Dinnertime

Growing fast

One week later, and they have grown a lot.

The decision

It appears KathyQ has decided the 4th egg will no longer be incubated. This morning, it is off to the side.

What do you make of this?

So hard to tell. To me, it looks like the shell is breached and it even seems to expose a tiny beak (notice the 'v'). While I want to remain optimistic, this doesn't look encouraging. I had speculated on a cracked shell in my comments on my previous blog entry. This seems to only reinforce my worst suspicions.



Now, having said that - I just grabbed another frame. There are several minutes between the first (right half) and second (left half). As you can see, the shell is in the identical position. But (big BUT) the opening and the 'beak' shape are much different. Could it be hatching? Let's hope so.



[edit] I keep looking at these two views and now I think the 'hole' I was trying to see as part of the egg is gravel or something behind the egg. It's really hard to tell. But, I think I do see the curvature of the egg IN FRONT of the 'hole'. I just don't know for sure WHAT I'm seeing.

Still no idea about #4

Is egg #4 even there with the siblings? They have been huddled around the remaining egg, but during feedings it was usually possible to get a glimpse of the egg. I have not seen any hint of it since yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Kinney is displaying 'expensive' taste in food. This time, it looks like a female Cardinal, going by the color of the feathers (although the tail feathers seem rather long for a Cardinal). Come on Kinney, pigeons and starlings are plentiful and a nuisance!

Still nothing to report

As of 8:24am, the egg is still there and no signs of hatching.

Waiting for Number 4

Mixed feelings abound, as everyone waits for #4 to hatch. Some are tense. Others are, well, relaxed.

Who's Who?

We all know that Kinney is smaller, KathyQ is larger. Here's a good size comparison as a meal is transferred from one to the other:

Feeding all those mouths

A series of frames from one of yesterday's feedings:

And Now it's THREE

Still Two

As of 9:45am today. But feeding these two is keeping Kinney and KathyQ very busy.

Pip, pip

It looks like another one is about to hatch.



The 1st to hatch is sitting to the right of the two eggs. It just ducked under before I captured this picture.

[edit] As I finished the preceding, #2 made its appearance:

Hello World!

No words necessary:



Here's the nest without mama at 8:54am:

Looks like we have one hatched!

There are NO eggs visible, but certainly 1/2 an empty shell can be seen. Just caught this one minutes ago:

Boy, it is tough to see, but is that a tiny head and beak at the left side? Or just the other piece of the shell? (Edit: The more I look at it, the more it looks like the hatchling has a bit of the shell stuck on it's head) (Further edit: Yep, it just moved, so I guess it IS the first hatchling).



Here's the fullsized image from my earlier capture, at about 7:10pm



Fellow FalconHead Nathan has posted pictures of the 'pip', or initial opening in the shell as the egg begins to hatch. I enlarged the corner so I could see the eggs a little better. Here's that view:

How to capture pix from the FalconCam

If you only save a 'shortcut' to the web page, you won't save the picture itself. In fact, each shortcut will continue show the current picture from the camera when you go back and open them. So that's not going to be of any use to you.

The way to capture a picture is to right-click on it and use the 'save' option. This varies with every type of browser out there, so I can't be 100% complete in my instructions. Just look for something like "Save picture As..." and that will let you say where, and with what name, to save the file (on your computer).

If you want to share the photo with us, you also need some place to host the photos. As it happens, I'm using Blogspot.com. It's free and easy to use.

Nothing Yet

A quick check reveals nothing happened overnight.

More Eagle Cams

I've added a few more links that readers have sent to me. See the lower right part of this page, where you will find the "Eagle Cam" section.

News about the "EagleCam"

It appears to have become so popular (5,000 simultaneous connections and 2 million hits per day) that it's now nearly impossible to access it.

The new URL is: http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/wildlife/

EagleCam

But it's not working for me (or quite a few other people, it seems). There is now a video commercial tacked onto the start of this feed. The commercial plays, but then the camera feed does not.

Sunrise from the 'penthouse'

Did anyone else check out the falcon cam Tuesday morning? We had an impressive bright orange sky which really provided a great 'ledge' view as the sun came up.

Banding the juveniles

Here's a look at the table, where banding and blood draws are performed. We probably all had similar expressions the first time WE got stuck with a needle.

Eagles, too!

We're all watching and waiting for the Peregrine eggs to hatch, but it seems we have a pair of Bald Eagles with egg, too. I observed for about 2 hours today (somewhere in Marion County). The female never budged from the nest and the male stayed close by for the most part. After I'd settled into my spot, he did fly off for a bit and came back all wet. No food was brought back to the nest.

A change of pace

I'd like to point out a different webcam. This one is aimed at a Bald Eagle nest.
Although I've added it to list on the righthand side of this page, you can go to it by clicking here. It is streaming video and might not work on all browsers.

Sunday Rock and Roll

Falconhead Anita sent me these pictures from Sunday when all the concert and later, storm, activity took place. She sent me the following note:

I was watching during the Sunday night festivities, and Mama didn't look too
happy and was scrunched over the eggs and seemed really out of sorts

Then I went to the Ledge Cam and found out why! It was the fireworks
display! She had a great view from her penthouse suite, but I'm thinking
she really wasn't appreciating the moment!

Maybe it would have been more agreeable to KathyQ if we'd had the Black Crows playing?

What's all that racket?

Final Four activities kept Monument Circle busy, as one of the adults watched from the nest.

Sometimes you get lucky

I flipped on the 'cam just a minute ago and caught this view of our favorite family.