White-tailed Eagles Discussion ~ 2010 ~ Linda & Sulev

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10.04
Sulev brought some hay in the nest and stay with eaglets ...

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10.13
Linda bought a big fish. Sulev left but returned after few minutes....he wanted again feed itself eaglets...The same was yesterday evening....Linda pushed poor Sulev out from the nest...
Seems that Sulev got offended...he was not today early in the nest with a fish and now Linda brought a fish...

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Sulev left...

[ame]

I wonder if it is common for the male to argue to get a chance to feed the chicks.

i read an article (M. Collins in the Auk, Vol. 101, No. 4, 1984, pp. 753-760) about golden eagles two days ago about their nesting habits. it said that first of all different species of raptors have different patterns in feeding the chicks (not feeding at all, occasional feeding, and almost equal shares) and secondly that there are differences in the behaviour among individuals in one species, too, i.e. 'good' and 'bad' fathers. in fact, in one nesting the father was such a hoodlum that he didn't even feed the incubating female nor relieve her for to go foraging for herself. the result was that she had to leave the nest unattended and finally she gave up incubating. in the other nestings the male both brought food for the incubating female and relieved the female from the nest duty.

in these golden eagle families the males brought food the brood and the females fed the chicks without observed exceptions, and also no arguments on who's going to feed the babies were observed. -i still haven't found any studies about WTE behaviour... i'm still waiting for two books which i asked to loan from the University library in Helsinki, but i'm not expecting to find more information about this. i guess there simply haven't been studies made on WTEs...

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10.46
Sulev bought itself a fish but happened the same what was earlier...Linda pushed Sulev out from the nest and began to feed eaglets...

[ame]

OH MY GOD THIS IS NOT FAIR!!!!!

Just ONE DAY arter i quitted visiting the forum regularry the eagles are ringed? There is sometihng wrong.... how can i come so unlcuky?!

It's glad to see that eagles are all well and the cam is back up. Now i can FINALLY do something when i am bored

don't worry Jürka, besides the ringing (which i also missed! and i was away only that afternoon and evening)
you haven't missed much. it seems that the only 'events' are the fights Linda and Sulev are having over the right to feed the chicks!
otherwise the chicks are stuffed up to their beaks with fish and lie down in the bottom of the nest, being hardly able to lift their heads... and still they beep for more food! then about half of the time there's Linda sitting on the rim of the nest, mostly sleeping with her head up or even tucked under her wing.
- btw: when Linda and Sulev were incubating they never tucked their heads under the wing, they just pulled their necks between the shoulders and then their beaks just gradually lowered down...

[ame]

Linda is in the nest with the sleeping chicks. it's been quiet for a long time and Linda is also falling asleep, sitting up. then the other chick stretched its wing in sleep and slapped with it against Linda's cheek, waking her up for a while. the chick went on sleeping and Linda fell asleep again....
starting at 12.20 ->

the chicks are growing up fast. in this video you can see how the long feathers in the wing are beginning to develop: there were the shiny black sheaths of the wing-feathers visible.

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13.06
Feeding...

[ame]

one of chicks woke up and started demanding food, waking Linda up. she began to feed the chick at about 12.50.

after some minutes also the other chick woke up to stretch its wings... then my camera began jamming again... i think the feeding has been going on up till now. now Linda stretched her wings, stood up and she looks like she's planning to leave... now she began to preen the chicks who are lying down in the nest bottom almost unconscious.

[fireblade1]

I recorded the eagle ringing. So this was my "first time" and I had lot of troubles with it. And it is more than 13min. So I had to split it. Troubles again. Now I try to integrate them.
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14.48
Feeding...

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Linda stretched wings after feeding and took off...




She was away only few minutes and returned with some hay...

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16.03
Sulev arrived with strange food...was those fish remains or something else...Seems that before ate Sulev and then he brought for his family what lasted from him...Linda looked over what Sulev brought and took some mouthfools, then she took a fish what was under hay and she began to eat. Sulev found from their "freezer" something too and ate together with Linda...Eaglets watched and came closer and began to demand food too...they got only some mouthfools... Sulev did attempts to get from Linda a little fish and feed one of eaglets who demanded from him food but Linda didn't give...After Sulev's leaving Linda feed eaglets. She flew away for few minutes and then returned...

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[Liis]

Thank you, Fireblade, for the video of the ringing!
There isn't much chit-chat, Renno and Urmas were very taciturn, - various birds were much noisier - but about 6 mins. into the second video one of them says that the bigger one (rings no. 791 & C525) is almost certainly female, and the second, smaller guy (rings no. 792 & C526) is a boy.

[fireblade1]

into the second video one of them says that the bigger one (rings no. 791 & C525) is almost certainly female, and the second, smaller guy (rings no. 792 & C526) is a boy.[/quote]




Thank you Liis!!!
You anserwered my questions.

[ame]

thank you fireblade1 for being in the right place in the right time and thank you for your efforts in editing your video!!
i already had lost hope for seeing a video of the ringing but you've saved our day!! thank you so much!
i was expecting them to weigh the birds and take blood samples, too, though. i've thought that it is a normal procedure...
did you Liis, make any sense of what Renno was saying to the chicks just before he was leaving? it looked like he was saying an invocation or incantation or maybe a blessing to the chicks...