March 11, 2007
Stages of Down
First, I want to thank everyone who came out for our 7th Annual Eagle Festival. It was a beautiful day with a big turnout and lots of eagles soaring over the Refuge, and we were very happy to see everyone who could make it. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) was kind enough to come down and help us dedicate our newly renovated Visitor Center and also help us pay tribute to our retiring refuge manager Glenn Carowan –- who is off to a new job in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Also, Wild Birds Unlimited -- who helped us tremendously with a grant for our new building -- was also in attendance. We greatly appreciate everyone who came out to enjoy our eagles and join the festivities.
Stages of Down
Several cam watchers had noticed that the parents were off the chicks quite a bit on Saturday -- the day of our Eagle Festival. This day was one of the warmest of the year and had a lot of bright sunshine, so the eaglets were not in need of much coverage.
In addition, our eaglets are getting closer to the time when they will be able to control their own body temperatures and they are also slowly developing their second coat of down, which is thicker than the first.
When the eaglet first comes out of the shell, it has a silky down that in several weeks is replaced with the second and final coat of down before the feathers begin to emerge. This second coat of down is longer, thicker and woolier than the natal down. You can see a photo here of this second downy stage. This coat -- combined with the chicks growing ability to control their own temperatures -- means the chicks will soon be able to protect themselves from the elements.
The parents will still provide cover at night and if there is a lot of precipitation (at least while the chicks are still small) but when the temperature is mild or the sun is out, the chicks will be able to fend more for themselves.
A couple weeks after the wooly down is in, the feathers will slowly start to emerge -- in fact if you look closely at the photo I posted above, you can see several feather shafts starting to appear on the right wing of the eagle. These "blood feathers" are protected by a shaft and fed by blood until the feather is fully formed. Once the feathers are fully out, they will appear as dark sections on the eaglet's body, with the feathers growing more rapidly on the shoulders, back and the wings.
At around four to six weeks of age, the eaglet may be sporting bits of the first two downy stages as well as new feathers coming in. This gives the eaglet a rather comical appearance as the chick might be sporting three different stages of covering. But eventually, all the down will disappear and the eaglet will have its first set of feathers. We’ll talk more about the all-important eagle feathers in future web logs.
One final note: Something else that lets us know that the eaglets are staying warm is when they poke their little heads out from under the mother’s breast -- and we’ve been seeing quite a few shots of that in the last couple days. At these times, the chicks are comfortable with having their heads exposed.
Feeding video:
Denise Farmer -- one of our talented cam watchers -- has put together a short video of a feeding session with our eaglets. Right-click on this link and choose “Save Target As” to download the Windows Media file (4 MB). Much thanks to Denise for sharing this nice sequence that illustrates how the eaglets jockey for position.
Photos:
Thanks to all those who have been sending in eaglet photos (and photos of our first osprey sighting!). Just a personal note -- I will be going on a short vacation with my sister and nephew during the middle of the week, so if you send in questions, it might take a little longer for me to respond, but I’ll get caught up when I return. Also, I'll try to fit in one more quick Gallery update before I go.
On a technical note, we know the cam clock is off by an hour right now. Our software person is trying to figure out how to adjust the cam clock manually for Daylight Savings, since it was at a new time this year.
Also, we have noticed that sometimes the Eagle Cam is stopping its updating then restarting itself. We're working to find out what is causing that glitch. We hope to have it fixed in the near future.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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