Commerce City Balds, July 3rd and 4th Visit

The discovery and documentation of peregrine falcons nesting in downtown Denver has diverted Peter's documentation of a variety of nesting raptors in the Brighton/Commerce City/Denver area. This was especially true of the Commerce City bald eagles which he's been filming for years.
This year he missed the moment when the single youngster fledged, however on July 3rd and 4th he found the eaglet within 100 yards of his/her parents and nest. Note that the parents were hidden in the shade of the cottonwood trees (on both days), and from a long distance it took some careful observation for Peter to find them hidden in the dappled sunlight. Once he found them however, he scanned the area and as luck would have it, the fledgling was close by.
The eaglet seem very healthy, with the typical dark brown plumage, black beak and dark eye of a first-year bald eagle. Around 2:17 you'll notice that s/he seems to be trying to regurgitate something stuck in the throat. What s/he is likely doing is moving a pellet or "casting" upwards from the gizzard and into the crop. This pellet contains compressed feathers, fur, and in the case of bald eagles, even very hard fish scales and other indigestible materials from the eagle's last meal. About once every 24 hours it's cast out, acting somewhat like a bottle brush to clean out the alimentary canal of diurnal raptors.
The heat in the early afternoon on both days coupled with the very long telephoto requirement creates a lot of heat distortion in the video. Our apologies, but we thought our viewers would enjoy watching this eagle family continuing their successful addition to Colorado's Front Range Eagle population!