Eagle Cam Web Log 2007

Miscellaneous Eagle News

This web log post is a miscellaneous collection of eagle news that includes some news about our chicks, and also news about other eagles as well.

First, we hope to go live with the 2007 Eaglet-Naming Contest soon. We're finishing up some programming details, but we'll announce it on the cam page as soon as it starts, and we'll provide further details then. Several folks have asked about gender names. We won't ever know for sure what the chicks' gender is because we don't plan to climb the tree to sex them, but when they're fully grown we'll be able to compare their sizes via the cam and maybe judge their gender then. But for the contest, unisex names are best, but we will take gender-based names if you'd like to submit those as well.

The chicks are growing like weeds and we're starting to see some signs of their maturity. As we mentioned on the cam page, the eaglets' feet and beaks will reach adult size before their bodies do. That's why we see funny photos of the eaglets with big, gangly yellow feet.

And today we got one of our first clear shots of tiny blood feathers coming in on one chick. Blood feathers are comprised of shafts that protect the new feathers and provide blood to them until they are fully developed. Breaking one of these would be painful and dangerous, as they will bleed. Here you can see an example of blood feathers on a young osprey chick. The blue coloring on the feather shaft is the blood.

Also, we have seen a couple photos where it looked like the eaglets might be attempting to feed themselves. The chicks are still too young to do any major tearing of meat, but it's a sign of maturity that they are starting to realize that life can be immensely more enjoyable if you learn to feed yourself. :-)

Other Eagle News

The sad news from the NCTC Eagle Cam is that none of the eggs were salvageable after the big snowstorm that we mentioned in the last web log entry. So at this point, our friends in West Virginia are hoping that the parents might try for a second clutch. This would be rather rare, but at the NCTC they're reporting that the couple has been seen mating after their loss, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that maybe the parents will surprise everyone and produce another clutch.

I also wanted to remind folks that the Channel Islands in California are seeing good eagle action at their nests and on their cams. The fact that any eagles are reproducing at all in the Channel Islands is inspiring because between the 1940s and 1970s, hundreds of tons of DDT waste products were dumped into the ocean south of Los Angeles -- this is the same pesticide that almost brought about the extinction of eagles and ospreys due to egg-shell thinning brought on by DDT in the food chain. DDT continues to contaminate the food and affect eagle reproduction on the Channel Islands, but biologists and environmentalists there are working very hard to get the eagles to the point where they can safely raise young. You can read more about this on the Channel Islands' National Park Service website.

Also we hear that the Maine Eagle Cam season is moving along nicely. One of our cam watchers recently shared a video clip with me showing the female laying her second egg -- an act that eagle fans don't often get to see, so be sure to watch.

And finally, I wanted to share some incredible eagle photos from our good friend Woody Dawson. Woody is a very experienced local eagle photographer who recently made a trip to Homer, Alaska to visit with the "Eagle Lady." Jean Keene is the "Eagle Lady" and you can read more about her here, but she feeds 200-300 wild eagles in Alaska during the winter, and many photographers visit her to have the chance to get some amazing shots, like the ones below.

In the first photo, we see a close-up of the Homer eagles, and in the second photo we see an animated GIF showing the eagles with a little added motion. Click on the thumbnails to open larger versions. And much thanks to Woody for sharing these incredible shots:

Blackwater Refuge Gallery

Speaking of photos, I just updated the Blackwater Refuge Gallery on our website, so be sure to pay a visit since there are some wonderful new photos, including one shot of our rather famous and rare white pelicans. And much thanks to the photographers who contributed the photos to our gallery.

Ospreys

Finally, a word about our ospreys: The osprey pair seems to be doing very well. The nest has quickly taken on a nice round shape, and the parents seem very attentive to their home. I'll be starting the Osprey Cam Web Log soon since it looks like we're in for another promising season with our enjoyable ospreys.

If you're new to watching ospreys -- or fish hawks, as they are often called -- I can promise you that they are incredibly fun to watch and have their own unique personalities and habits. It's also interesting to watch them as they raise their young during the warmer months, and it can be rather dramatic to see them dealing with thunderstorms and heat waves and such. So we hope you'll stay tuned to the Osprey Cam, where last year our osprey parents produced four chicks that fledged -- a Blackwater record! We don't really expect to get four again (that would be amazing) but you never know. :-)

We'll try to update both cam galleries by the end of the week.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

Eaglet Videos Pt. 2

Before we get to our new video clips, I wanted to quickly cover a few other topics.

First, I’ve been getting quite a few emails about the corn cobs in the eagle nest. There are cornfields near the nest site, and when the eagle parents bring cornstalk pieces to the nest (for nesting material) sometimes a corn cob comes along for the ride. Our ranger says he doesn’t believe the eagles are eating the corn, but they’re likely pecking at it. In the first two seasons we even saw what looked like the eaglets playing with the corn cobs, so the cobs are more of a curiosity than food.

Also, cam watchers have seen that as the chicks get better at protecting themselves from the elements, the parents are often disappearing from our view. This doesn’t mean the parents are gone. It’s highly likely one of them is sitting in the branches of the nest tree (and out of our view) while they’re looking over the chicks. Our adults seem like very capable parents, and they would likely know that leaving the chicks completely alone at this point would be dangerous since the chicks are still small enough to be vulnerable to predators (such as owls). Also, as the chicks get bigger, the parents will have a harder time fitting into the nest, so a more comfortable place for them will be on a nearby branch.

On a slightly different topic, the Eagle Cam at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Virginia now has three active eaglets. I think a couple cam watchers told me about this cam, and I forgot to mention it. I just checked the streaming video, and it looks good, so be sure to pay the cam a visit.

We also have some sad news to pass along from our friends at the NCTC Eagle Cam (National Conservation Training Center) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The poor eagle parents got caught in a big snowstorm last weekend, and after the snow cleared, they were missing one of their three eggs. The US Fish and Wildlife Service at the NCTC think one unlucky eaglet may have hatched around the time of the storm but then succumbed to the elements since the snow was just too heavy. Right now, the NCTC cam watchers are waiting for the other two eggs to hatch, but the eggs are late. We wish our friends there the best of luck and hope the eagle parents can salvage their nesting season.

Video Clips

In this web log entry, we have four new video clips to share with you; these were taken on the day of our Eagle Festival on March 10, so the eaglets look a little younger but the behaviors they’re exhibiting in the clips are still relevant today. Right-click on the video links below and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to download them to your computer. If you have broadband, you can left-click on the links to play the videos, as the files are relatively small.

In the first clip, we get to see one of the chicks slicing (as falconers call it). What’s interesting about this clip is that the chick has the instinct to go “outside the nest” in order to keep the nest tidy. This instinct is aided by the fact that eagles (and ospreys) have strong anal muscles, so the birds are able to clear the nest even when they are very young.

Also, in this clip it’s funny to watch how the eaglet has to basically stand on its head to get its little rear end high enough to slice clear of the nest. On the cam, you an also see that sometimes the eaglets hit the trunk of the tree, which has an increasing amount of whitewash on it.

3.7 MB Clip

In the second clip, we see a short sibling fight that is instigated by the youngest. I know our cam watchers have noticed that the second eaglet has been acting more passive as a consequence of the chick being second-in-line at the nest. Even though the youngest chick is smaller and occasionally bullied by the oldest, we can report that folks at the Refuge say the youngest eaglet is getting his share of the food and seems to be doing very well. It’s also important to note that the oldest chick does not appear to be interfering too much with the youngest at feeding time, so both chicks are well fed. This is especially true since the father eagle is still pitching in and helping to feed the chicks when he’s with them. We continue to be impressed with our father, especially since we did not see this behavior from the male in the last two seasons.

4.6 MB Clip

In the third clip we see a changeover where the mother eagle comes in to relieve the father. Although the father fed the chicks before this scene, the eaglets still look expectantly at the mother when she arrives with food, and it doesn’t take long for the mother to offer up a morsel of food to the always hungry eaglets. Also in this clip, you might be able to briefly see that the father appeared to have something on his beak. We’re not sure if he had a cut or it was some leftover food.

6.7 MB Clip

In the final clip, we see a longer feeding session with the chicks. What’s interesting about this clip is how the parent tries to hand off a piece of food that is just too large for the chick, so the chick drops it. The parent then picks it up and chomps it into smaller pieces, and then offers it again to the chicks.

It’s also interesting to note that even when a chick drops smaller pieces of food, it doesn’t seem to occur to the eaglet to reach down and pick up the meat – instead the chick waits for the parent to do it. Right now, the chicks seem to believe that food can only come from the parent’s beak, and so that is where they look.

5.6 MB Clip

Gallery Updates

I just wanted to thank all those who have been sending in photos from both our cams. We greatly appreciate our cam watchers taking the time to make our galleries such a wonderful record of our nesting seasons. We often use the past galleries to remind ourselves about what the families did and when, so they really are a useful resource to all those who follow the cams.

If you've never submitted photos and wonder how it's done, be sure to visit our Submit page for instructions.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

Eaglet Behavior

Before we talk about our two growing eaglets (17 days old and 15 days old), I wanted to share a link with those who missed our Eagle Festival a week ago. Paula -- one of our cam watchers -- has posted her photos from the Festival, so be sure to check them out if you'd like to see the Refuge and some of the fun activities we offered, such as the birds of prey we had on display, as well as our resident eagles flying around the Refuge. (Note: the captive birds of prey you see in the photos are formerly injured animals that are used for educational purposes since they cannot be returned to the wild). Much thanks to Paula for sharing her shots.

Second, be sure to read this wonderful cover article about Blackwater Refuge that is in the current issue of Chesapeake Life magazine. I think the article offers a good overview of the Refuge and what makes it so special to so many people.

Finally, I wanted to share an article on a golden eagle that was recently rescued in West Virginia and will soon be tracked upon release. Golden eagles are slightly smaller than bald eagles, but they are very impressive raptors that are much less common on the East Coast of the U.S. The article talks about the eagle's injury and illustrates the terrible danger of using steel animal traps, as they are a cruel form of trapping that can accidentally snare the wrong animal. Also note that if you follow the article link to the National Aviary website you can also learn more about the researchers' program to track golden eagles with a satellite.

Eaglet Behavior

We've been having some odd weather on the East Coast lately -- so odd that in less than a week we went from balmy days in the low 70's to frigid days with near-zero wind chill temperatures accompanied by rain and ice. The eagle family has been plodding along, trying to adjust to the unpredictable conditions, and they seem to be doing well.

Around the middle of the week it was warm, and we saw chick behavior that told us the eaglets were feeling the heat. A good example of this was when one chick started lying under mom, who provided shade with her body, while one chick tried sticking out its leg to help cool itself off. We'll see more of these behaviors as spring and summer bring hotter temperatures.

Something worth mentioning is the fact that heat is often a bigger threat to eaglets than cold, and that is why we see our raptor parents (both eagles and ospreys) using their bodies and wings to provide shade to raptor chicks during the warmer months.

But here at Blackwater Refuge, heat wasn't a problem at the end of this past week -- the problem was the sudden arrival of heavy, cold rain. Our mother eagle was like a rock as she stayed over the chicks for long periods to keep the eaglets warm and dry. Several cam watchers noticed that the mother didn't even make use of a fish that the father brought in for the family.

And that brings us to the topic of crops. During bad weather, our eaglets can wait to be fed since they possess crops. A crop is an organ located near the base of the bird's neck, and it stores food for later consumption. Our chicks are small, so it's hard to see their crops right now, but here are a pair of photos from our first Eagle Cam season where you can see our youngest eaglet's crop growing in size as he gets fed (he's the eaglet near the top of the image).

For the parents, the advantage of a crop is that it means the chicks don't have to be fed as often, since the young have food stored in their crop pouches. Adult eagles and most other birds have crops too, but they're often harder to see under all the feathers. It's been reported that an eagle with a full crop can usually survive at least five to seven days without eating.

While most birds have crops, owls in fact do not. They swallow their food whole and all of the prey goes into their stomach. Also, the stomach of an owl does not have the strong digestive juices that an eagle or osprey has, so the pellets that an owl regurgitates (pellets containing indigestible food) are usually filled with the full skeletons of the animals they ate. Often schoolchildren will dissect an owl pellet to learn more about what owls eat. You can dissect an eagle or osprey pellet, but they are smaller and contain less identifiable animal parts. If you're interested in learning more about owls and owl pellets, be sure to visit The Owl Pages website.

Another behavior that we saw this past week was the eagle parents covering the chicks with grass -- a common behavior used to provide protection from the elements or sometimes even protection from predators when the parents leave the nest for a bit. One of our chicks was covered so much that several cam watchers thought it had disappeared from the nest. :-)

One other concern for cam watchers was the way in which the chicks were getting close to the nest edge now that they are becoming more mobile.

It is somewhat rare for eaglets to fall out of the nest at this age, although as they get older they can get blown out in storms or get blown out when they begin holding out their wings to practice their flapping. While the threat is there that the eaglets could accidentally fall, that doesn't mean the parents are unconcerned or unaware. In fact, they too watch the chicks and their proximity to the edge. In our first Eagle Cam season we saw an excellent example of how carefully the parents were watching the chicks as one night an adventurous eaglet kept getting closer and closer to the edge -- looking as if it was determined to go all the way over. The parent was close by, patiently watching the chick, and then the parent finally came over and herded it back to the center of the nest. What was even more remarkable about this scene was that eagles do not have much better night vision than humans, yet the parent was very aware of how close the eaglet was to danger even in the darkness.

Final Note:

When I was at the Eagle Festival last week, I captured some more video from our live Eagle Cam at the Visitor Center. I haven't had a chance to edit it yet, but I will try to put together a couple video clips for our next web log. The chicks will look a little younger in the video segments than they do now, but I think you will enjoy seeing some new behaviors from our eagle family -- like how the chicks interact with each other and how they slice over the nest edge to keep the nest tidy.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

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
(contact)

Eaglet Videos

We appreciate everyone's patience as the Eagle Cam went down briefly yesterday evening. Our volunteer cam technician, Tom Hook, was quick on the job and had us back up early this morning. Much thanks to Tom for his speedy work to get the Eagle Cam operating again.

Also, I wanted to remind our new cam watchers that if they have missed any of our previous web log entries, they can look in the right margin of this page, and find links to past entries. For example, if you look at the one called "Eagle Cam Video" you can see video clips from when our parents were incubating the eggs.

In this web log entry, we’re offering five video clips of our two new eaglets. These clips were captured from our Visitor Center TV monitor on Sunday, which was a sunny but cool and windy day at the Refuge.

Normally when I post videos, I try to keep the file sizes small since I know that some of our cam watchers are still using a dial-up connection to the Internet. But I felt the need to offer larger clips this time since the eaglets are so small and sometimes hard to see. So what you’ll find below are two versions of each clip – a low bandwidth version and a high bandwidth version. The scenes are the same in each clip, but the high bandwidth version has a bigger file size and a clearer view.

Just right-click on each link below and choose “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to download the clip to your computer.

In the first video clip we see the father eagle sitting on the chicks. We continue to be impressed with our father eagle’s willingness to watch the chicks and to even feed them (which he did just the other day). Not long after this clip starts, the mother eagle flies in and the father stands up and flies off, leaving the mother to look after the chicks. Once the father leaves, we can see the chicks in the nest cup, with the youngest on the left and the oldest on the right.

You’ll notice that both chicks are still wobbly and often fall down or have trouble keeping their heads up at times. But it’s clear that the oldest is stronger than the youngest at this stage.

11 MB Clip

5 MB Clip

In the second clip we see the beginning of a feeding session. Apparently the mother eagle had a small bird when she flew into the nest. We never actually see the bird, but the mother eagle begins plucking something and feathers begin to fly, so she must have had a feathered meal. As mom plucks away, the two chicks sit there patiently waiting while feathers drift about their heads, then mom hands a small piece of food to the youngest eaglet, who proceeds to drop it. The mother quickly picks it up and offers it again to the chicks.

13 MB Clip

5 MB Clip

In video clip three, we see a different feeding session later that morning. This time the food is a large fish that the father eagle brought to the nest after the previous clip. In the video you can see the technique that the parents use to feed the young. First the female eagle tears off a piece and offers it to one or the other chick -- often depending on which bird has their head up at the time. If the eaglet doesn’t seem interested in a piece, she offers it to the other, and if neither takes it, she might eat part of it herself. Sometimes she also adjusts the morsel in her mouth if it appears that the offered piece is too big for the eaglets to take.

13 MB Clip

5 MB Clip

In the fourth clip we see a clear example of sibling rivalry. At the beginning of the shot, the youngest eaglet makes a pecking motion toward the oldest (the eaglet may have just fallen forward) and the oldest eaglet reacts by pecking and twisting the youngest on the head. After the peck, the youngest eaglet wisely keeps its head down for a bit, until the coast is clear for it to raise its head again.

Normally parents do not interfere with sibling rivalry attacks, but the peck by the oldest seemed to attract the mother’s attention in this clip and she moves over the chicks.

The lesson the oldest is trying to teach the youngest is that the smaller bird should be submissive around the oldest. Last year our youngest chick (in a two-eaglet brood) had been pecked so many times by its older sibling that we could see a little bald spot developing on the top of its head. In comparison, our youngest from the previous season (in a three-eaglet brood) showed almost no signs of having been harassed excessively by either of its bigger siblings.

Fortunately, this bullying does dissipate over time. Once the eaglets get closer to fledging age, the two siblings will be more like playmates than competitors. They’ll still squabble over food, but we won’t likely see the same bullying that goes on when they are very young.

16 MB Clip

5 MB Clip

In the final clip, we see the feeding session has ended and the mother eagle is once again positioning herself over the chicks. The interesting part of this clip is how the mother eagle herds the chicks under her and manages to position them close against her brood patch without smothering them. We must assume that there is a small pocket of air under the mother so the chicks can breathe while she sits on top of them. Once the mother is settled in, she begins the wait until the father returns or until the chicks get hungry again.

12 MB Clip

5 MB Clip

We hope you enjoy these video clips. We know a lot of our cam watchers wish we had streaming video, but since that is something we cannot afford, we offer these clips with the hope that they will give you similar insight into how our family looks in motion.

Thanks to all those who have been sending in their photos to our Eagle Cam Gallery – we have a wonderful record now of each eaglet’s birth, and we look forward to capturing the rest of their young nest lives with new images.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

Welcome, Eaglets!

We have a lot to cover in this web log entry, so forgive the length of the post. First, a big congratulations to our parents on their two-eaglet brood! Both eaglets arrived on their 36th day of incubation, so here is the 2007 scorecard:

1st egg
Laid: 01/24/07
Hatched: 03/01/07

2nd egg
Laid: 01/26/07
Hatched: 03/03/07

Thanks to all our cam watchers who have been sending in photos of the events and emails of congratulations. We had a lot of photo submissions, so in Friday night's Gallery update, I spread the name credits around on the photos. We'll try to do another Gallery update in the next few days.

Some folks have asked about the size of a newborn. Newborn bald eaglets are about 4-5 inches in length, and weigh about 70-105 grams at birth, but will gain up to 180 grams a day. In fact, it's been stated that bald eaglets are the fastest growing birds in North America.

Also, cam watchers have asked about the terminology. Today the youngest eaglet is a hatchling and the older eaglet is a nestling. Beyond today, the two eaglets will be called nestlings until they learn to fly, at which time they'll be called fledglings. Then when they are flying about independently, they are called juveniles or immatures. Once they get older and closer to breeding age, they might be called sub-adults. And once they reach breeding age and get an all-white head and tail (about 4-5 years of age), then they are called adults. But right now, I mostly refer to them as chicks or eaglets.

The Family:

So far the parents have been good about bringing in fish for the eaglets, although at some point they might bring in other types of food too (ducks, etc). Whatever the parents eat, the eaglets can eat. The parents do not regurgitate the food like some other birds do. They tear off tiny bits and gently feed them to the chicks. It will be quite a while before the eaglets will be strong enough and big enough to tear off their own food.

Although we can't hear the eaglets, they are certainly chirping to express themselves and their needs. The Institute for Wildlife Studies in California has several videos on their website of newborn bald eaglets. Be sure to visit the Photos and Videos page and scroll down to look at the first few videos they offer -- those will give you a good idea of how our little eaglets look and sound in person.

You'll notice from the videos that the eaglets like to peck a lot. This is instinctive and starts almost as soon as they come out of the egg. They'll peck at almost anything -- food, fingers, their siblings. Pecking is the one thing they can do early and do well, so they do it a lot. :-)

Since our firstborn is about 48 hours ahead of the second chick, this means the firstborn has a definite growth advantage, since bald eaglets grow very fast. In fact they grow so fast, that years ago when biologists first started visiting eagle nests, they thought the eaglets were being born weeks apart since they varied so much in size. Turns out they were only one to three days apart.

So in our Eagle Cam nest, the firstborn will be the dominant chick and will likely pick on the younger chick, at least while they're small. This is life in an eagle nest -- the chicks have a hierarchy and being firstborn makes you king of the nest and means you get the most food. In an area where food is in short supply, this would spell trouble for the youngest eaglet. But Blackwater Refuge has a lot of food, so right now we would expect that both chicks will get enough food to survive, even if sibling rivalry means that the oldest chick gets fed the most.

As for the parents, they surprised us a bit during the first hatching. In the past two Eagle Cam seasons, we had a clear view of the egg as the hatching occurred. But this year, the mother stayed on the eggs almost the entire time, and then when the first chick hatched, she suddenly just stood up and there was a chick. It's possible the mother eagle decided to stay on the hatching chick since it arrived very early when it was still cold. For the second eaglet, we got a much better view because the mother was feeding the first chick while the second was being born.

The other surprise came right after the first eaglet was born. Normally the mother performs most of the incubation duties once a chick is in the nest and dad provides the early meals. But instead mom took off and left dad to watch the new youngster, and then she brought back the first meal -- a nice fish.

These surprises illustrate one of the most important lessons we've learned while watching our raptor cams for the last six years, and that lesson is that no animal is completely predictable. Although birds (and other animals) are largely driven by instinct, that does not mean that we can predict what they will do in every situation. Each bird is unique -- they have different personalities, different temperaments, different genetic attributes, and different levels of experience. They also react differently to their mates, to other animals, and even to people. So it's not possible to say "They will always do this." Instead we try to say "They will often do this" as we can only indicate what are the most common behaviors. But in the end, the birds' actions are not set in stone, and that is why it's so enjoyable to watch the raptors year after year, because each season is different in its own way.

Other Eagle Sites:

We've had several cam watchers post images from our Eagle Cam on their own sites, and I wanted to remind everyone to check them out. First we had Glo, who has now posted two slide shows of our eaglets on her For the Love of Eagles blog. Also, Paula (a follower of the NCTC Eagle Cam in West Virginia) has posted two movie/slide shows of our eaglets on her Eagle Momsters blog. Thanks to both of them for offering these entertaining views of our youngsters.

Speaking of the NCTC Eagle Cam, check out this shot of the poor mother eagle on the nest during our recent bad weather. And we thought our parents had it bad!

On a related eagle note: Our friend Kimmarie, who is following the Barton Island, Massachusetts Eagle Cam, has posted in her forum that the MA nest now has an egg. She has also just posted a video of the parents tending the egg, which you can see toward the bottom of this thread on her forum. In the past, Kimmarie has run the very interesting Buffalo, New York Peregrine Falcon Cam.

Cam Times:

I wanted to remind those who are new to the Blackwater Refuge raptor cams that both our cams will shut down from 11pm to 3am ET each evening. We do this because action at night is very light and because it helps us stay within the bandwidth limits that our satellite dish provider sets for us. So don't be concerned if the cams stop during those times.

Speaking of both cams -- don't forget that we expect our ospreys to return from South America around mid to late March. Once the ospreys formally reclaim the Osprey Cam nest, all the other birds should leave the platform (including the eagles), as the eagles will not normally challenge the ospreys for their home nest. The ospreys will be with us into early September, and once they leave, the other birds will begin visiting the platform again.

Pelicans:

And on a final note: As our cam watchers may remember, earlier this week on the Osprey Cam page I mentioned that we had a flock of white pelicans that had spent the last two winters at Blackwater Refuge, even though they normally winter much further south along the Gulf of Mexico. While our pelicans appear to be fine, we did hear this week that a group of immature brown pelicans was found in southern Maryland and Virginia but these birds were suffering from frost bite, and some did not make it. These birds should have migrated further south, but they may have become confused by the unseasonably warm December and January that we had, and then they got caught in the February cold and snow.

The birds are now with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, which is a wonderful local organization that comes to the aid of injured birds. Tri-State often rescues local eagles and ospreys as well, so we are indebted to them for the fine work they do. Tri-State is asking for donations to help the pelicans because the birds require a lot of food and care until they are ready to be released. You can find out more on the Tri-State website.

I plan to head out to the Refuge soon to capture some video of our two new eaglets in action. Once I have those video clips from the cam, I'll post them here in our web log.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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