Live Barn Owl Web Cam

[Sangye]

Is anyone on the eagle cam right now? I just tuned in to see the mom burying one of the babies in nest material. Looks like she's sitting on the others. Maybe the one wiggled away and it's her way of keeping him warm? I hope she's not leaving it to die. I wish I had seen what led up to it

[annekat]

Is anyone on the eagle cam right now? I just tuned in to see the mom burying one of the babies in nest material. Looks like she's sitting on the others. Maybe the one wiggled away and it's her way of keeping him warm? I hope she's not leaving it to die. I wish I had seen what led up to it

I just saw the baby's head sticking out from the nest material. She does seem to be trying to care for it. The other two are apparently under her. If it's the little guy, I wish she would just reach over and grab some of that carrion and feed it to him.

[Sangye]

There sure is enough carrion in the nest! It's getting messy.

[annekat]

At 2:00, my time, I got a good look at the owls and there are 4 chicks! And mother eagle is feeding her 3, looks like one is getting left out again, but may have gotten some, can't be sure... There was a cute little bird, like maybe a chickadee or sparrow, hanging around the edge of the nest.

[Sangye]

I can't see all of them but it looks like the one off to the side found its way back. Right now one is laying inside the carcass of something. "That's not a bed dear, it's dinner."

[pberggren1]

This is better than NGEO.

[Sangye]

Aaaaaah! One is getting very close to the edge of the nest.

[annekat]

I can't see all of them but it looks like the one off to the side found its way back. Right now one is laying inside the carcass of something. "That's not a bed dear, it's dinner."

Lol. I was thinking, if the chicks can get that close to the carcass, or into it, they should be able to pick at it and feed themselves.

[Al]

Regarding the issue with the runt of the clutch, I have to refer to the other thread which was hard for me to engage in fully; my stance, and my sensitivities, are very human (more specifically, they reflect my personal sense of being human) Yet it is not fair for me to impose those sensitivities on the rest of nature. Frankly, nature doesn't care a fig (to sort of paraphrase Rhett Butler) what I think. I would, if I could, whisk away the little thing. But, from a birdish point of view, it is right that only the strongest survive. It is a tough world, you know. Darwin took note that the fiercest competition is among siblings. This is true, by the way, even among humans, except that we typically have more than enough to go around, so we get to indulge sensitivities that many animals cannot. Indeed--and here I must be horribly graphic, so it is okay to skip this part--in times of low resources, bird parents often eat their young. As awful as this sounds to us humans, the brutal fact is that this makes perfectly good sense in the bird world: The young ones would, under the circumstances, surely die anyway; much better for the adult to survive into the next mating season by recycling the calories. Again, nature's program is not obligate to attend to our sensitivities, to be as gentle as we might wish for (neither, by the way, is nature obliged to confrom to political platforms). I call this the "for all the yowling, there is no shortage of kittens" principle. We people might translate this into something utterly human: The heartbreak of love betrayed. "So what?", says nature: I have a job to do too, you know, so I have no truck with your morals and ethics." Yet, we have them, and we are creatures of nature. A paradox? Only from a fixed perspective.

Nearly alone among all creatures (or so they say) save for elephants and, perhaps, some marine mammals (I would include the corvids--crows and ravens, at least), we humans have elaborate rituals to grieve form and honor our dead. I have my own ideas why this should be so. But, for whatever reason, it manifestly is so. Does this indicate a special place in the universe for us? Or is this "exceptionalist" stance merely a demonstration of our arrogance as a species?

Again, I realize that this is perilously close to religious commentary. But I beg tolerance, on the grounds that my context is the ebb and flow of nature. As to what started me off on this short essay: Please, littlest eagle, soar. But if you cannot, I will yet honor you.

Al

[Sangye]

Eagle cam is showing close-ups of the babies right now, including ultra close shots of their HUGE feet! Wow,