Saturday, July 10, 2021

First to Fledge

 

First of the Assabet eaglets to fledge (above) seen this morning, 4 trees distant from the nest.

The other eaglet and former nestmate yet to fledge but getting close...


They now have this distance between them (fledged at far left, unfledged upper right)...

...and seemed to be communicating with each other.

Adult eagle made food delivery to the nest...
...which is too small for 2 eaglets and an adult.

Fledged eaglet took his food portion and using his new skill-set lifted off...

...and flew back to his new digs where he could dine in peace...

It was way back in December of 2019 that I first saw the pair of adult eagles eyeing what I believed had been a red-tailed hawk's nest...
...and seeing them together at the nest had me speculating that their using it was a possibility.  With wishful thinking I mentioned this in my Year End Closeout post for 2019.  I still can't believe it all came to pass. Congrats to them.
   
A more recent photo of the proud parents-to-be taken in December of 2020...

It was this past May 14th when I first saw an eaglet in the nest...
Guessing it was already 2 weeks old at that time would make it 10 weeks old now.  The Audubon web site states that eagles fledge between 10 and 12 weeks...so this guy is right on time.



The remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa were trailing away to the northeast...

The more than 3 inches of additional rain left the Fort Meadow Brook culvert full...

The first button bush flower I've seen this season...

This purple flower was also in bloom...

An eastern kingbird...

Family of mute swans that needs to be extra vigilant...

Not much trash...



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