Shadow Shot Sunday #52

Shadow Shot Sunday (Saturday in the U.S.) is hosted by Tracey from Hey Harriet.

I have been watching a few bird nests, through live cams. A hummingbird, a robin, a redtailed hawk, all on UStream, and no less than three eagles, from the Hancock Wildlife Foundation's cameras. I've watched them sitting on their eggs, the eggs hatching, and the feeding and raising of the chicks. I have enjoyed it tremendously. That's a lot of nests, but being retired, I have more time than good sense.

For today's shadow I actually took a picture off the screen of a live cam on an eagle's nest up in Hornby Island, in Canada. I think I got a pretty good shadow of the mother eagle. Her one remaining chick - if you can still call it a chick once it has reached this size - is lying half-asleep in front of her.


Then there are the three hawk chicks. One is peering over the edge of the nest at the traffic below. The nest is on a ledge of the building at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.


And the others are in the robins' nest.



I realize the photos are not sharp and clear, but they were taken off the video screens with a point and shoot camera. The robins can be seen at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Robin-s-Nest. the eagles and hawks can be found by clicking on the pictures at the top of my sidebar.

It's For the Birds

So far, the hummers' nest I'm watching shows me the two eggs, and mama and papa hummer flitting back and forth busily, but no other action





The same was true of the robins' nest, until I went to look at it yesterday, and was informed that all three eggs hatched on Wednesday. I had seen the mama sit on the edge of the nest and bend down to them as if she was listening, but had seen nothing beyond that.

I can't get a clear picture of the babies yet. I only managed this. Totally unsatisfactory so far as I'm concerned. I'm hoping for much better soon, but the camera on them isn't really in clear focus much of the time.






The Hornby Island eagles seem to be doing fine. It took so long for the second egg to hatch, that chick is much smaller than the first. But it seems to be doing very well. The bigger one does try to push it out of the way at feeding time, but mama sees to it that it gets its share. They are still in the cute, fluffy stage.


I took one picture that I think is funny. It was an extremely windy day, and mama was hunched up with the wind ruffling her feathers. The chicks were safely tucked under her, but one of them decided to poke out its little head.



Then there is the nest in Sidney. Those three chicks are much older, and are now gray in color. They are more like awkward teenagers. The adults allow them to fend for themselves most of the time, but still sometimes feed them. Yesterday mama was screeching loudly - I believe for her mate to come to the nest. She repeated this for quite a while.

Eventually I guess she got tired of waiting, and just took off. I knew papa wasn't far off. I could hear him. So could the babies. They all just stood, looking up, waiting for him.

And he did arrive. But he didn't seem to be the least bit interested in his offspring. I got the impression that the three little ones were still hoping mama would return.



That leaves the red tailed hawks. They are also doing well. The three chicks seem to be thriving. Every time I go to their site, the chicks are alone. They make me a little nervous because there is often one wandering so very close to the edge of the nest. Since it is constructed on a building ledge, high above city traffic, I wouldn't want to see one try to take off too soon, especially without an adult bird around, but so far, so good. I finally did get a picture today as mama brought a pigeon back to them for dinner and they all crowded around.


You can see the live cams of the hawks and eagles by clicking on the pictures at the top of my sidebar. I found the live cams of the hummers and robins by looking along the right side of the hawks' cam. Here's where to look for the hummer.