Guess Who Made It Back to the Nest!!

Screen Capture Courtesy of KJRH

Thunder did it! And look at her face, she's smiling!

From R. of Illinois: Thunder flew back up into the nest! First she preened and finished drying her feathers and now she is curled up in the nest asleep!

I was right the first time when I guessed 150 feet high....the tower nest area is 160 feet above the ground level (one observer said the same as a 16 story building). Thunder has been hanging out on the rings at the base of the tower, about 60 feet above the ground, since her fledge at dawn Saturday, and this (Monday) afternoon, flew from there up 100 feet, to the tower nest.

And what have Kay and Jay been doing all this time?

From BTOliver of the Tulsa hawk forum:

"When I made those pictures of Thunder this morning, (See two posts down for the mentioned photos. D.B.)

Kay & Jay were WAAAY up in the air. I have watched them about 6 hours today... the parents come and go, Thunder spends her time jumping up & down, see photos, and makes short ( 25 foot) flights out from the ledge and back. She was soaking wet when I got there this morning and spent about two hours drying out and preening.

Her chest IS rusty, the parents are cream colored. Both Kay and Jay still make visits to the nest.

Tomorrow we'll talk about rusty chest feathers on eyasses. :-)

Donegal Browne

P.S. Earlier Updates on Thunder from Monday are in the next two posts.