Carnivorous little powder puffs

A few screenshots from raptor nestcams other than the SWFL eagles for a change.

The Berkeley Peregrine falcon pair Annie and Grinnell's three three-week-old chicks, who are getting banded next week, presumably on camera if you want to catch that.

A messy but fluffy bunch.

One of the chicks exercising their wings, with a good look at the less fluffy underside of the wing. And pin feathers are well underway.

And some feeding shots from the Cornell Red-tailed hawk nest. The third chick only just hatched, so they are still brooded by their mom Big Red at pretty much all times other than when she gets up to feed them. The nest has a full pantry of various prey dad Arthur has brought, in this screenshot mostly blocked from view by mom. Warning that the rest of the screenshots will show gory prey, but if you don't mind that the chicks are very adorable.

Paparazzi shots of a hare

JP/W raptor nesting thoughts

Some speculations on Jurassic Park Velociraptor nesting and pack composition, mostly based on the two JP sequels, in which we see raptor packs that are living in the wild and confirmed to consist of animals of more than one sex.

(spoilers for twose movies, and for the other JP/W ones a bit as well)

I've concluded earlier that each sequel possibly features two female raptors, and that with JP3 it actually looks certain that it does. Most of the raptors seen (clearly) on screen are males, though. How representative is that of the packs in general?

Doing a preen

A Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) grooming its feathers in the tree next to my balcony.

A quick scritch with a foot.

Now E18 fledges!

...And I missed it, lol. The streams at SWFL eagle cam have a 12 hour backlog, but I didn't check in time to get screenshots of the occasion. But here's video: Lady Hawk's compilation from the streams, as well as from a different angle by wskrsnwings, who films the nest on location: E18 fledging, and return to the nest. In this post are screenshots from later the same day, of the now two fledglings.

(warning for some screenshots showing prey, but not very clearly)

E17 (front) and E18 (back) perching together at the attic. Looking around surveying their domain, and waiting for snack deliveries.

E17 has fledged!

Time flies, and so do eaglets. E17 from the SWFL Bald Eagle Cam nest fledged yesterday. Feels like they just hatched, but that was almost three months ago!

Minutes before the big moment. Both eaglets loafing in the nest, E17 preening their little sibling E18.

How babies are made, apparently

I made a little (3cm tall!) baby JP raptor toy figure. This post is about the sculpting process, and more photos of the finished figure can be found
here at my site and here at deviantart (ETA: and here at cara).

Materials:

• polymer clay + liquid polymer clay
• aluminum wire and foil
• acrylic paint
• glue and one of the epoxy putty pebbles left over from making Swiftdive and Treeclimber's bases

Starting point: three bits of wire, bent into spine and legs for the figure.