David Hancock reports in: July 27 --- Great visit to nest today.

Richard and I arrived at the nest 1000 and saw several long and gracious flights by both Victoria and Sidney -- both were beautiful on the wing and doing very well. Here Ihave posted some video I shot of our kids flying. I only saw two landings by Sidney but both were accurate and gracious. On his last flight Sidney took off out of sight to the west.

Victoria's first flight covered over 2 miles of flying and soaring. Over a two hour period she made about 5 flights out over the nest, the bay and the surrounding countryside. Dr. Bird was also there and we were equally impressed with the strength of Sidneys flights. His second flight took him a long way to the west out towards the northern tip of Pat Bay -- and then he did not return. Both parents sat the entire time (actually one did take a short flight to go over to where Victoria had gone out of sight -- but returned as did Victoria) but they basically spent the two hours on two of their favorite trees overlooking the Bay.

Our babies are well on the way to independence. They will likely spend less time in the nest and a few days after the parents think that they have done enough and both disappear, our kids will enter their independent life. I sure wish them well.

We've had to cut the original video down substantially due to the huge file size it was - far larger than the streaming video resolution you've been used to. Here are the flight bits from both birds - enjoy.

Victoria's Flight
Sidney's Flight

David Hancock

See below how you can now post your video clips to our site:

The following pictures were taken on July 27 by Richard. --- read more ---->>

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Here are Richards photos taken July 27 --

David and Dr. Bird Crane and nest tree in background Victoria on the wing With the birds gone, we were not afraid of being "pooped on" under the tree, so were looking at some of the twigs and food items that had fallen from the nest One of the fish heads from the "nestovers" Watching Sidney as he headed for Patricia Bay, only to circle to the West and disappear behind the trees

-------------------- July 28-- FURTHER UPDATE: When I first checked into the CAM this am Sidney was on the nest so we know he is quite capable of moving big distances and returning home -- another reassurance only confirmed by being there. Then a few minutes ago, about 1150 I noticed both Sidney and Victoria on the nest -- I think they probably arrived in response to a food drop. Anyway, both very effectively using the secure nest site -- at least until the parents tire of these home duties!! Hope you enjoy this video - there are more coming. Later that day we (Richard and I) were discussing the placement and numbers of cameras for this tree for next year. The eagles will be leaving shortly and we'll only have a short time to get the cameras into the tree before they're back. david