June 02, 2005
Word from Vermont
First, a technical note: Some cam watchers have noticed that our website is not updating the cams every minute. We have a firewall issue that we're working on, and we hope to have it fixed soon. Meanwhile, the cams at WildCam.com are updating regularly.
As we mentioned earlier, the bars came down at the Vermont hacking tower early this morning, and the eaglets from Maryland were allowed to fledge. Some of our helpful cam watchers caught the action for us; much thanks for their dedication. You can see several shots here showing the bars and a person visible in front of the box.
Amy, the Hack Site Coordinator, sent an email this morning to let us in on what it was like watching the eaglets fledge:
"What an exciting morning! The bars came down at 3am and all went smoothly. The first bird from box 2 flew at 5:30am! What a great sight. It flew to the pine trees to the left of the tower. The second bird (we don't know from which box) flew at 6:10am, and the third at 6:37am.
There was a lot of mingling among the birds on the deck before they flew, so we were unable to determine which was which. Our scopes just weren't powerful enough to read the bands from where we were located. As of now, 3 birds remain at the tower, flapping and eating intermittently. The 3 flyers are hanging out in the pine trees behind the tower.
Their first flights were far from graceful, but they each landed well and have been hopping around from branch to branch. One of the flyers did have a bit of sustained flight with some tough maneuvering among the trees! It was spectacular.
These birds are great and doing well. We have food placed on several platforms in the vicinity of the tower should they wish to eat or are able to find those sources. If not, we anticipate they will return to the tower at night to eat and sleep."
Thanks to Amy for sharing such a rewarding experience. We're very happy that the birds seem to be adjusting to their new freedom. Now that they have fledged in Vermont, Vermont is their home and where they will return when they are ready to breed. Best of luck to all of them.
As you may have noticed on the Vermont Bald Eagle Restoration Initiative website, it states that they will be getting a new batch of bald eaglets around mid-June. From what we understand, they will be from Massachusetts and Maine.
We took a short video this morning of one of the eaglets in our box flapping his wings outside on the perch. This is a 2.2MB MPEG movie. Right-click on the link below and choose "Save Target As" to download the short clip to your hard drive so you can view it.
| Eaglet Fledging |
Back at our cam nest: Last night it appeared that the youngest eaglet did not spend most or all of the night in the nest -- this was the first time he seemed to be roosting in the trees with the rest of the family. Later this morning he was back at the nest being fed by one of the parents. We're not sure if he has fledged, but he seems to be getting closer, and he will be our last for this season. We'll continue to watch the Eagle Cam until we are sure all have fledged.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Posted by Webmaster at June 2, 2005 04:29 PM