Sunday FEB 14 - 2:00 PM-- Can see two eaglets

[NewMexiKen]

We watched from 1:50 to 2:20 PM today. The female sat on the edge of the nest the entire time. We saw no feeding. The oldest chick sat up high and, once, flapped her wings. The second chick popped his head up briefly a couple of times. Not sure whether we saw the third-- once there was some movement far to the left side, but it did not show upon the photo. Brown-tip suddenly appeared from the east and flew low in front of the nest, then circled, flew over the cow pasture, and lofted higher. circling very high up and disappeared to the south. There were no vocalizations between the pair.

The fuzzy top of the second chick's head is just visible to the left of his big sister (I base the sex supposition solely on the fact that the first hatched is said to be somewhat more likely a female. If it is, in fact a male, any female eaglet will almost certainly be larger than the male before fledging. The size differential starts very early).





Look closely at Brown-tip's tail. The feather with the dark tip is almost entirely worn down to its shaft. Dark feathers are more resistant to wear than white, so this is probably why the dark is persisting. My guess is that pretty soon the male may lose its identifying feature:





Detail of feather wear:



Three Wood Storks flew over the nest:

[Jill W]

Great pics, as usual, Ken!  Seems we'll have to guess at which adult we're seeing soon.

[vdelauz]

Awesome pics, Ken! Can you please squeeze more detail from that feather shot?  WOW!!!