Watching this afternoon 4-6:10

Posted by Jill W on
URL: http://bald-eagles-of-broward-county-florida.17.s1.nabble.com/Watching-this-afternoon-4-6-10-tp2536578.html

I swear, the eaglets must see my car coming and say to themselves, "Here she comes, it must be time for a long nap now."
Two things I have not seen before happened this afternoon.  An adult arrived at the nest with food and neither chick got up from their nap to eat.  The adult proceeded to eat for about 20 minutes and I could not see even the top of a chick's head on the nest.
The other thing was the adult who ate alone flew to the pine tree to the east and lifted one wing and fluffed out its chest feathers for a very long time.  I was wondering if it was injured or something.  Then, it raised both wings and began to pant.  Then, I was pretty sure what was going on.  It was not injured, just feeling hot.  I've read that birds lift their wings when they are hot to regulate their body temperature.

I'll try to get a couple of pictures posted.  A problem I had with the new camera was that at the nest area in the late afternoon, the sun shines brightly on areas of the pine tree and the nest and when the camera was set on automatic, the photos were quite overexposed