JUN 8: Both eaglets at nest; Adult seen JUN 5; nest condition poor

[NewMexiKen]

We just got back in town. On June 5 at 7:45 AM I saw an adult flying NW over Miramar Parkway extension towards the nest, about 1 1/2 miles SE of nest site. Although it was directly overhead the sky was very dark with light rain, so the shot is poor. It may have been carrying a small prey item:



This morning there was one juvenile roosting just above the nest:



Soon a  second immature eaglet began calling from the right of nest and then flew to top of nest tree:



The perch was precarious in the wind and it then circled behind the nest:



I assumed the other bird to have been the other juvenile, but it had rather extensive white on its wings and tail. Its head was unstreaked but its bill was dark and it had a yellow gape. It did not show molting of the flight feathers and the secondaries were very long and bulging, almost as long as the primaries (compared with wings of adult in top photo), so I do not believe it was a second year immature. Juveniles can show quite a bit of white on tails and under-wings. Belly was also quite uniformly dark with some white speckles, more like a juvenile.



This photo may be the best to show that the bill is dark and only the gape is yellow, again consistent with juvenile rather than an older immature.



In the meantime the first eaglet flew down on to the nest. Note its typical dark bill with some yellow in gape area:



Perhaps due to the severe wind and rain storms during the past two days, the right side of the nest appears to have lost quite a bit of bulk. The eaglets sometimes tear up the nest, but this looks like a chunk may have fallen off:

 


 

[Marc]

Such beautiful pictures 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 8, 2017, at 9:51 PM, NewMexiKen [via Bald Eagles of Broward County, Florida] <[hidden email]> wrote:

We just got back in town. On June 5 at 7:45 AM I saw an adult flying NW over Miramar Parkway extension towards the nest, about 1 1/2 miles SE of nest site. Although it was directly overhead the sky was very dark with light rain, so the shot is poor



This morning there was one juvenile roosting just above the nest:



Soon a  second immature eaglet began calling from the right of nest and then flew to top of nest tree:



The perch was precarious in the wind and it then circled behind the nest:



I assumed the other bird to have been the other juvenile, but it had rather extensive white on its wings and tail. Its head was unstreaked but its bill was dark and it had a yellow gape. It did not show molting of the flight feathers so I do not believe it was an early second year immature-- I could be wrong but juveniles can show quite a bit of white on tails and under-wings. Belly was also quite uniformly dark with some white speckles, more like a juvenile.



This photo may be the best to show that the bill is dark and only the gape is yellow, again consistent with juvenile rather than an older immature.



In the meantime the first eaglet flew down on to the nest. Note its typical dark bill with some yellow in gape area:



Perhaps due to the severe wind and rain storms during the past two days, the right side of the nest appears to have lost quite a bit of bulk. The eaglets sometimes tear up the nest, but this looks like a chunk may have fallen off:

 


 

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