Yesterday, March 6, 2017 at 6:29am EST E9, whom I've watched since he hatched, branched for the first time. And, I was able to see it LIVE as it happened for the first time. The photo above was from early this morning when he found his way to the veranda of the nest tree.
I haven't actually been 'lucky' as I keep one of my devices with the stream running at all times.. well, except when sleeping or driving. But even if I'm not looking right at the screen I can hear if something is happening so miss very little. I've seen and heard every milestone for this eaglet because I choose THIS, rather than staring at a television screen or spending a lot of time online doing mindless surfing. And I've been amazed and awed by every moment.
He has a couple of weeks or so to go before he attempts fledging and will remain in the nest area for a few weeks afterwards to follow the adults and perfect his flying and learn to hunt. It will be a sad day when he leaves the nest area for good, but there are other eagle cams with eaglets or eggs. THIS particular nest with it's gorgeous couple Harriett and M15... has won my heart, and I will watch every season as long as they return to this nest.
For now I will just enjoy the laughs, the sometimes drama. the wonder and the life that is at this nest right now.
As an aside, E9 did something for the first time today and... I was watching and was able to catch a screen shot. I had the stream running on both my computer and my iPhone, which there is always a delay from YouTube and the web site streaming from youtube... so I lucked out and had a chance to snag this.
What you're looking at is E9 mantling, which is using the wings and posture in a protective stance. I've seen him do this when food is brought to the nest (and also when he THINKS food is brought), but this is a first for his mantling over the nest. You can see him looking up at something, maybe one of the adults returning to the nest and he didn't see at first who it was so didn't recognize them, or maybe it was a visitor, aka an "Intruder" flying over the nest tree. He's laying down, so when he realized something was overhead he rapidly stretched out his wings over the nest. Mantling over food isn't done laying down but in a crouched position with wings arching over the food in order to keep anything else from getting it.
Never a dull moment in this nest, as is the case with most eagle nests. There are a few out there, too, and I often use the Eagle Cam app since it has a list of several eagle cams, though not all of them.
So how is this 'soul renewal'? Easy--anything that takes me away from the grind and humdrum of daily life stresses, etc... is a definite soul renewal. It's relaxing, calming.. most of the time. Unless there's a lot of flapping, hopping and squeeing going on. Well, there are a lot of things that happen in and around the nest that can spike that adrenalin, but mostly... it's just uplifting to experience.
:)
