Feeding Hungry Eyases
The two newly hatched eyases passed their first uneventful night tucked beneath Beauty for warmth and protection from the elements. The eyases can go for about a day before they need a meal, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t hungry. In fact, they’re pretty much hungry all the time! So you’re likely to see a lot of feeding going on.
Our high-resolution Main camera caught some great pictures of the second feeding this morning, which took place at 10AM local time (the first happened five hours earlier). In the photo above you can see typical feeding behavior. Both eyases have their bills open in anticipation of getting fed. Archer delivered the food to Beauty and she took it into the nest box. She ripped small pieces of the prey (an unidentified small gray bird) and fed them to each of the eyases until they had enough.
How did Beauty know she’d fed them enough? Because the sated eyases lose interest in more food. They stop begging and lay down for an after-meal nap. Watch for this pattern to repeat itself as many as five or six times a day. By the time the eyases are five days old they’ll have doubled in size! That takes a lot of food, delivered over many feedings.
Now that we have a live video feed, it’s easier than ever to see how a feeding happens. Tune in if you haven’t checked it out yet, and let us know what you think.
May 19th, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Whats happened to the 3rd egg? no falcon in there, huh? I’m sure it was posted, but I seemed to have missed it !
Thanks and love the website
May 19th, 2010 at 4:23 PM
I appreciate this website and have used it several years. But that video is just marvelous & I’m so glad it is in place. Beauty is so attentive and I think learning motherly things each moment. Now I hope to see Archer bringing another meal.
Thank you so much.
May 19th, 2010 at 4:39 PM
Wendi it can still hatch (unless something is wrong) but its still early.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:25 PM
There’s no reason to believe that the 3rd egg won’t hatch. It’s been tucked under Beauty along with the two eyases and I’m sure I saw a small pip in it this morning. Hopefully soon.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:03 PM
Let’s hope!
May 19th, 2010 at 10:17 PM
Incredibly good still photo and the stream is addicting. Thanks to all who make it possible. Thanks, too, for all the knowledge you all provide.
May 20th, 2010 at 8:28 AM
The egg laying occurred over the course of 2-3 days, so I guess that means the hatching could occur over the same length of time?
May 20th, 2010 at 10:32 AM
At this time there’s no reason to believe the egg will not hatch, though that is a possibility. We’ve seen eggs hatch over as long a span as a week, though we expect the total hatching time to be less for this clutch. We’ve also seen non-viable eggs, and this can be an issue with a new pair. We just need to be patient (which can be hard when we can watch them 24×7!) and see what happens.
May 20th, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Marvelous pictures. Marvelous stream. Just amazing!
May 20th, 2010 at 1:03 PM
Thank you so much for that bit of new. It never ceases to amaze me when I see the little bitties with their parents. You folks do a great job.
May 24th, 2010 at 11:40 PM
posted later….. Sometime during the night it seems that Beauty disposed of the remaining unhatched egg. Either she decided it was non-viable, or it became damaged. She may have consumed it or just removed it from the nest. We’re not exactly sure what happened to it, since the actual disposal wasn’t captured on any of our cameras.