Nest space management

Screenshots from the Cornell Redtail nestcam. The chicks are around three weeks old, the youngest still a couple of days short of that. No visible prey this time.

Dad literally drops by with food.

Fliers and fluffballs

Screenshots from CalFalcons and Cornell Redtail nestcams. The CalFalcons Peregrine chicks are currently fledging! The older two chicks, Rosa and Zephyr, already have, Luna is still considering. These screenshots are mostly from a couple of days ago, with all three still home, and two shots from today's fledgewatch stream. Some screenshots include visible prey.

Zephyr (front), Luna (yawning in the middle) and Rosa perching on the lights in the morning.

Bring on the brushes!

Hey, remember when I said I might finish sculpting my newest Skyefigure by my birthday? That was funny.

I have finished sculpting her now, though! Here she is with Tumult, both still a work in progress and transitioning from sculpting projects to painting projects together.

Both already have some paint on them here. Tumult has a partial first coat of white mixed with a bit of raw sienna, just to cover up the epoxy putty on her sides and the darker markings where I want her base colour instead. Skye has much of the back of her neck already painted, as it was easier to alternate painting feathers and adding new ones there than it would have been to try to fit a brush between the feathers afterwards. Some of her cheek fluff is also painted, the rest of her that's colourful is just made with polymer clay that's already mixed to be that colour.

I'll eventually compile into a couple of posts my ramblings and WIP photos about sculpting Skye that I've posted to my Patreon over the past almost 6 months, and about making figures of Tempest and Cloudburst, too. Hopefully I'll get to show off finished versions of these ladies and their little terrors soon.

The tag for all the posts relevant to this figure set is
"stormraptorfamily figure WIPs".

The tag "Skyefigure WIPs" that I already had is about sculpting the figure of juvenile Skye three years ago. She's all grown up now, so this new figure is an adult version of her, accompanied by her wife and kids.

Sunset blue

Near-hatchlings and near-fledglings

Screenshots from two nestcams, first the Cornell Red-tailed hawks, later in the post CalFalcons Peregrines. Some prey visible at both.

Breakfast three days ago at Cornell.

And some loafings with mom. Not sure which older chick is which, but I'm pretty sure the most visible one is the youngest, M3. They're all still a week old - M3 a week and one day, while M1 is getting close to two weeks.

Roof-dwelling

Screenshots of the Peregrine chicks at CalFalcons. The three siblings are now four weeks old, and have been given names. Warning for bloody prey in later screenshots.

Rosa (oldest chick, female, red band) preening her legfeathers while Luna (youngest chick, female, blue band) inspects her sister's toes. Zephyr (middle-hatched chick, male, yellow band) looks around in the foreground.

There's everyone's faces. They're currently pretty easy to tell apart even without seeing the bands because of different stages at feather development.

Now three buzzard eyases

Screenshots of the Cornell Redtail chicks. All three have now hatched, although not yet in this screenshot (M1 left, M2 right). Warning for closeups of bloody prey.

Two little buzzards

Screenshots of the Cornell Redtail chicks. There are now two! But first a bunch of screenshots of the first one by itself. Warning that several screenshots show bloody prey, food is stored near the beaks to feed at this nest.

Leafs and lines

A little buzzard

Screenshots from the Cornell Red-tailed Hawk nest, where the first chick of this year's clutch has just hatched! Second to last picture shows blood on prey in the background, otherwise it's all baby.

There's M1, looking very just woken up with nest material sticking to down feathers.

Hi, mom.

Bands and pips

The three Peregrine chicks at CalFalcons were banded yesterday. As I've understood, the oldest chick (red band, on the left in the screenshot) is female, while middle child (yellow band, and in the middle) is male, and the youngest (blue band, right) another female. Naming contest for the little ones is currently underway.

They're still very fluffy, but all are visibly growing pin feathers under the clouds of down.

At the Cornell Red-tailed Hawk nest the first egg is hatching right now! The egg pipped yesterday, and the latest peek as of now was early this morning, showing a tiny beak working hard to peck a hole in the shell.

Dad incubating, mom arranging nest material and about to start her shift on the eggs.

Blocks and sunset

Drops and sunset

Raptorlet checks

A few more recent screenshots of the three Peregrine chicks at CalFalcons. The chicks are about three weeks old, the youngest turns three weeks tomorrow.

Huddled together while mom is off the nest. She can leave them without brooding for long periods now, though still keeps an eye on them. They're too big to fit under her already (check out the unhatched egg for comparison on how much they've grown!), so during nights she sits next to them in the nest. Looks like youngest chick on the left and oldest on the right, with middle child behind them, here.

Napping in a pile in the afternoon.

A feeding, with a wing stretch showing off new pin feathers.

Little fluffballs.

In other nesting news, the Red-tailed Hawk pair at CornellHawks are incubating three eggs right now. I've watched them for a couple of years, too, and baby buzzards are some of the cutest raptor chicks I know. The eggs were laid March 30th - April 5th, and Redtails usually incubate 28-35 days, though at this nest usually closer to 40 days, so hatches should start happening in the next week.


At SWFL Bald Eagle nest, the older one of the two fledglings, E21, was last seen on camera April 29th. The eaglets are old enough now that they could leave their natal territory whenever they feel ready to start their independent life as juvenile eagles, and E21 has likely done so. Good luck to both siblings, and to their hardworking dad who did a great job raising them even when he had to do so alone. Stay safe out there.

Two more Osprey eggs

All the occupied Osprey nests at Sääksilive now have eggs in them. Looking forward to osplets in about a month!

Eine at nest#1 soon after laying her first egg. Didn't get a lot of peeks at the egg itself on account of weather. Shielding it from sleet rain takes priority.

Tiuku at nest#3 with her egg.