It’s A Mind Boggling Thing Andy…

D14 Is Here

The last eagle for the 2012 breeding season has arrived for the Decorah eagles. Little D14 made it out of the egg last night sometime around 3am. If you want to see the little tyke go to this link on You Tube for a video of a feeding his siblings had this morning - http://www.youtube.com/user/treehuggingdruid?feature=mhee. He is the smallest of the chicks and still has his yoke sac attached. It will feed him for about 24 hours and then he will be ready to eat solid food.

Martin Andrew Nutt, Sr.

Martin Andrew Nutt Sr. (1926 - 2012)

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Houston,TX- Martin Andrew Nutt born in Fordyce Arkansas September 29, 1926 passed away March 8, 2012 at age 85 in Houston, TX. A grave side memorial service will be celebrated at Centuries Memorial Park on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Martin and Virginia Nutt were married in Shreveport in 1945. They had three children, twins Katherine and Elizabeth and son Martin, Jr.
Martin enjoyed a teaching career in Shreveport mostly at Fair Park High School where he also graduated.

Martin married Eva Lou Bunch in 1986. Eva Lou's daughters are Beverly Guidry, Patsy Hood, and Linda Bond. Eva passed away in 2007.
Martin moved to Houston to live with his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Jim Haden in 2009. Martin passed away in the Palliative Unit of the Michael DeBakey VA Hospital March 8, 2012.

Martin is preceded in death by his parents William Worth and Katherine Nutt, sister Willie Worth Gilley, wives Virginia and Eva Lou and daughter Katherine Inglis.

Martin is survived by brother Marvin L. and wife, Glenna Nutt, Memphis, daughter Elizabeth and husband Jim Haden, Houston, son Martin, Jr and wife Luz Nutt, Salinas California, step-daughters Beverly Guidry, Patsy Hood, Linda and husband Steve Bond. There are many grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Martin a longtime resident of Shreveport and member of Sunset church of Christ will be buried at Centuries Memorial.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be sent to the Palliative Unit of the Michael DeBakey VA Hospital in Houston, TX.

Martin Nutt lived a good life, was loved by many and fought a good fight.

D-13 Is Here

The second of three eagle chicks expected in the Decorah, Iowa eagle nest hatched today. But you are not likely to see the chicks for a while yet unless you visit the web site when the sitting parent rises off the nest and allows a clear view of the chicks. They are pretty much bobble headed little fuzz balls at this time but will grow rapidly in the coming weeks. There is yet one more chick to be born and that could happen soon. If you do go to the web site you might also want to click on the Social Stream Chat feature to see what folks are saying about the Eagles. If you want to join in the chat feel free to do so. Use the link in the posting below this one to go to the Eagle web site.

Addendum:

While I was posting the above info the Female eagle decided to feed the two eaglets. Go to this link (http://s1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff374/birdsohio1/d12/?albumview=slideshow) to see what that was like. The photos are made from the TV broadcast and are not always sharp, but you can get  good idea of what was happening.

D-12 Has Arrived

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWsdNJ0417g

YouTube link for video of the pip to hatch of the first eaglet this year for the Decorah eagles. It is “named” D-12 since it is the 12th chick born to this pair of Eagles.

First Eagle Egg Has Pipped

Today at 2:00pm CDT the announcement was made that the process leading to the exit of one of the eagle chicks from its shell had begun. That is called the “pip.” That term is used when the chick first pecks a hole in its shell. It may be 12 hours or more before the chick is actually free of the shell. If you want to watch this event use the link to the 24 hour streaming video camera shown in the article below. Trust me, its lots more interesting that just watching an egg crack.

Eagle Hatching Time…

For those who are interested the eagle chicks are due to come out of their shells over the next several days. If you are interested tune in anytime using this link http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

Before you watch the Eagles something you might want to do is go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lARYcL5A50&feature=related for a quick G-rated video on how to tell the difference between the male and female eagle. Its really very helpful since both sit on the eggs at various times. Hope you enjoy the eagle web site.

The 50th Reunion

Thanks to Jackie Reynolds Robertson for this reunion story --

He was a widower and she a widow.

They had known each other for a number of years being high school classmates and having attended class reunions in the last 20 years without fail.

This 50th anniversary of their class, the widower and the widow made a foursome with two other singles.

They had a wonderful evening, their spirits high.

The widower throwing admiring glances across the table. The widow smiling coyly back at him.

Finally, he picked up courage to ask her, "Will you marry me?"

After about six seconds of careful consideration, she answered, "Yes, yes I will!"

The evening ended on a happy note for the widower. But the next morning he was troubled.

Did she say “Yes” or did she say “No?”

He couldn't remember. Try as he would, he just could not recall. He went over the conversation of the previous evening, but his mind was blank.

He remembered asking the question, but for the life of him could not recall her response. With fear and trepidation he picked up the phone and called her.

First, he explained that he couldn't remember as well as he used to. Then he reviewed the past evening. As he gained a little more courage he then inquired of her. "When I asked if you would marry me, did you say “Yes” or did you say “No?”

"Why you silly man," she said, "Yes. Yes I will. And I meant it with all my heart."

The widower was delighted. He felt his heart skip a beat.

Then she continued. "And I am so glad you called because I couldn't remember who asked me!”

Eagle Hatch Coming Up Soon

I just read that updated projections confirm the hatch of the first egg for the Decorah Eagles will be on or shortly after March 23rd. If you haven’t watched any of the nesting activities you definitely need to check out the hatch and subsequent growth of the Eagle chicks.

The male eagle was at DEFCON 1 today regarding other birds coming to close to the nest. I got a shot of him beating his wings and shrieking a warning (sorry no audio) to  another bird that came too close. I never saw the other bird so I’m guessing he took the warning seriously and hightailed it out of there. The blur of the male’s wings is due to their rapid movement. He was off the eggs and into an attack posture in the blink of an eye. And there was no mistaking his aggressive behavior as anything but a “back off or I’m going to launch” type warning. Interesting stuff if you like the outdoors.

The Answer Is Clearly

If you like to share news stories or other online articles with others via email you know that process can sometime be frustrating given the differences in how some articles are formatted. If you use the Chrome browser they have an add-on extension that solves the problem better than anything I’ve ever seen. Its called Clearly. If you want to see what Clearly can do just go to the Chrome online web store through your Chrome browser and look for Clearly under the Extension group. Once you get Clearly you just open the article you want to send and click on the Clearly icon it puts into your browser. There are also key strokes you can use for this if you like to do it that way. Then copy and paste the article into your email. I’ve really been impressed with how easy it is to use and how good it works. Hope your experience will be the same if you try it.

Clearly is made by the Evernote Corp. Evernote also permits you to save Clearly articles for reading later from any where you can log on. I didn’t sign up for that service because I figured all my use would probably be from my computer at home. While Clearly is free there may be a charge for an account with Evernote. But since I didn’t check into it I don’t know. Do that yourself if your want an online account with Evernote to post your articles.

I’ve read that Clearly is now available for the Firefox browser and can be downloaded at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clearly/. Also, there is a similar product called Readability available for Internet Explorer at http://www.readability.com/. Please note that I don’t have any experience using these two products in these two browsers so be sure you have some local help if you need help with these products.

What It Looks Like

Thought this might be of interest to some. Its what I see when I log onto the eagle web site.  The left screen is the video cam shot from above the eagle nest. The right side of the screen shows the comments by viewers watching the streaming video. The Snipping Tool I use to take shots of the eagles is also shown at the top right of the video camera screen. You normally see each of these screens separately, but I find it useful to drag the viewer comments screen next to the video screen. That sometimes helps explain some of the things you are seeing. 

Laid Back Eagle–3/6/2012

This snapshot of the female eagle is kind of funny. She had turned her head 180 degrees from straight ahead and was looking directly backward. It makes it look like she is just laid back waiting for the eggs to hatch.

Hatching Due About The 3rd Week Of March

I read today the three eggs currently being hatched by the Decorah Eagles should be about 3 weeks away from bringing forth a new generation of American Bald Eagles. If you haven’t watched any of the streaming video of the Eagle’s efforts you might consider giving it a try so you will know how to do it when the eggs hatch. All the links are at the February blog article titled “Eagles Nesting In Iowa – 2/10/2012.” I recently watched a video of last year’s chicks and those little balls of fuzz are fun to watch.

The streaming video folks have just installed a new camera and it seems to be producing better images than the previous camera. Here is a shot I got this morning of the female eagle on the nest. She was turning the eggs to ensure uniform warmth. She was also removing something in the bottom of the nest that may have been gouging her.