It's difficult to describe the steady transformation of the eyasses as more and more feathers poke through their down every day. You have to see it to believe how fast they change. Three of the eyasses are approaching fully feathered, while the little one is still mostly white fluff, but changing rapidly.
This is not the first time we have had an eyas that is smaller and less developed than its siblings; we had a similar situation in 1997. That eyas was slow to develop, also, but was a lively, healthy youngster at fledging time. The eyasses are both beautiful and comical at the same time. White fluff billows out from beneath their fresh new feathers and their heads wear fuzzy crowns of down, but the dark malar stripes emphasize their beautiful dark eyes, and they are beginning to show watchful, intent awareness of the world beyond the ledge. That awareness is limited, though. They appear fascinated with flying birds, yet they don't recognize those birds as food; food is still a dead bird, fresh or leftover, provided by a parent. It's not until after fledging that they will begin to make the connection.
They are five weeks old; we expect that they will fledge in about a week.
