Why's papa eagle throwing dirt all over the eaglets?

[Autumn Colors]

Anybody here who's watched eagles before know? He was just digging in the center of the nest and tossing dirt and straw (?) all over two of the eaglets.

What the heck is he doing???

Oops, sorry.... http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

[Webster Green]

1. Link

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Maybe he's building them a room he can tell them to go to.

[RebelOne]

3. Looks windy up there in the nest.

Maybe it's cold and he is trying to keep them warm. That is the only reason I can think of.

[robdogbucky]

4. Both parents have been

Re-engineering the nest (digging it deeper in the center, and raising the edges, like sliding up the rails on a human baby's crib.

This was noticed shortly after the last one hatched the other day and mama being too busy with three to keep constant watch on the aggressive older ones that started to wander to the edges of the nest.

I'm sure they know what they are doing in this regard as the record of this pair of eagles has them successuflly raising broods each year over the last several without any fatalties to the young 'uns. And eagles tend to re-use a nest year after year.

[kestrel91316]

5. Dead rabbit, dead fish.......housekeeping FAIL. lol

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. I am so glad that I'm a safe distance away at over 1000 miles! I cannot even imagine the stench!

[kestrel91316]

8. Probably doesn't stink TOO bad. I bet it's refrigerator temps there,

and the meat looks pretty fresh if dirty.

Well, the fish might be pretty skanky, it starts out that way and gets worse.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. You're right, it does look cold there, which might help a bit, but just thinking

about the conditions up there turns my stomach...so I try not to think about it! I love watching them! :)

[pansypoo53219]

7. it's quite warm here in milw. i think it is warm in IA.

why the eeglits are not under the adult.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. It's feeding time again! So Adorable! :)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Both Mom and Dad feeding the babies now!

[malaise]

15. Sundayy dinner

:D

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. Yep!!! Now it's Mother's Day, Mom just flew the nest leaving handsome Dad

to watch the babies and he's feeding them again! Anything to shut those kids up! lol! :)

:hi:

[Duer 157099]

11. Mom was trying to feed them this really long piece of a bird entrail

It truly looked like a piece of spaghetti and she kept trying to get one of them to take it, but they'd peck at it but wouldn't accept the whole thing, it was really funny. She kept trying and trying. She'd swallow some of it so just a little was hanging out, and if they took that, she'd bring up the rest of it and then the baby would drop it. Finally she gave up. I was waiting for a Lady and the Tramp moment. It was funnny.

Now dad is back blocking the camera

[Duer 157099]

13. Dad's doing the excavating again

I hope he doesn't pull up a load that collapses the base! I think he wants the nest to be deeper so when he and mom lay down, the babies aren't pushing up against them too much?

[EFerrari]

14. My male parrot used to try to build nests

with his mate and he sucked at it badly. She'd neatly put shredded paper into her wings to take back to the nest. George tried to do the same thing and every time, he wound up taking nothing back because all the paper slipped out. He was all elbows in the nest, too, although he tried hard. :)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

17. Mom's back!

[QED]

18. I am enjoying watching them so much.

They are growing so quickly!

[in_cog_ni_to]

19. Awww! One happy family...all together! How sweet.

I love watching this. :)

[taterguy]

20. It's awfully windy up there. Shouldn't they put their nest closer to the ground?

[Cleita]

22. Raptors love high places. Our Red Tail hawks in my

back yard nest high up on seventy and eighty foot Eucalyptus trees. It gets very windy, but it doesn't seem to bother them. They actually use the wind to glide when up in the air so it's a friendly force of nature for them. It seems the eaglets would be vulnerable to predators lower down as well.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. Red Tails nest right across the road from my home and they're on the tallest tree possible. A

few years ago, one of their babies landed on my doorstep and I felt like I was given a gift. :)

[Cleita]

28. I love to watch them teach the babies to fly. They

manage to get them out on the power line and then they coax them to jump and try their wings. They are so cute when they are ready to fly.

[taterguy]

26. I don't care if they love high places or not. They're making me nervous

[spin]

K&R (n/t)

[Duer 157099]

21. The whole tree is moving it's so windy

I don't think I've seen it this bad yet. It's giving me motion sickness just watching it.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

30. They are under another tornado watch!

The poor mama looks a bit alarmed over the wind... i hope so much they will all be ok

[Politicalboi]

23. Well the babies should be getting bigger

So they might be making more room so they won't fall out of the nest.

[Keith Bee]

25. He's teaching them to be good Republicans

And showing them how to throw dirt is, quite obviously, the first lesson.

[lamp_shade]

27. They're cleaning baby poop out of the bottom of the nest... really.

[hobbit709]

32. That's it. And dusting the babies with dirt kills the mites.

[Duer 157099]

29. Tornado wipes out entire blocks in Iowa town

Maybe he's battening down the hatches?

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110410/WIRE/110419989/1350?Title=Tornado-wipes-out-entire-blocks-in-Iowa-town

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SR&Date=20110410&Category=WIRE&ArtNo=110419989&Ref=AR&Profile=1350&MaxW=600&border=0

MAPLETON, Iowa — Jamy Garden's house began to rumble with the approach of a tornado at least a quarter of a mile wide. Then the windows shattered, spraying her with glass. Using her cellphone as a flashlight, she fled to her basement and called her grandparents in tears.

On Sunday, she returned home, wandering her backyard in a blood-splattered hooded sweat shirt, her right hand and left knee wrapped in gauze. Around her lay a tangle of tree branches, twisted siding, broken glass and a canoe that wasn't hers.

The tornado that struck the evening before damaged more than half of Mapleton, a town of 1,200 in western Iowa, Mayor Fred Standa said Sunday. He estimated about 20 percent of the town was "almost flat."

[eowyn_of_rohan]

36. It has been terribly windy for the birds- tornado watch - 60-70 mph winds today

You may be right. It is making him edgy at times. I can hardly stand to see it. Wish the wind would back off!

[Autumn Colors]

31. Feeding time again

Sunday Fish

[malaise]

33. The oldest one is so greedy

:D

[Autumn Colors]

34. Poor #3 isn't getting anything

:(

[calimary]

35. Whew! Glad to hear. I looked in yesterday and saw what looked like one not-thriving chick.

And it seemed isolated, outside the nest away from the other two. I was afraid it was dying. I just glanced over there today and three chicks are together, moving around and eating.

What a relief!!!!

[Duer 157099]

37. The way that tree is moving, I can't help but thinking of Rockabye Baby

On a tree top....

[bullwinkle428]

38. More feeding taking place now! (6:10 P.M. CDT)

[MisterP]

39. my mother budgie did this back in '99: she'd pick up the wood shavings,

run down to the new babies, and spray it all over them
one of the babies is still alive (12yo budige)