JWE moviepark things.

Fence inspection. Still seems broken. :)

Meanwhile, the Velo paddock gets a new resident. (Nice hat!)

New sister! Or, old sister - turns out she's alive and has just been at another facility for a while because of reasons. This is another mod, which adds a skin based on Subject V-2's design to the game as new cosmetic variation. As this is already an AU where the I. rex sibling is alive and the Indoraptor prototype was created on Isla Nublar, I named her Victoria.

Ironically, while V-2's design has more of a JP headshape, this cosmetic variation uses the JW model, while the raptors actually appearing in JW have just gotten a model replacement more based on the JP headshape. But I'm sure she'll fit right in.

Reunion borks.

I did it!

\o/ *:･ﾟ✧*

Loafings and hints of flight plans

Screenshots from the past week and a half at Sydney White-bellied Sea Eagle nestcam. Includes a few views of prey.

Eaglets SE30 (front) and SE29. SE29 is 7 weeks old, SE30 a day short of that.

Now makeovering the raptors themselves

I'm still continuing my second attempt at Isla Sorna jurassic difficulty challenge mode. Progress is being made, but these tourists sure have high demands for their dino entertainment. I'm going to start needing to make whole packs of Indominus rexes soon.

Incoming non-dinosaur-related accident!

Also against my initial better judgement, I have made Velociraptors! I already have four rexes (two T. ones and two I. ones), and with the stress inhibitor gene they are much more manageable than I'd feared, even during storms - so, raptors? Sure, why not. No doubt they will eventually find a way to cause problems on purpose, but hopefully not before I've gotten to five stars.

Notice anything different? A new mod! This one, too, is for raptors, because no such thing as too many nice things for my favorite children.

The mod is this model and texture replacement, and this girl here sports the arid skin.

Unsprung

Back at it again at Isla Sorna

My rangers dutifully returning to the ranger station parking lot from a repair assignment even though the twister is passing over the building at exactly that moment.

Lesser spotted eaglet grows up

Part 2 of screenshots from this year's nesting season at Lesser spotted eagle nest at Zemgale, Latvia. Part 1 is here.

[cw: picture-heavy post, and a few views of prey. mostly it's just the chick being cute, though]

Almost-four-week-old Rota standing steadily. Pennaceous feathers are emerging here and there, but mostly still downy and fluffy.

Three days later - getting less downy and fluffy!

Watching a Lesser spotted eaglet grow

Screenshots from another raptor nestcam I've been watching, Lesser spotted eagle nest at Zemgale, Latvia. The screenshots are from this year's almost entire nesting season so far, and the chick, Rota, is already a fledgling now, so there are enough pictures to at least split into two posts. But though the nesting season is already starting to wrap up, latest sighting of Rota is today, so you may still catch the little one on the livestream, too.

[cw: picture-heavy post, some screenshots show prey]

The mother eagle, Anna, incubating back in May. Lesser spotted eagle (Clanga pomarina) clutch often consists of two eggs, but this year's only had one, laid on April 26th.

Almost a month has passed, and the egg is a baby! Rota hatched on June 5th, and is a day old here.

Wounding tooth, now with tooths

I finally got around to that partial repaint of the Walking With Dinosaurs Troodon minifigure. I touched up the figure's original paint job to give it more detail, and to have it a bit more closely resemble the design on the card that came with it.

Before:

After:

I blended the yellow crest more into the rest of the plumage and added the orange tint the crest feathers have at the tips. I painted the teeth off-white so the figure visibly has any, added pupils and little shines to the eyes, and dark grey to the nostrils to bring them out, too. I also made the blue around the eyes shift a little more gradually to the grey snout and the brown plumage.

I painted the toe claws, including dewclaws. Before doing so I noticed the sickle claws were pretty nonexistent, so I grew them a bit with blobs of acrylic paint before giving them the dark brown colour. Troodontids didn't have as prominent sickle claws as their dromaeosaurid cousins did, but the figure's right foot didn't seem to even have a claw on that toe, and now it does.

I didn't touch the rest of the figure, it's already great. A very pretty, tiny birb.

Ilotulia

Sorna challenge highlights

Trying out Isla Sorna on Jurassic difficulty challenge mode. I failed, but I got pretty far, so not discouraged yet.

The most popular spot in the park for some reason.

Any ideas for what dinosaur I should make next?

A twister did again rip through the Spinosaurus enclosure, breaking a bunch of fences, but I guess in this case it's fortunate it took me so long to get my park to one star (before which the storms don't include twisters) that the Spino died of old age literally just before the twister formed.

Luminaatio

Bring on the seaglet gender speculations

More screenshots from Sydney White-bellied Sea Eagle nestcam. The two eaglets are quickly growing their feathers, and starting to be more challenging to tell apart again, but some differences are also emerging.

Younger chick SE30 on the left, older chick SE29 right. Five weeks old, five days ago. Tracking a parent flying to the nest with prey (but post doesn't include pictures of any).