Golden Eagle Webcam Nest 2022

[Ravens]

Helju sets off.



Margit trills and chitters. Mostly she is using the alone time to preen her down and new contours.



She hears Mom and calls to her.

[Ravens]

Helju is home.



Margit casts a rather large pellet!



Helju carries it off into the sky.

[Ravens]

After casting such a large pellet, Margit takes a nap. Who can blame her?

[Liz01]

8:42 Kalju brings a bird and gave it to Margit



Margit tries self feeding! the bird seems headless (I see a bloody spot) and it has pretty long wings
Helju came in for feeding Margit.

[Ravens]

Kalju delivers a bird. It has neither webbed nor lobed feet, and its hallux is better developed than the cranes and phasianid of recent days past.



Helju returns.



Breakfast is served.

[Liz01]

Kalju brings a huge bird with greenish legs


mine, mine! all food is mine!

[Liz01]

Helju is feeding Margit She took the smaller bird that Kalju brought to Margit


after feeding, small crop on her she can hardly walk

[Illi]

16.57 asks food and gets it. Very good to see what she gets, nice clear sunny place.
17.59 Margit is alone in the nest.
18.13.57 back with huge branch
19.19 alone again
19.50 new pray in the nest smaller bird i think by Kalju, Helju arrives the same time with the twig.




19.52 Margit starts investigate new pray, tells mother i catched a bird
Helju starts feeding
No more food for me

[Ravens]

2022-05-26

Another day with plenty of food for Margit. We had some rain this morning, but feathers soon dried. Three prey items were brought to the nest by Kalju. The first we already recorded at 08:41:40, and that was eaten up early on in a way that offered no further clues of the avian's identity. Them's the breaks, as they idiomatically say here in America.

Next up, Kalju delivered another phasianid to the nest at 12:26:47. And I'm going to take a page out of Liz01's book (yet another idiomatic phrase!) and paste within a screenshot a rectangle of the full-sized crop of a specific detail, so it is easier to see. The feet, of course. Paired with approximate size, our first clue. This is not the webbed foot of an anatid, larid, gaviid, phalacrocoracid, nor sulid (who did I miss?), nor the lobed foot of a podicipedid, nor rallid! Neither does it have the well-devolped hallux of those fine perching birds, the passerines.



Thankfully, feet were not our only clue! This next one is a good one too. A fan of tail feathers draped over Helju's right foot. In greater detail, bottom right corner.



Compare with the tail feathers of female western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus).
And the tail feathers of female black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix).

Try other image searches too, as individuals have slight variation. What do you think?

We also finally get a good look at the bird Kalju delivered last evening (2022-05-25). A duck. Now this took me a pretty minute to narrow down, as there are a fair number of anatids in Estonia. Cast your eye to Margit. She has the duck's bill in her beak. Female duck. I also pasted a closer peek at a slightly different frame in the lower right corner. We can see that this female duck has a white eye ring and a white throat patch.



Possibilities:
The introduced, as in non-native, wood duck (Aix sponsa).
Introduced mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)

The eye ring doesn't look as large as what is typical for wood ducks, I'll say that. I have a screenshot of the feet, but the scale color between these species is about the same anyway. Not worth making an addendum post for one image. Will have to make another post for the third prey item, however.

[Ravens]

Kalju delivers the final prey item of the day at 19:50:18.

Mmm, what can we note? It was caught amongst the grasses. It is downy soft, but with a larger hallux than a crane chick.





Helju calls to her mate, Kalju, seen soaring in the distance.
(Thank you, Johan, for the timestamp)

[Ravens]

Now that the business of prey is out of the way, let's go back. *Time Warp*

To a gentle moment. We had some sweet allopreening sessions again today, didn't we?

[Ravens]

Piercing cries fill the skies. Helju, of course. Kalju approaches.



I am bringing us back to the moments after Kalju brought the western capercaillie or black grouse. Why?



Because Margit took a bite all by her lonesome. Oh, it was mostly feathers, sure! But I think she deserves an A for effort.

[Ravens]

Mom made a circle. It was beautiful.

[Ravens]

Growing into her feet, which reach full size on day 31-35. Margit is 31 days old.

At approximately 40-50 days old, her increasing weight will level off. Around 3.5kg for males, and over 4kg for females.



Sundown.

[Ravens]

Helju stirred early, early this morning. Awoke from - 3:30:20-03:44:28. Then was Up at 04:09:53.



Here she is stretching before leaving the nest.



Mom returns.

[Ravens]

Allopreening session.

[Ravens]

;>>

[Ravens]

Helju calls softly as she peers down beyond the edge of the nest.



She leaves, calling.



And finally returns after 49 minutes away.

[Ravens]

Curious, is the eyrie tree's species Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)? Pardon if this was stated elsewhere. I failed to track it down.

[Ravens]

Breakfast. Yesterday's western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) or black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix), is served.



Something briefly grabs Helju's attention. She gives it a hard stare, then returns to feeding Margit.



Nom nom-oop ... nom nom nom