Growing up so fast - latest pictures

Kay Meng and I were fortunate to be able to visit the Boardroom again, and Kay added to her collection of beautiful images of the eyasses. It was exactly a week since we were last there, and in the space of that week, just about the only remaining white fluff we could find on the eyasses was on their heads, and feathers were starting to poke through there too.



Here's a reminder from exactly one week ago to the day of all that fluff....



The eyasses were even more curious than last week about what we were up to, and stepped very close to the window glass to watch us.



At one point, Kay was changing lenses, and this one almost lost his balance in his desire to see what she was doing!



It was another very hot , humid day - high 80's, and in the above image you can see the other eyass trying to find some shade behind its sibling. We noticed them frequently panting with their beaks open.



While were there, one of the eyasses stayed out on the ledge beside the nest, and this picture shows how wide is. They have lots of room to move around without getting close to the edge, and plenty of room to slice! What a mess.



Here is a close-up of the eyass's tail (and the slices!), showing the distinctive banding that will mark it as a juvenile until it reaches full maturity at three to four years and the tail turns red. Check out those razor sharp talons too!



The wing feathers continue to grow in, and we saw them often stretching and flapping their wings. You can also see here how..... twiggy the nest is. The nest bowl itself is fairly smooth, but the rest of the nest is not very comfortable or easy to move about on. This eyass is standing right on the edge of the nest where the sticks have overflowed and made a bit of a ramp down to the ledge. Most of the time, the eyasses clamber down this stick-ramp, but they will soon be hop-flapping to the ledge, and then almost flying.