Eaglet News

The eaglets are going to have a webcam and it could start as early as tonight! WVEC said they are getting one ready to go. Mama learned about it in the chat room a few minutes ago. Here is a really nice video of the eaglets new home.

Today has been a beautiful day. It has been sunny and I have been on my deck. I discovered something really neat about the deck. I can watch Scout run in the yard. She looks totally different running below me instead of beside me.

I helped Mama plant a tomato plant today. Yes, just one. We put it in a container on my deck. It will be safe from the bunnies there.

The cows haven't moved in yet, but we do have some down the road. We hadn't noticed them until today. We heard them. They say "MOOOOO, MOOOO". It could become annoying really fast.

We haven't heard the rooster since last week. Mama thought the rooster and the hen were gone, but we saw the hen. Mama said maybe the rooster become Easter dinner. I don't get what she means by that.

Last night, we saw the red fox run by our house. He is very sleek looking. We were surprised to see two small deer in our yard last night. We have animals all around us. We prefer the animals to some of those seedy people that were around us at the hotel.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Can't Get Enough Of His Deck

The Sun Is Here!

I'm telling you the sun is out. It may not look like it, but it is. The temperature is 50 and somewhat windy. I'm enjoying my deck. Mama is going laundry and hanging out clothes to dry on the deck. My deck is used to dry clothes and BBQ. It's just a wonderful place I'm telling you.

This morning, I came in from the yard and laid on the folk's bed and I got it muddy. Did I get in trouble? Nope.... Daddy did. Why did Daddy get in trouble? Because he didn't put the spread across it when it got out of bed. Mama bought a cheap spread that she protects the bed with and if we get dirt on it, it's not a big deal. Daddy said he didn't know it was one of his duties, but now he does. He said he put that on his schedule of things to do. I don't think he was happy about this additional duty, but Mama said the last one out of the bed makes it. I don't care who makes it as long as I don't get in trouble.

What is on my schedule of things to do today? Well, eagle watching is out. They have been moved to a facility and the webcam appears to have been turned off. The Daddy came by yesterday with a fish to feed them. It was so sad because they were already gone. He really tried to take care of them. We can still follow their progress but it won't be like it had been in the past. I plan to spend my day on the deck and Mama said she may try and spray some weeds today if the sun dries them out. We may get an afternoon shower though. That was not in the forecast yesterday. Grrrr!

Jack
The Greyhound Who Loves Relaxing In The Sun

Another Rainy Date

It's another rainy day here. We have had rain since last Thursday. It seems like it has rained almost every day since we moved here, but Mama says not quite that much but almost. Even though it's a cloudy, cool morning, I'm perched on my deck.

The Daddy eagle came and fed the eaglets this morning, so that's a good sign. Last night, the moderators said that the eaglets need to eat once a day so that they do not dehydrate. They should be able to self feed in a week. That does not mean they can get their own food, it just means that they will not have to be fed by the male. Hopefully, a predator doesn't get to them while the Dad is away finding food. It sounds like if the Daddy can't provide for them, humans may come to their rescue. I know they don't want to do that, but that's how it sounded last night.

9:32 am eastern UPDATE: DGIF biologists have decided that it is in the best interest of the eaglets to remove them from the nest and relocate them to the Wildlife Center of Virginia. The removal operation will take place at 10 a.m.

(10:17 am central time - Note from Mama: The eaglets have now been removed from the nest. It's sad, but it sounds like it was the best thing for them.)

Grandma called last night to get an update on the eaglets. Mama didn't think Daddy listened to her when she told him about all the day's events, but he did. He answered all of Grandma's questions with the information Mama had given him.

It looks like we are going to buy a new clothes dryer this weekend. Ours is dying and it is not going quietly. It is making all sorts of loud noises. Mama thought she would have to run it at night while Daddy was trying to watch TV to convince him that we needed a new one, but apparently not. He said we will buy a new one this weekend. He said he could probably fix it, but it's 24 years old, so we should just get a new one.

A friend asked Mama if we live in the country or in town. Well, we have tractors that drive past our house daily, so we say it is country. The tractors drive past us to get to the feed store which is just down the road from us. We are six miles from town. We are not isolated here like we were at the other house as we have a lot of traffic that goes by our house, but we are surrounded by farmland and we are waiting for the cattle to move in across from our house. Mama says we will have new smells especially on hot days with the cattle. I'm anxious to smell that. Mama says I may not like it.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Likes Country Living

Mother of Norfolk Eaglets Has Been Killed - Updated

Mama is very sad right now. The mother of the three eaglets that she has been watching on the webcam was killed today.

Female Eagle Killed

Professionals are watching the nest to determine what to do. As of 5:03 pm est, the male has not returned to the nest to feed the eaglets. We hope he returns soon. They really need him.

UPDATE: The male has returned to the nest with food and he is feeding his young at 6:45 pm eastern time.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Like To See His Mama Sad

Good Friday Tornadoes and Camping

I was so excited on Friday because we were going camping. I supervised everything going into the camper and finally it was time for me and Scout to load up. Mama said we were supposed to get storms on Friday night and it was supposed to rain most of the weekend, but I didn't care. We arrived at the state park around 10:30 a.m. Mama said things didn't look right because a lot of campers were leaving. Mama had checked the website before we left home because she was concerned about flooding in the park, but there was nothing about it being closed. We got all the way to the gate which is a few miles from the entrance and they told us the park was being evacuated. Daddy said we would have to go back home. I pouted the whole way home. I didn't even care that we drove into heavy rain and hail. I wanted to camp. After we got home, Daddy said we could see if there was another park that we could go to, so we got in the car and drove and drove. He didn't want to take the motor home and waste gas if there were no openings. We had checked the website and it showed everything was sold out, but we figured there would be cancellations due to the rain. We were correct. We found an opening at a park! We headed home to pick up the RV. It was so crazy driving back and forth, but finally we arrived at the campsite and set up our camp.

We took a nice long walk before dinner and then after dinner, the storms came. We actually only had rain, but the St. Louis area had tornadoes! It was so scary watching the radar screen. I think we started watching the radar around 6:30 p.m. and it was still on after 11 p.m. A tornado hit Lambert Airport which is a landmark in St. Louis. Neighborhoods were torn up. We heard that 1,000 homes were damaged and about 100 are completely destroyed. No one was killed though. That is amazing, so many are calling it the Good Friday Miracle. We heard that our house had golf ball sized hall on Friday night, but Grandpa and Grandma came by and checked on the house and said we didn't have any damage.

There was non-stop tornado coverage on Saturday and even today, our local news is on instead of the Today Show. The airport is open again which is truly amazing considering all the damage that it had. The windows are just boarded up for now and I think they are just making do with things, but at least they are open and people are able to travel.

We will have rain through Wednesday. We have had so much rain. Flooding is now a concern, but we are okay at our house. We just have a muddy yard that Scout finds extremely fun.

Our camping trip wasn't as much fun as normal due to the rain. We walked as much as we could, but most of the time we just stayed in the RV. I really didn't want to come home yesterday, but Daddy said we had to go back to work. We have another trip booked for the middle of May and that should be a fun trip because it will be for four days.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Likes His Home But Likes Camping Better