Weeks 10 & 11: Similar Milestones, Steady Progress

Storm turned 10 weeks old on June 12th and 11 weeks on June 19th.  During this time, Storm has been gaining strength and courage to branch and fledge.  The evening of June 10th, Storm did a quick branch.  She jumped from the nest to the V truck area with both feet off the nest.  This is under where Soren and Skye perch when they are hanging at the nest.  To consider a branching official, both feet must be off the nest and rails, on either a branch or trunk of the nest tree.  Storm did this momentarily at 7:09 PM on the 10th. We have not seen Storm branch again, yet.  It’s a start in her journey to fledging.

During these coming weeks, we will continue to see Storm jumping and exercising her wings, which she is doing a lot of, especially when there is a nice breeze or wind.  They feel the wind and it encourages them to spread those wings.  There are quite a few branches in the nest tree, and we are anticipating that Storm may start with the trunk and branch where Skye and Soren like to sit.  If you are watching Storm and see her head bobbing and looking around, we can tell that she is ready, just getting the courage up to take the next branch step. 

You will notice that Soren and Skye do not spend a lot of time on the nest with Storm, just enough to bring food.  Even the food deliveries will start to be fewer, to let the eaglet know that food is not always plentiful and they may not eat every day.  The eaglet is becoming more aggressive when food is delivered.  Along with grabbing and mantling the prey, Storm will even attack and chase the parent away.  This is their mechanism for survival in the wild.  However, one day last week, the whole family ate together on the nest, and it was nice to see.  Soren was eating while Skye was feeding Storm.  Great family time, as it is more limited at this age. 

Leaving the eaglet or eaglets alone helps encourage branching and fledging.  You notice Storm moving sticks, playing with sticks and even chewing on items in the nest.  Chewing is what they do when they are bored.  Moving sticks around is practice for the nest building that Storm will do when she reaches adult age.  This will not happen until the 4-5 year mark. 

Normally it takes a full 5 years for an eagle to reach adulthood, however some start earlier, as we have seen with Skye.  Skye found a mate and laid eggs at what we believe is 4 years old.  We can tell by the many dark feathers still on her head and her dark beak.  Next year Skye’s head and face feathers will change some after another full molt.  Her beak will become more yellow as well.

As Storm prepares to fledge for good, her next big milestone is returning to the trunk or nearby branches to practice flying. Fully grown with all her flight feathers, she’s ready to explore the canopy above. Once she takes that first flight, she’ll begin her journey—possibly north or south—instinctively finding other eagles to learn from. While young eagles are often seen as loners their first 5 years, they do gather in groups, called a “Convocation,” as they learn to survive on their own during that challenging first year.