February 22, 2006
First Eaglet
Much congrats to the eagle parents! We have our first eaglet, and from what we can tell it began hatching early this morning (a 36-day incubation). Since the first egg was fertile, it increases the likelihood that the second egg will be fertile as well.
The eagle parents were really on the ball this morning. The mother was doing her best to shield the hatching chick from the rain, while the father suddenly became the ultimate provider, immediately bringing two good-sized fish to the nest as soon as he knew that the chick was coming. He also brought some extra grass to keep the family warm.
Eagle biologists have reported that the parents bring the same amount of food throughout the chicks' lives in the nest. This means that much of the food in these early days is wasted because the little chicks can't eat it all. But when the eaglets are grown, every bit of food that is delivered will be quickly gobbled up.
As for the new hatchling, when the chick first enters the world, its eyes are closed and its down is wet, but very quickly its eyes will open and its fuzzy down will dry out. Here you can see a close-up photo that shows what a dry, newly born eaglet looks like. You can also see its egg tooth in this shot.
A newborn cannot regulate its own body temperature in the first couple weeks, so it will be up to the female to keep the eaglet safe from the sun, cold temperatures, and precipitation. She may also put grass on top of the chick to keep it safe from the elements.
Also in the first few weeks, the female will be the only one tending to the chick, and the male will do all the hunting. But as the chick gets bigger, the female and male will take turns watching the eaglet and hunting for food.
According to eagle biologists, an American bald eaglet's rate of growth is faster than any other North American bird. A chick weighs about 3-4 ounces at birth but will grow to 9-15 pounds in about 3 months. The chick will stay in the nest for about 10-12 weeks, at the end of which it will begin flying. The fledgling will then spend about 6 more weeks around the nest before it becomes independent.
The health and growth of a chick is directly tied to the parents' skill at providing meals and to the health of the local fish and waterfowl population. The healthier the local food supply, the better for the growing eaglet.
Technical Notes:
I also wanted to make a quick mention of a couple technical issues, especially for our new cam watchers.
During the day I might update the message above the cam image. Today I was updating it a lot because things were happening quickly. If you have the cam page up for a long period, you might not notice that I've changed the message. But a way to fix that is to occasionally refresh the cam page, then you should see the new message. If you're using AOL or another ISP that stores web pages, you might have to click CTRL + Refresh to get the new page.
On another topic: Yesterday we had some minor image delays. The problem mainly affected the Friends' cam and not the cam at our partner website, WildCam.com.
If there is ever a problem with the Friends' cam, you can go to WildCam.com, and see if the cam is working there because the images on both cams are identical. You have to register on the WildCam site (it's free) but sometimes they are up while we're down, or vice versa. If the problem is related to our ground equipment, then both cams are likely to be inactive, but if it's a network or computer problem, then it might just affect one of the sites and not the other.
We'll update the Gallery tomorrow; thanks to everyone for their photos of the hatching.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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