April 08, 2007
Eaglet Update
A quick reminder -- April 13 is the deadline for our Eaglet-Naming Contest, so if you haven't entered yet, you have just a bit more time. And thanks to all those who have already submitted names.
Also, April 22 is nationally recognized as Earth Day -- an event that America first began celebrating back in 1970. In this age, it's a good occasion for reminding ourselves of all the things that the Earth provides that we often take for granted. At Blackwater, we celebrate by doing some "spring cleaning" around the Refuge. Because Blackwater is surrounded by rural roads, many drivers think that if they toss out their trash, no one will notice. But our visitors notice and so do the wild creatures, which often come to investigate the trash and get hit by cars. So please join us on April 14 for our Earth Day Litter Pick-up. And if you have children in your group, just let us know and we'll find a safe place for them to help.
Eaglet Update:
Our eaglets got their first look at snow on Saturday when we had a small, rare April snow event. Since the eaglets are over a month old now, they can keep themselves warm at this stage, but they can still get chilled if they get wet (since their feathers aren't fully developed) so the mother eagle covered the chicks and kept them relatively dry until the snow stopped. We did see a funny scene where the oldest chick had to crawl out from under the mother eagle to stand on the edge of the nest so it could relieve itself.
We then had another funny scene on Sunday morning when for some unknown reason, the parents decided to bombard the eaglets with hoards of fish. I don't think we've seen this much food in the nest at one time all season. Maybe this was their way of celebrating Easter. :-)
One cam watcher asked if the eaglets can feed themselves yet. Biologists report that at about six weeks of age, the eaglets can begin tearing off their own food (our chicks are almost that old) but they will still need help in breaking through the tough skin of an animal or fish.
The chicks are getting much darker as their feathers rapidly develop and begin to replace the gray down. One cam watcher asked to hear more about how blood feathers work. Blood feathers are new feathers that are protected by a waxy keratin sheath or shaft, which appears blue in color because it contains a circulating supply of blood. When the feather is mature, the blood supply will recede, the bird will remove the waxy sheath (or it might fall off), and the feather will unfurl. Young birds get all their blood feathers at one time, and the smaller feathers can look like little pins on their bodies, so sometimes the blood feathers are also called pin feathers.
Speaking of feathers and our eaglets' changing appearance, here is a photo that gives you a good idea of what our eaglets might look like if you were sitting in the nest with them.This Alaskan eaglet is at about the same stage as our youngest chick and is turning gray-to-brown as the down is pushed out by the developing brown feathers. Our oldest chick is a little darker than this Alaskan bird.
Other Eagle News:
I wanted to pass along some other eagle news, as a few interesting things happened in the past week. First, our cam watchers who were with us last year might remember the eagle pair called George and Martha, which were a famous couple that lived by the Woodrow Wilson Bridge near Washington, DC and had produced sixteen eaglets together despite being in close proximity to bridge traffic and a loud construction project. Martha had a rather tragic life in that she was first attacked by a female looking to replace her at the bridge nest. Martha recovered from her severe injuries and returned home, only to then apparently fly into a high-tension wire. Her elbow was severely injured, and Martha had to be euthanized. To update the story, the Washington Post just published an article informing readers on the status of George as he is now with another female -- the one that had originally attacked Martha. Some local folks are not happy with George's choice for a new partner. :-)
Also we had some great news from the Channel Islands in California as the nest at Santa Catalina Island now has two eaglets. On March 31 and April 1, 2007, the couple successfully hatched two healthy chicks, and these are the first known eagles to hatch on Santa Catalina Island without human assistance since 1945. As we've mentioned in past web logs, the Channel Islands is the locale that was severaly affected by tons of DDT that were dumped into the local waters decades ago, which subsequently devastated the local bird populations. Visit the Institute for Wildlife Studies website and click on the "Historic Hatch at Catalina Island" to find out more. And be sure to watch the video when you get to the link page. The chicks look so incredibly tiny and vulnerable on that big rock nest. Here's hoping they both make it.
Also, we have two interesting videos that one of our cam watchers captured from the Eagle Cam at the Norfolk Botanical Garden in Virginia. In the first video we see the three eaglets enjoying nest life and stretching their big feet (these chicks are a little younger than ours). Also note how the eagle parent is out of the nest but watching over the chicks. This is what our parents do when we can't see them actually sitting in the nest. And in the second video we see the mother trying to protect the chicks from the same snow that we received on Saturday. Left-click on the links below to play or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer.
| First Movie (3 MB) | Second Movie (2 MB) |
Rare Hummingbird:
Finally I wanted to offer up something a little off-topic. I am a fan of hummingbirds as well as raptors, and the American Bird Conservancy has just posted the first-ever video of the hummingbird called the Marvelous Spatuletail, which is a hummingbird that exists only in a remote valley of northern Peru. It is one of the rarest and least observed birds on the planet. And what makes it special (beside being rare) is the way in which the male uses its unique spatule-tail to attract a mate. According to Surfbirds News: "The Marvelous Spatuletail is unique among hummingbirds in that it has only four tail feathers. The tail of the adult male is more than twice as long as its body and ends in two great spoon-shaped ‘spatules'...The males compete for females by whirling their long tails around their bodies in an amazing courtship display, which had previously only been witnessed by a few ornithologists, and had never been filmed. This display is considered to be one of the most bizarre in the bird world - the males repeatedly attack each other in the air, contorting their bodies and tails into strange shapes at incredible speed."
Go to the ABC website to view the video. Just scroll down and select your Internet speed on the page.
Here's hoping the ABC is successful in its attempt to protect the hummingbird's rapidly vanishing forest habitat.
Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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