Chapter 109 Bald Eagle (XIV)

The older brother had no interest in hatching the eggs, and even wanted to perform "eating my sister" in public.

Seeing that his sister, who was always one step ahead of him, had eggs to hatch, he suddenly became anxious and jumped around the bird's nest, looking for his own eggs.

“Chirp!”

Stupid, stop it!

Yu Yiyun was annoyed by his noise and had no choice but to comfort him, "If you behave well, you will definitely get the egg."

If you know a little bit about PUA tactics, you will definitely be able to tell that this is pure empty talk, a common tactic used by capitalists.

But my brother didn't understand, so he really calmed down and waited eagerly for the egg that belonged to him.

Yu Yiyun had no choice but to spread her wings and fly out of the nest, working hard to promote the plan of "delivering eggs to households and achieving joint incubation".

Now that things have come to this, let’s eat first.

The little fat bird fed himself until he was full, and then started looking for eggs for his brother.

It is now the breeding season for bald eagles, and eggs are everywhere you look.

Yu Yiyun searched for eggs among the crowd for hundreds of times, but when she looked back, she couldn't find a suitable one.

Within a radius of dozens of kilometers, every egg seen must be accompanied by a large sea eagle, which will vigilantly stare at all the birds passing by.

Our little fat guy has principles and only steals, never robs.

When he saw a sea eagle sitting on its nest seriously, he would immediately flap his wings and slip away.

Even if the sea eagle left the nest for a short time, Yu Yiyun would go over and find that there were only 1 or 2 eggs in the nest, but he would not attack the babies.

One to two litters is considered normal for a bald eagle to lay eggs. Numerous facts have shown that if there is sufficient food, a bald eagle couple is capable of raising two cubs.

Yu Yiyun's target was the unlucky third child who was sentenced to death as soon as he was born, just like himself.

He circled the Douglas fir forest again, looking around with his sharp eagle eyes, and finally locked onto his target.

The female eagle, who was sitting on the nest, suddenly became nervous for no reason, raised her white feathers, and her whole body tensed up.

After a while, she moved her body slightly and stood up to observe the bird's nest...

“Chirp!”

Before the female eagle could see clearly, a shadow passed by her eyes accompanied by the clear cry of a bird.

Female eagle: ???

Something just flew past.

She looked up at the sky in confusion and saw a young eagle flying far away.

I looked down again and found that there were still only two bird eggs in the nest.

Huh? It turns out there is no extra birth.

The female eagle returned to its nest again.

Scare yourself~

Yu Yiyun grabbed the egg with the highest temperature in the bird's nest with lightning speed and rushed to his own bird's nest.

In the bird's nest, the brother was already getting impatient and was pushing and shoving with his wings.

"Chirp!" You've been incubating for so long, let me incubate it for a while!

"Jiji!" Get out!

My sister, relying on her size advantage, lay there unmoved.

Yu Yiyun folded her wings and landed, pecked her brother's head, and warned him not to disturb other little birds hatching eggs.

"Chirp!" Your eggs.

Yu Yiyun stuffed the warm bird egg she had just 'taken' between her brother's soft belly feathers.

"Chirp, chirp!" You two are going to hatch the eggs independently and are not allowed to interfere with each other!

Teacher Yunyun is very good at maintaining discipline. The two little fools stopped making noise and leaned together to incubate the eggs obediently.

The camera left in the bird's nest by the staff served as a monitor for this egg-hatching test, faithfully recording the entire process of the two young eagles' hatching battle, leaving the humans who were observing the growth of the young birds extremely silent.

Didn’t you say that the young eagle wouldn’t hatch eggs?

Didn’t it say that bald eagles only incubate their own eggs?

Your family is special, right?

The three little sea eagles caused a sensation in the entire animal world with their combined strength.

Even the senior scholar who claims to know the most about bald eagles could not explain it, and could only explain it as "the cognitive impairment of the black glutinous rice balls was contagious."

I never expected that the zoologist's casual talk would actually turn out to be a lucky jackpot, and he actually guessed it right!

The strange behavior of the little fat bird is indeed a case of bird-to-bird transmission.

In the past few months, Little Fatty did not follow the habit of sea eagles and huddle together with sub-adult sea eagles for warmth, but instead flew to the far north to spend the winter.

But the older brother and sister did not leave Alaska. They followed their instincts and broke into the gathering area of ​​sub-adult sea eagles.

Sea eagles have a long lifespan and a relatively long subadult period.

Eagles under the age of 4 that have not grown white feathers are all in their juvenile stage.

According to the rules, a one-year-old sea eagle is at kindergarten level, a two-year-old is a primary school student, and a three-year-old enters junior high school.

The 4-year-old sea eagle, which is about to become an adult, stands at the top of the sub-adult sea eagles and is the "school bully" of the sea eagle school.

The two kindergarten vultures, the elder brother and the elder sister, came to the gathering area and naturally became the bottom brothers.

No matter what food the lower-level minions get, it will be snatched away by the stronger sea eagles.

In theory this is true, but there are always exceptions.

The older brother and sister are sea eagles. As they have lived with the little fat bird for many years, their habit of "stealing food" has been mostly corrected.

When they came across meat that had been rotting for days on the coast, they refused to touch it and watched the group of sea eagles fight over it.

If you don’t participate in the fight for food, of course your food won’t be robbed.

After a few times, the older brother and sister became "strange eagles" in the eyes of other birds.

After days of heavy snow, the temperature in Alaska dropped sharply to minus ten degrees Celsius, and many rivers were covered with thick ice.

All the fish hid under the ice, and the sand sculptures flapped their wings and walked back and forth on the ice with their legs covered with winter woolen trousers.

The bald eagle's walking posture is quite funny, as if it is not very familiar with its own legs, providing humans with a lot of hilarious material.

The sea eagles walked back and forth, unable to find any food, and they were staring with hunger.

Just at this time, the older brothers and sisters returned with the prey and stood on a high place to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

The other sea eagles noticed this and rushed over to grab it, but were perfectly avoided by their older brother and sister every time.

There were a few times when the eagles were robbed and my brother got so angry that he pounced on them and pecked at their head feathers.

Raven: Yes, yes, yes, I’ll teach you!

The sea eagle that was trying to steal the food was bitten several times. If it continues like this, it will turn into a vulture before it grows white head feathers.

Vulture: I have hair!

In the winter when food is scarce, the sea eagles are already hungry and cold, and cannot compete with their older brothers and sisters who have enough food and clothing with their claws.

Over time, they found another way to survive: follow the older brothers and sisters!

The intelligence of this group of idiots is unknown, but they have strong imitation skills.

Led by their older brothers and sisters, they soon discovered that although they could not catch fish in winter, there were many resident birds and small animals in Alaska, enough for the sea eagles to fill their stomachs.

Especially the wild rabbits that can be found everywhere. They have extremely strong reproductive capacity and the long cold winter cannot stop them from reproducing.

Rabbits, rats and mice are almost inexhaustible as far as the eye can see.

Sub-adult sea eagles followed their older brothers and sisters and gradually learned a skill that the eagle family had never mastered before: digging out rabbit nests.

The sea eagle, having successfully dug out the rabbit's nest, showed his joy at discovering oil.

It turns out that claws can be used like this!

I've wasted my time studying.

From then on, even when the 4-year-old sea eagle meets his older brothers and sisters, he will behave with extreme respect.

They used their tiny brains to think and came to a conclusion: what the big sister did must have a reason!

So, when the sub-adult sea eagles discovered that their older sisters and brothers were incubating eggs, they quickly started to imitate them.

The incubation period of a bald eagle is about 35 days, and the egg-laying time of bald eagles in the same area will not vary much.

There are a large number of sea eagle couples laying eggs on the coast. Various accidents are inevitable during the incubation process, causing the sea eagles to abandon the eggs and leave the nest.

Whenever this happens, the idle sub-adult sea eagles will quickly fill the position.

Sometimes, several young eagles find a bird's nest at the same time, and they will compete with each other and take turns to incubate the eggs.

Zoologists have discovered more and more cases of young eagles hatching eggs, and they racked their brains to come up with an explanation.

"Perhaps...the group of sea eagles are practicing their courtship skills."

"What about the fattest one? Practicing three years in advance?"

"Why not?" the zoologist answered confidently, "He can hunt and hatch eggs, so he will definitely be the best sea eagle father!"

"Excuse me, but before he can become a sea eagle dad, he needs a partner." The assistant pointed out, "Why doesn't he practice his courtship dance?"

“……” The zoologist was speechless.

At the same time, the little fat chick, who had shocked the entire academic community, was busy happily writing his egg-hatching diary.

Day 1: No shell.

Day 2: No shell.

Day 3: …

Yu Yiyun was not quite sure what criteria other bird mothers used to judge when their chicks would hatch.

Little Fatty knows clearly that after 35 days of incubation, the two babies will hatch.

Having been a male mother so many times, Yu Yiyun, who was participating in the birth process for the first time, excitedly avoided the camera and drew the word "positive" on the branch with her paw.

Once you have drawn 7 correct characters, the chick will be able to peck its shell!

According to Yu Yiyun's original plan, since there were three birds involved in hatching the eggs, this job could be implemented on an eight-hour work system.

The results show that theory and reality cannot be generalized.

There were indeed three birds participating in hatching the eggs, but because the older and older siblings were competing openly and secretly, they were only willing to hatch their own eggs and refused to touch each other's eggs.

Moreover, they both accepted the help of the fat little bird in hatching the eggs.

So during the entire incubation period, either two birds incubate eggs side by side in the nest, or one bird incubates two eggs.

The brother and sister obviously dislike each other, but they always go foraging at the same time and return to the nest at the same time to take turns.

I was afraid that the other party would secretly hatch the eggs while I was not resting.

Once, Yu Yiyun lost her sense of humor and secretly swapped the two eggs.

The brother and sister returned to the bird's nest, habitually nestled in the familiar position, and pulled the eggs closest to them under their stomachs.

As soon as they climbed up, they both jumped up almost at the same time and looked at each other in disbelief.

"Jiji!" You stole my eggs!

"Chacha!" It was obviously you who stole my eggs!

Seeing that they were about to quarrel, Yu Yiyun quickly restored the two eggs to their original positions, and at the same time couldn't help but be curious:

How can these two fools, who can't even think of exchanging positions, decide which egg is theirs?

The days of hatching the eggs were quite boring, but fortunately, the older brothers and sisters took turns, and Crow and Falcon would occasionally fly over to visit the little fat bird who was "confinement", so the time was not too unbearable.

Yu Yiyun counted the days and found that the incubation period was already halfway through.

In a dozen days, your hard work will be rewarded with the best gift.

——The little fat bird has been around for five lifetimes, but hasn't learned a single thing.

In the wild, accidents often come before tomorrow.

In mid-April in the northern hemisphere, it should be spring with blooming flowers and picturesque scenery.

Only when Yu Yiyun experienced it in person did she realize how powerful the "late spring cold" could be.

The sudden cold front caused strong winds near the coast.

As soon as the smaller animals left their nests, they were blown into the air by the wind.

The slender tree had just sprouted when it was broken in half by the wind.

Yu Yiyun turned around, used his body to block the strong wind, and lowered his head to bury it in his wings.

Everyone thought that after enduring the cold wind, everything would be calm.

Unexpectedly, the sky became darker and darker, and it was hard to tell whether it was dark or just gloomy.

When Yu Yiyun felt the first flake of snow falling on his feathers, he realized: It's over.

Snow means a sudden drop in temperature, which will cause a huge obstacle to hatching eggs.

A few days ago, the daytime temperature could reach 20℃, and the bird eggs would not be affected much even if they were exposed to the air for more than ten minutes.

Before or after a blizzard, if the sea eagle leaves the nest for even two or three minutes, it is likely to cause hatching failure.

In addition to temperature changes, snow falling on bird nests will increase the burden on the nests.

If the bird's nest collapses during the incubation period, the sea eagle will have no time to rescue the eggs, and all the hard work of the past ten days will be wasted.

Yu Yiyun folded her wings to avoid temperature loss as much as possible.

Feeling more and more snow falling nearby, he pulled his head out and looked at the thick snow that almost buried him.

At this moment, Yu Yiyun heard a "crack" and a "boom" in the darkness, followed by the helpless cry of a large sea eagle.

A bird's nest collapsed nearby.

The incubation period is already halfway through, and it is simply too late to rebuild a nest and incubate again.

The desperate sea eagle couple had no choice but to give up this spring.

Yu Yiyun's body trembled as he realized that something was not good.

The bird's nest that he occupied was snatched from the claws of other birds and had not been thoroughly repaired.

Yu Yiyun had some basic knowledge of architecture and knew how to arrange the branches so that they would be more sturdy.

But after all, he has limited experience and cannot do the fine decoration like the experienced Sea Eagle couple.

Besides...

Although Fatty was reluctant to admit it, the burden he created by lying on the bird's nest was definitely greater than that of an ordinary sea eagle.

If the blizzard continues to rage and the trapped brothers and sisters cannot return for the time being, the collapse of the bird's nest is only a matter of time.

The more Yu Yijun thought about it, the more worried he became. He looked up at the camera left by the humans and shouted to the little man opposite him.

"Chirp!" Little man!

"Chirp, chirp?" Can you guys sleep? I can't sleep.

"Chirp, chirp!" Come and save the bird, and bring some food!

Late at night, the clear and loud bird calls broke the silence.

The staff opened the corresponding camera image through the sound and found that the little fat chick that was incubating eggs was in a very bad condition.

The nest he seized was built on a Douglas fir tree.

Douglas fir is tall, strong, and in most cases can support bird nests, making it an ideal nesting site for bald eagles.

But when it comes to heavy snow, Douglas fir has a fatal flaw.

Douglas fir belongs to the Pinaceae family and has the greatest characteristic of the Pinaceae family: it is evergreen all year round.

Trees are sensitive to cold and heat, and most of them have two ways of spending the winter.

Broadleaf plants will reduce or stop producing chloroplasts, revealing the color of the leaves themselves and being blown off by the autumn wind.

The evergreen pine tree is a coniferous plant.

The leaves are like thorns, with a waxy layer on the surface that can firmly lock in nutrients and water.

Needles are good for Douglas fir, but they cannot provide shelter from rain or snow for the bald eagles that live on the Douglas fir.

Simply put, the little fat bird's nest is almost open to the sky.

The snowflakes falling from the sky were unhindered and all piled into the bird's nest.

The bald eagle's nest is very large, even if Yu Yijun occasionally spreads its wings to brush away the snow around it.

The snow piled up in other places still weighed down the bird's nest, making it precarious.

When the staff on duty saw this situation, they immediately realized why the little fat bird screamed in the middle of the night and hurriedly called their colleagues to come for help.

Blizzard weather is the peak period when young sea eagles need rescue, and the Wild Orphan Care Association is on high alert.

Just half an hour after receiving the news, they arrived under the Douglas fir tree where the fat little bird was.

Yu Yiyun leaned over to take a look, then retracted her head in disappointment.

Oh.

The little guy couldn't understand bird language and didn't bring any food.

Considering that they arrived on time, Yu Yijun had to ignore the small details and urged the little guy to help quickly.

If they had arrived ten minutes later, the bird's nest would have collapsed.

Yu Yiyun reacted quickly and was confident enough to grab the two eggs at the moment of collapse.

The problem is that it exposes the eggs to air and rapidly freezes them into frozen live beads.

"Don't worry, don't worry! I'll be there soon!"

The staff set up a ladder and cleared the snow on the surface of the bird's nest as quickly as possible.

Then take out some steel wires, pass them through the bird's nest, and secure them to the trunk of the Douglas fir.

In this way, the weight of the bird's nest is mainly supported by the tree trunk, reducing the load on the branches.

Even if the branch breaks, the bird's nest will not collapse.

"My dear, I assure you that your nest is definitely the strongest bird nest in Alaska."

"Chirp?" Really?

The staff member met the little fat boy's suspicious look, somehow guessed what he meant, and gave him assurances.

Yu Yiyun let out a long sigh of relief, relaxed his body, and retracted his head into his wings to continue incubating the eggs.

The staff did not leave, but continued to interview the internet celebrity Xiao Jiujiu around the nest.

"My dear, I want to know why you want to hatch eggs?"

"Chirp!" I want to rub the little bird!

"Oh, so you're really practicing your courtship skills?"

“……???”

What's the connection?

What does courtship have to do with me!

After five lives, Yu Yiyun, who is still single, buried her head even deeper.

"Then can you tell me why you go to Wyoming for the winter?"

“……”Yu Yiyun remained silent.

He didn't want to tell the little guy that he was lost, so he went to Yellowstone to find his old friend.

According to the original plan, I was going to Mexico to sunbathe.

"Well, I know you're a little bird of your own and you must have your own ideas."

The staff tried to explain a bit and then smiled and wished him good luck in hatching the eggs.

“Chirp!”

The rescue team turned around and heard the birds singing on the branches, and waved with emotion.

"You're welcome!"

"Chirp!" Who is thanking me!

"Chirp!" Next time you come to my house, remember to bring some delicious food!

[Getting more and more.jpg]

The raging snowstorm continued for another half day before gradually subsiding.

As soon as the sky cleared up, the brothers and sisters who were trapped more than ten kilometers away rushed back immediately.

They seemed to realize that it was very hard for their younger brother to incubate the eggs alone, so the two eagles actually took the initiative to bring food back to the nest.

Yu Yiyun heard the calls of domestic birds from afar and poked his head out from under the thick snow.

After a night of snow, not only his head but his entire body was covered with pure white snowflakes.

Real bald eagle.

Seeing his brother and sister flying over, Yu Yijun shook his head and shook off the snow on his head.

Not until they landed on the bird's nest did the little fat bird dare to stand up, revealing the two eggs it had been protecting under its body.

Seeing that her brother and sister were about to separate the two eggs as usual, Yu Yiyun let out a loud cry of anger.

"Chirp!" Hatch quickly!

"Chirp, chirp!" If my eggs freeze to death, I will pluck out all your hair!

The older brother and sister were startled.

Although I don't understand the reason, I just lie down obediently.

After eating the food brought back by his brothers and sisters, Yu Yijun shook his feathers, spread his almost stiff wings, and circled in the air.

Last night's snowstorm had a severe impact, and at least four bird nests collapsed nearby.

There were no collapsed bird nests. Many of them were because another sea eagle was trapped and unable to return to take over the shift, causing the parent birds to suffer from hunger and cold and have no choice but to abandon the nest.

In previous years, after the parent birds abandoned the nest, the eggs in the nest would most likely become food for other birds.

In extreme cases, some sea eagles will eat their own eggs to satisfy their hunger.

After this blizzard, everyone was surprised to find out.

After several parent birds left the nest, sub-adult sea eagles immediately crawled in.

Perhaps the sub-adult sea eagles are just being curious, but if this phenomenon spreads, it will inevitably increase the survival rate of the chicks.

Yu Yiyun flapped her wings and flew back to the nest of her parents.

When a blizzard hits, the male eagle is responsible for incubating the eggs.

He is not as experienced in raising chicks as the female eagle, but he is better in that he has always been conscientious and responsible and wants to perform well in front of his beloved wife.

From strong winds to blizzards, the male eagle endured the blizzard alone for a day and a night.

No matter how cold or hungry it is, it has no intention of abandoning its nest.

As soon as the wind and snow stopped, the female eagle came back with food and found that her little husband had been buried in the snow. She quickly cleared the snow around and fed the fish meat to her little husband's mouth.

"Oyi?" When the little husband saw his partner, he realized that the snow had stopped, and he couldn't wait to show her the two eggs he was guarding so tightly.

"oyi~" Wife~

"Oyi~" I'm great, right?

Upon seeing this, the female eagle immediately lay down to take the male eagle's place, urging him impatiently.

"Ouch!" It's your turn to hunt.

"Oh hey!" Come back after eating!

"oyi~"

After the male eagle finished eating the fish brought back by his partner, he moved over to rub against his wife and used his beak to comb her feathers.

Yu Yiyun witnessed the whole process and secretly regretted it.

——If I had known that you two were so affectionate, I shouldn’t have come here!

[The other party kicked over the bowl of bird food.jpg]

The snowstorm ended and the temperature in the habitat quickly warmed up.

The second half of the hatching process went smoothly.

After finally drawing seven correct characters, Yu Yiyun excitedly stood up and looked at them every few minutes, looking forward to the moment when the baby bird broke out of the shell.

Most birds have the ability of "imprinting learning" and will regard the first thing they see as their mother.

After working hard to incubate the eggs for more than a month, the little fat chick made up his mind:

I will definitely be this male mother~!

Just as he checked for the umpteenth time and found that one of the eggs had begun to peck at its shell, he suddenly heard the buzzing of an annoying fly.

During the brooding period, the biggest threat to the chicks is not the birds of prey, but the blood-sucking black flies flying around in the air.

Blood-sucking black flies are small but numerous.

If they gather around the nest and suck the blood of chicks, the chicks will become weak and die from malnutrition.

In order to prevent the young birds from being harassed by blood-sucking black flies, Yu Yiyun paid great attention to the hygiene of the bird's nest and cleaned up the remains of prey in a timely manner.

If he encounters one or two black flies flying towards him, he will drive them away as if they were a great enemy.

Yu Yiyun chased away the blood-sucking black flies, and then returned to the bird's nest to take a look.

The sky collapsed.

The baby bird poked its little head out of the eggshell, without opening its eyes yet, but opened its mouth wide and begged for food in a crisp voice towards the camera next to the nest.

Little Fatty: ???

I'm raising the camera now!