Since the eaglets are becoming so independent, we're going to wrap up the Eagle Cam Web Log for this season. Just a reminder that we'll likely turn off the Eagle Cam around the end of June. At that point we'll move the Osprey Cam to a 30-second update, and we'll be leaving that cam on throughout the summer and into the fall and winter.

Even though our ospreys are being lazy this summer with no chicks, we'll keep the Osprey Cam online to watch their activities. And we'll be looking for eagles to return to the osprey platform once the ospreys migrate south around late August or early September. In addition to the perching eagles, we might also see red-winged blackbirds, hawks, herons, and even a rare owl on the osprey nest. The Eagle Cam doesn't really see any action once the eagles leave. We might see a lone squirrel or a blue jay, but that's about it. So to save a little money on our end, we'll turn off the Eagle Cam until late November or early December, when we'll go live again for the 2007-2008 nesting season.

Birding as a Hobby:

In this last web log entry, I wanted to talk a little about birding as a hobby. I've received quite a few emails from folks who say that watching bird cams on the Internet has increased their interest in birding in general, so I wanted to offer some resources for those who are a bit new to this fun activity.

If you visit Wildbird.com, you'll find that they offer ten good tips for beginning birders. As tip #1 suggests, it's important to get a good field guide for your region of the country, so you know what kinds of birds you should be seeing; you can find popular field guides at your local bookstore or through online bookstores. Binoculars -- or a spotting scope -- are equally important. And while you don't need expensive binoculars to enjoy birding, it helps if you can get a good quality pair, since these will help you see more detail.

Some birders enjoy watching the bird life in their backyard, while some like to also venture out to parks and refuges to see more variety. Check with your local nature centers and see if they offer bird walks. For example, Blackwater Refuge offers free bird walks at different times during the spring, fall and winter (watch our calendar for dates). You can also check with your local Audubon Society chapter, Sierra Club chapter, or Wild Birds Unlimited store to see if they offer free bird walks. The advantage of birding with experienced birders is that they see and hear an amazing amount of birds that most regular birders miss. So it can be fun to go along with someone who really knows their stuff.

Once you get a feel for the species that are common in your area, you might want to start reading more about their habits and behaviors. Don and Lillian Stokes offer an excellent guide to local birds in their Stokes Bird Behavior series, which includes three volumes that can be purchased separately. The Stokes' guides tell you about various bird behaviors throughout the year -- such as when the bird does what -- and also describes common body language displays and vocal displays.

Other popular behavior guides are Kenn Kaufman's Lives of North American Birds and David Sibley's Guide to Bird Life and Behavior.

If you're brand new to birding, Sibley's Birding Basics is another good book to check out as it will help you learn to "see" like a birder. Also, Pete Dunne on Bird Watching is a good introduction to the world of birding.

Many birders often enjoy attracting birds to their backyard or balcony. There are numerous websites and books that will help you learn more about bird food, and even what plants birds prefer. You can put out nesting boxes and roosting boxes, suet, peanuts, meal worms, sunflower seeds, hummingbird feeders, and bird baths -- the birds will welcome them all. Gardening for birds is actually becoming so popular that Birds and Blooms is one magazine that focuses exclusively on attracting birds to your property using various landscaping techniques.

One tip about bird seed -- the seed sold at your local grocery store is likely not the best quality. It often contains cheap seed filler that the birds will not eat. It's better to go to a nature store and spend a little more on quality seed that will attract and satisfy your birds.

And another tip -- about cats. It's estimated that domestic cats kill hundreds of millions of birds and small mammals each year, so think about keeping your cat indoors -- especially if you feed birds.

If you're looking for magazines that will help you learn more about the art of birding, there are several options such as Wild Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and Birder's World Magazine. These publications offer news on conservation, travel, festivals, equipment, books, and identification. You can sometimes find these publications at your local bookstore. Audubon Magazine is a good publication, although their magazine covers a wider range of issues than just birds and birding. You can also get Birding Magazine by becoming a member of the American Birding Association. And finally, you can get "Living Bird" magazine and "Birdscope" by joining the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Many people who bird regularly start a "life list" in order to keep track of all the species they've seen. Whenever they spot a new species, they say they found "a lifer." You can keep a simple list (like checking them off in your field guide), although some people purchase a birders' journal for recording details about their sightings, and you can even purchase birding software that helps you keep a database of the species you've seen and details on where and when you saw them. Also some birders like to participate in citizen science projects like the Great Backyard Bird Count and Project FeederWatch, where you can use your own local bird observations to further avian science.

Photographing birds has been popular for a long time, but one new device is the Birdhouse Spy Cam, which we have in our website store. It's a fun way to have your own bird cam in your backyard. They have two types of cams -- one for your feeder and one for a nest box. You can watch the bird action on your TV and record it with your VCR.

If you have questions about food, equipment or birding in general, and you'd like to talk to someone in the flesh, see if you have a local birding business in your neighborhood, such as a Wild Birds Unlimited store. The people who run such stores know the birds in your area and know how to attract them, since it's their business. They also sell books, magazines, optics, as well as food, feeders and houses. My local store also sends out a free newsletter that alerts me as to what kind of bird activity might be happening that month.

As you can see, birding in America is big business. Some 51 million Americans consider themselves birders and they contribute approximately $32 billion to the economy each year through their birding activities. This economic power is important because it builds pressure to protect birds and their dwindling habitat.

Speaking of money, another way you can get a lot of bang for your birding buck is to buy Duck Stamps. Although Duck Stamps were originally meant only for bird hunters, now many birders also buy them -- which is a good thing, since the number of hunters in America is declining. Anyone can buy a Duck Stamp, and 98 cents out of every dollar collected through Duck Stamps goes toward purchasing wetland habitat for inclusion in the National Wildlife Refuge System. In fact, much of Blackwater Refuge was purchased with these funds.

A competition is held each year for the annual Duck Stamp ($15) and Junior Duck Stamp ($5) design, so you can get a new one each year and collect them. The newest stamp will go on sale June 22. You can learn more about purchasing the stamps on our Duck Stamps page. And note that funds from the Junior Duck Stamp go towards conservation awards and scholarships for young people.

Finally, I can't talk about birding without acknowledging the realities of West Nile virus and bird flu, as some people worry that these are good reasons to avoid feeding or even being around birds. Here is a good article from the respected Cornell Lab of Ornithology that addresses the often over-hyped fear we sometimes have regarding the dangers of West Nile virus and bird flu. Also here are two good Audubon articles about how you can keep your feeding areas clean and healthy -- for both you and the birds: Safe Bird Feeding and Winter Banquet.

Below are some additional links that you might find useful as you explore the wonderful world of birding:

Audubon Birding Basics
All About Birds
What Bird - Bird Identifier
Macaulay Library of Animal Sounds (includes birds)

I want to thank everyone who has joined us for our 2006-2007 Eagle Cam season, as we watched Justice and Majesty grow into strong, independent raptors. Thank you for your time, your enthusiasm, your questions, and your photos.

I sincerely hope that our Blackwater raptor cams have given you a new appreciation for our feathered friends, who rely on us not only for protection of their homes but also their planet.

Until next season,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

As I mentioned on the Eagle Cam page, we just updated the Eagle Gallery, and as of Thursday, we could see that all four family members were at the nest. This means that both our parents are still looking after the eaglets, and the eaglets seem to be healthy and safe, even though both are likely flying by now. Thanks to all those who have been sending in photos to our Eagle Gallery even though the chicks are not at the nest as much during the day and night.

On the Norfolk Botanical Gardens Eagle Cam, the three eaglets there are a little younger than our birds, so they are just beginning to seriously branch and fly. When you visit the website, be sure to look at the slideshows they have posted as they contain a lot of interesting photos. Here are two good branching shots (photo 1 and photo 2) from the slideshows that illustrate how the eaglets are slowly moving further and further out onto the branches -- sometimes with their parents -- and how they hop around the branches using their talons and wings. Taking that first leap is a big moment in the life of an eaglet, so it takes some time for them to work up to it.

Eagle No Longer Endangered?
Normally we don't talk about politics too much in the web logs, but sometimes a political issue comes up that directly affects our birds, and I wanted to mention one of those issues in this log entry.

The American bald eagle is very close to coming off the federal endangered/threatened species list -- in fact, it will likely come off sometime in the next few weeks. This is an event that many conservationists and environmentalists have been anticipating for many years, so it's worth looking at the implications of such a momentous move by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act because bald eagle numbers in America had plummeted and the eagle was faced with possible extinction. In 1962, an amendment was added to this law that protected the golden eagle as well, so it became the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. In 1967, bald eagles -- in most areas south of the 40th parallel -- were officially protected as an endangered species under a law that preceded the Endangered Species Act of 1973. When the ESA was created by Congress in 1973, the eagle came under its protection, and has been listed ever since.

The main reason for the severe decline in eagle populations is best described by the USFWS: "The greatest threat to the bald eagle’s existence arose from the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides after World War II. DDT was used for insect control throughout the country and its residues washed into lakes and streams. There, it was absorbed by aquatic plants and animals that were eaten by fish. The contaminated fish, in turn, were consumed by bald eagles. The chemical interfered with the bald eagle’s ability to develop strong shells for its eggs. As a result, bald eagles and many other bird species began laying eggs with shells so thin they often broke during incubation or otherwise failed to hatch. Their reproduction disrupted, bald eagle populations plummeted."

Other threats to the eagle included lead poisoning from lead shot used by hunters, as well as declining habitat.

The bald eagle got a lot of help in its recovery when DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1972, and when the USFWS worked to phase out the use of lead shot. In addition, the USFWS employees at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland assembled the largest colony of breeding bald eagles in captivity and hatched out 124 chicks that were used to restock some of the wild population. Finally the Endangered Species Act also played a role in rehabilitating eagle populations because it legally required a recovery plan to rehabilitate the eagle and it made it unlawful for anyone to "take" a bald eagle, and this included significantly modifying its habitat. The Act also outlined procedures for federal agencies to follow when taking actions that might hurt eagle populations.

All these efforts -- in conjunction with state activities to rehabilitate eagle populations -- helped get the bald eagle to the point where in 1995, the USFWS upgraded the eagle from endangered to threatened. In 1999, bald eagle populations had grown so large that the USFWS then announced that they wanted to examine the issue of removing the eagle from protection under the Endangered Species Act altogether. There was a considerable delay between that time and now, but the USFWS was hesitant to remove the eagle until it was sure it could be adequately protected without the ESA. Now that time has come. At this stage eagle populations have grown from 417 breeding pairs nationwide in 1963 to approximately 9,789 pairs today.

On Friday, June 1, 2007, the USFWS released a 34-page decision on how they plan to protect the eagle after it comes off the ESA list. The chief controversy has been how the USFWS would define the deceptively simple word "disturb." Because the eagle will no longer be protected by the ESA, that means the main form of legal protection will fall to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. But the question remained, how strictly would the government define the ability to "disturb" a bald eagle. If the USFWS defined the word too loosely, eagles could be driven away from feeding areas or winter roosts by construction noise and other human activities, and the only way to prove the disturbance would have required that a person produce a dead or injured eagle.

So the USFWS announced on June 1, that they will enforce a tougher definition of "disturb" that defines disturbance as "to agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, 1) injury to an eagle, 2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, or 3) nest abandonment, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior."

This much tougher definition offers greater protection and greater chance for enforcement of the law. It also means it will be easier for Americans to maintain a strong bald eagle population that will not slip back into endangered status once the eagle is removed from the ESA list.

As good as this news was, challenges remain for those who are interested in protecting the eagle. For example, states with a growing eagle population, but also growing human development along the coastlines, will have to work hard to ensure that eagles have enough quality habitat near their food source in order to raise a family. States can still use local laws to protect eagles, and they will have to decide how they want to approach protection once the raptor comes off the ESA list. Also, there is currently a controversy in Arizona where environmentalists have asked the USFWS to declare the Arizona bald eagle as a separate population under the Endangered Species Act because it is an isolated group that does something no other bald eagles do -- nest in the arid desert. That battle continues to this day.

But the good news is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken an important step in protecting the eagles that will be delisted. This was a controversial decision, since there are many landowners who hope to significantly increase development near eagle nests once eagles lose some of their protection. We hope that in the future, the USFWS will continue to place science above politics when it comes to protecting our eagles.

At the sites below, you can learn more about the history of protecting eagles, as well as more about the USFWS announcement:

USFWS Bald Eagle Fact Sheet (PDF file)

USFWS Announcement on new eagle management guidelines

"Disturb" is Given Broader Definition from the Washington Post

Press Release from Environmental Defense regarding USFWS announcement on definition of "disturb"

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

First, we have two important Refuge events coming up. On May 30 at 7pm, Blackwater Refuge will host a public meeting called Chesapeake Marshlands: Sea Level Rise and What Can Be Done About It. Chesapeake Bay author Tom Horton will be our moderator, and we will have local scientists speaking, as well as video messages from Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Wayne Gilchrest. If you'd like to know more about the efforts being made to protect Blackwater Refuge and the Dorchester County coastline from sea level rise, be sure to attend.

Also, on June 2 is our 5th Annual Youth Fishing Derby. If you have youngsters that are 15 years old or younger, be sure to bring them to our Fishing Derby where everyone has a great time learning to fish, and entering their animals in our turtle racing and frog jumping contests.

And last but not least, May 27, 2007, is the 100th birthday of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson. Many states are planning their own celebration of this event, and here in Maryland, Governor Martin O'Malley recently named May 27 "Rachel Carson Day" due to the fact that Carson lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, at a home that is now a National Historic Landmark. Rachel Carson was the famous author of the seminal classic Silent Spring, which alerted the world to the dangers of pesticides and their affect on humans and bird populations. Because of Rachel Carson's courage and conviction, America learned that overuse of the pesticide DDT was decimating the populations of eagles, ospreys, pelicans, falcons, and other birds -- species that now owe their existence to Carson's efforts. Read our special Rachel Carson Centennial page to learn more about Carson and her ties to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Eaglet Video Clips -- the Final Chapter:

Tonight we'll post the last video clips of our beautiful and amazing eaglets -- Justice and Majesty. The eaglets are spending a lot of time out of the nest now, which makes us think that one or both are flying. On Saturday when I was at the Refuge, I did see both eaglets branching and showing their new ability to move from the nest to the branches using their wings. That was several days ago, so they have certainly made more progress since then.

Occasionally we still see the eaglets together in the nest, and it's always nice to see that they look all right. We have noticed that they're spending some time roosting in the tree at night with their parents. This is the way mature eagles sleep -- perched in a tree and not in the nest -- so we will see less and less of them at night as they mature.

We also noticed that one of the birds managed to push our camera down so it's pointing more towards the trunk. We've been incredibly pleased with the way our new camera mount has performed this year. Despite being hit by the flapping/landing eagles, and despite some mighty big storms this season (storms that brought down other eagle nests), our camera has been rock solid. So we can't complain that it's now slipped out of a position just a bit. Hopefully it will hold this position until we turn the cam off probably sometime in late June.

One other thing I did want to mention is that someone saw an eaglet with a fish in the nest and asked if the eaglet had caught it. Even if the eaglets are now flying, it will be a while before they can catch their own fish -- which is a difficult skill to master. It's likely that any fish we see in the nest right now has been dropped off by a parent. And one other word about the fish: If you see an eaglet with a fish at this stage and the other eaglet is missing during the meal, then it's likely the missing bird is flying. Otherwise it would come in for the meal.

Also, some cam watchers have wondered why the parents are still beak-feeding the chicks if the young birds can tear apart the fish by themselves. Mature eaglets seem to prefer being beak-fed at times even though they are more than capable of feeding themselves. Maybe it's just easier to let mom and dad do it since they're in the nest. :-)

In the first video clip below, we see Majesty moving out to the branch that sits under the camera, and then the video clip jumps to a shot of both eaglets flapping their wings together. We can see how much stronger Justice now looks as she flaps her big wings and flirts with the edge of the nest. To give you a sense of her size, a grown female bald eagle has a wing span of 6 - 7 feet, with some reaching almost 8 feet.

Left-click on the links below to play or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer.

5.6MB

In the second video clip, we see Majesty is trying to come in from the branch because the mother eagle has returned with a fish. The only problem is that Majesty is not quite comfortable yet with jumping from the branch to the nest. It's funny to see the way Justice is looking at him -- like "What are you going to do?" Majesty proceeds to jump in and land talons-first on Justice, who doesn't react well to almost being pushed out of the nest. Fortunately both eaglets recover and Majesty moves over to get an easy meal from mom.

4.8MB

In the last clip you see a short bit of footage I took while standing in front of the Visitor Center on Saturday. In the clip, you can see that an immature bald eagle is soaring over the Refuge, and then at the end of the shot you can see that it lands in a field next to several other eagles. Sometimes eagles of various ages like to "hang out" together in the fields and marsh. These might be birds that are siblings or that are immature birds that spend time together with the hope that the group might help them find food. Note that this video clip has audio, which is the sound of marsh birds nearby.

3MB

On the second floor of our Visitor Center, we have a new "Wild Birds Unlimited Pathways to Nature Observatory" with a large observation window and spotting scopes that let visitors look out at the Osprey Cam nest, the Blackwater River, and the marshland. While I was standing at the window Saturday, I looked down and saw 9 immature eagles standing together in the field. It was quite a sight to see so many together at one time. Some were completely brown like our youngsters, and some had a partially white head, meaning they were getting close to breeding age. Looking at the Eagle Cam, it's easy to forget that eagles can be socialable birds at times, and maybe soon our eaglets will be "hanging out" with the neighbors' kids. :-)

Our eaglets are slowly leaving us, but we'll continue to keep the Eagle Cam online probably into late June. I'll also be posting a few more entries in the web log before we wrap it up for the season.

Thanks to all those who have been watching us week in and week out, and thanks to those who have been sending in photos and questions. You all have made it a very enjoyable and rewarding season.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

To give you an idea as to what branching looks like, we have an animated GIF (975KB) that our photographer friend Woody Dawson put together showing an eaglet stepping out onto a branch. In the short clip, you can see how the eaglet uses its wings to maneuver its talons along the branch. Branching helps eaglets increase their perching skills and also helps them learn how to use the branches for a launching -- and landing -- location.

Last year at the end of the 2006 Eagle Cam season, our camera got pushed out of position by one of the eagles. The mishap gave us a wider look at the tree where the eagles are nesting and also gave us a good look at the tree's branches (note that this is the same nest as this year). In this photo from the 2006 season, you can see some of the branches that are available to our eaglets if they want to branch. We have noticed that often the eaglets seem to be "hiding" at the top of the cam image, as we sometimes catch glimpses of their tail feathers in that area, so it's possible they are doing some perching on that large branch on the right side of the 2006 image.

As an added bonus, I also want to offer a video provided by one of our cam watchers showing a flapping eaglet from the Norfolk Botanical Gardens' Eagle Cam. In the clip, the eaglet is flapping and hopping in the nest and these exercises allow the eaglet to get stronger in preparation for its first flight. This is often what our eaglets are doing when you see them with their wings spread out on the cam image.

Eaglet Games:

To top off the multimedia offerings in this web log entry, I also have four new videos of Justice and Majesty, which I took on Sunday while at the Refuge. Left-click on the links below to play the Windows Media Video files or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer.

In the first video clip we seem an example of something I mentioned in the last web log entry. I had said that sometimes the father eagle can have a hard time interacting with the big youngsters since they can be aggressive at meal time and since a female eaglet would be bigger than her father, and Justice decided to provide an example of just such an event. In this clip, it appears that the father eagle is the parent that has just arrived with a fish. Justice promptly lunges at the fish in such an aggressive manner that she grabs the adult's foot instead of the fish, and the parent is lucky to get its talon free. Justice then mantles over the food (hides it with spread wings) to indicate it is most definitely her meal, leaving Majesty to sit there and watch. The powerless parent flies off and Majesty eventually manages to steal a few bites from under his sister's legs. It seems clear that Majesty does better at meal time if the mother eagle is there to make sure that the meal is distributed in a more democratic way. :-)

6.6 MB

In the second clip we see a nice sequence where Majesty uses his wings to skip along the nest edge, out toward the big branch, and then back again. It's clear from this clip that the eaglets are getting more comfortable with using their wings for mobility.

6.3 MB

In the third clip we see Majesty nipping at Justice's toes while she lies in the nest. Maybe Majesty found a few remaining pieces of fish on Justice's talon or he was just getting even for the earlier fish hoarding. :-)

6.5 MB

In the final clip we see the eaglets play a game of "toss the feather" as they lie in the nest and play with a feather that came off one of them. When you have a lot of hours to kill in the nest, even a feather can be loads of fun. :-)

6.6 MB

Miscellaneous News:

I wanted to offer some happy news about recent birds released by Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research. Tri-State is a local bird rescue outfit and they do a tremendous job in helping the local bird life. In the recent Tri-State Bird Rescue newsletter (PDF file) we learn that the 12 immature brown pelicans that were trapped here during the winter have now been released. The newsletter also talks about an eaglet from Blackwater Refuge that was in a nest that fell down during a recent storm, and the article, which includes a cute photo, says that the eaglet has now been re-nested. Thanks to Tri-State for all they do for our many local birds.

Bob Quinn Photos:

Local photographer Bob Quinn has just posted some new eagle photos from Blackwater Refuge. They include a funny couple of photos where an immature eagle was attracted to a "Happy Birthday" balloon that for some reason was flying over the Refuge. Bob says the eagle got bored with it after a while and left it alone, which is a good thing as popped balloons can be dangerous if an animal tries to eat them.

Also in this collection of shots, Bob has photos of an immature eagle soaring around the Refuge. This eagle is about the same age as our birds, so this gives you a good idea as to how our birds will look once they're out of the nest and exploring their Refuge home.

Technical Note:

I wanted to mention that we have noticed the thin lines that sometimes appear on the Eagle Cam image (and in these recent video clips). Our cam technician was aware of it right before he went on vacation, and he speculated that it could be a loose wire. He did not think it would be a major problem, so he'll fix it when he returns.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

Our eaglets are a little over nine weeks old and it appears from the cam photos that at least one of the chicks may be spending some time out of our sight while it perches on one of the tree's branches -- a raptor behavior known as "branching." This activity will increase over time and is a precursor to the eaglet's first flight. Normally eaglets fledge at about ten to twelve weeks of age, although the younger bird might take a little longer than the older bird. Last year our first eaglet flew in mid May.

One of our cam watchers sent in a question without an email address for replying so I'll answer that question here as it relates to this topic -- she asked about parents teaching the eaglets to fly. Parents do not have to teach eaglets to fly -- they know how to fly by instinct. That is why biologists can transplant eaglets to an area that does not have a healthy breeding eagle population (known as "hacking") so they will become imprinted on the new location and return there to breed. When they go to these new locations, they do so without their parents but are still able to fly, as well as hunt and fish.

The eaglets will know how to fly on their own, but once they are flying, they will have to practice to get better at it. This is especially true regarding their landing skills. Eaglets are notorious for making poor landings in the earlier stages of their flying careers, with observers having seen eaglets hanging by one foot, upside down, from a branch because they misjudged the landing. But the eaglets will get better at landing -- and also at manipulating the wind -- as they spend more time out of the nest.

Also there is the risk that an eaglet will not survive its first flight. We have not had this happen on the Blackwater Eagle Cam, but sometimes an eaglet will leave the nest and encounter trouble, or will leave prematurely and then not be able to get back to the nest safely. Bad weather, land predators, and hazardous landings can all make the first flight a risky one.

A couple of cam watchers have also asked about the eaglets' size. Now that our eaglets are almost fully grown, I think we can safely say that Justice appears to be female and Majesty appears to be male. When the eaglets lie together in the nest, it's clear that Justice has a longer body -- indicating she is female. I had mentioned back at the beginning of the season that a study done in Canada showed that the majority of first eaglets are female, so it appears our nest is in keeping with that study.

Female bald eagles can be around three feet in length, so that gives you an idea as to how big our older eaglet is getting. Also, once the eaglets' feathers are fully grown, they will actually be a bit bigger than the adults for a period of time. The reason for this is that immature bald eagles have longer feathers than their parents; biologists speculate that the reason for this is because young birds tend to do more soaring than the adults (possibly as a means of searching for food and also possibly as a result of being inexperienced flyers) so the longer feathers are more beneficial to the young birds.

Fully grown eaglets can be a challenge for the adults since they are big and potentially aggressive, especially when it comes to mealtime. Biologists have noted that the father eagle (who is smaller) does not spend as much time on the nest as the mother eagle in the latter stages of nest life since the aggressive eaglets can be harder for him to interact with.

What To Look For:

In the next couple weeks, we'll be looking for signs that both eaglets are branching -- unfortunately this means we'll lose sight of them on the cam, but it's a good thing because it means they are doing what eaglets were meant to do. We'll also be looking for signs that the eaglets are roosting in the tree at night with their parents rather than lying in the nest; this will be another sign that the young birds are becoming much more comfortable out on the tree limbs.

Once the eaglets have taken their first flight, we'll be looking for photos showing them landing in the nest or possibly taking off from the nest edge. Justice will likely fledge first, so that means Majesty will be left behind to watch his bigger sibling flying in and out with the parents. This will undoubtedly encourage him to join in on the fun as soon as he's able.

Catching a meal will be another major skill that the eaglets will have to learn, and it's a vital skill. Most of the eaglets that perish in their first year will die of starvation since finding food is not always easy. This is the reason why eagle parents nest so early -- it gives their eaglets more time to learn how to hunt and fish before the next winter arrives. The better the eaglets are at catching or finding food, the more likely they will survive.

So after the eaglets are flying, we'll be looking for signs that the eaglets have found their own food. An eaglet might appear alone in the nest with a dead fish or a half-eaten piece of prey. Young birds will often focus on retrieving dead animals in the beginning of their hunting careers because these types of prey are easier to find and because it will take a long while for them to get skilled at catching live fish. As with flying, the eaglets' instinct will help them with hunting and fishing, but they will also likely pick up tips by watching their family members look for food. Some immature eagles have even been seen tandem hunting with a sibling.

Probably around mid July, we will be seeing very little of the family because the eaglets will be getting more and more independent. They'll be spending large amounts of time exploring the Refuge, perching in trees, watching their parents and sibling fish and hunt, and roosting in the trees at night. At that point we will turn off the Eagle Cam since very little wildlife (a rare songbird or squirrel) will be seen at the nest with the eagles gone.

The parents will watch over the eaglets for about four to six weeks after they fledge (maybe a little longer if one eaglet is a slow learner), but then the young birds will strike out on their own. In a future web log, we'll talk more about what immature eagles in the Chesapeake Bay region do and where they go when they become independent.

As a special treat, I'm posting an animated GIF file (680KB) showing an immature bald eagle catching a fish. This clip is courtesy of our good friend, photographer Woody Dawson. Note the skill required for the young eagle to see the fish from the air and also time the strike just right in order to nab the moving meal -- and doing all this while in flight. This is what young birds must learn to do regularly.

Miscellaneous News:

Some additional raptor news I wanted to pass along: Three peregrine falcon chicks have hatched in San Jose, California where they reside in a nest at City Hall. Here are two sites that are covering the exciting action:

City of San Jose
Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research

Also, one of our faithful cam watchers from Holland has provided us with an Eagle Cam link that shows a white-tailed eagle couple, which is famous in the area because last year they raised the first white-tailed eaglet seen in the Netherlands. This year the couple is back and has one chick. You can watch the family live on the Eagle Cam site.

Note: The white-tailed eagle is the largest European eagle, and is the closest relative to our American bald eagle.

And a final reminder that there are a few Bald Eagle Cams here in the US that still have chicks including ones in Virginia, Massachusetts, Washington State and Colorado.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

First, I wanted to mention that our judges with the EagleMan Ironman Triathlon say that they think they'll have our winner or winners for the Eaglet-Naming Contest around Monday or Tuesday. Once we have the names, we'll get the email addresses from WildCam and then contact the winners. And once we have the winners' info, we'll announce the results on the website (cam page and web log). Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to participate.

I also wanted to pass along some miscellaneous eagle cam news -- we did get confirmation from the Maine BioDiversity Research Institute Eagle Cam saying that the eaglets there did not survive the big nor'easter storm that moved up the coast a week ago. We were very sorry to hear that the storm was just too much for the very young birds.

Eaglet Video Clips

In celebration of Earth Day, I'm posting the remaining four video clips of our eaglets that I captured last Saturday from the live TV monitor at the Refuge Visitor Center. Just left-click on the links below to play them or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer.

In the first clip, we see that the oldest eaglet is exercising his wings while the youngest eaglet is pecking at an old piece of food. The oldest moves toward the youngest, who for some reason unwisely decides to peck at the oldest, and so the oldest promptly shows the younger bird who is boss and takes the food.

5.5 MB

In the second clip, we see that the eaglets have made up, and the oldest is lying with his head on the youngest. Then the older chick raises his head and calls out to the parent who is nearby, letting them know that the chicks are hungry and want something to eat.

4.7 MB

In the third clip, the parent has arrived with food, which appears to be from the lower portion of a bird, as we can see what looks like the foot of a water bird. At the beginning of the clip, the youngest is feeding first and we can see how the eaglets' feeding method has changed as they've grown. When they were smaller, the eaglets used to have the food placed in their beaks by the adult; now the eaglets stab at the food with a strong, predator-like motion. In this clip we also get a good look at the youngest eaglet's face.

5.7 MB

And in the final clip, we see the end of the feeding session. Here the youngest eaglet tries to commandeer the last piece of bird-foot for himself but it seems he can't quite handle such a large piece, so the parent picks it up again, only to have the oldest eaglet grab it and swallow it whole. Kinda gross, but very impressive. :-)

4.7 MB

We thank everyone for their patience as we got our cam problems straightened out. We think the issue is fixed, but we'll be keeping an eye on it in case any other issues arise.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

You can read the CBF press release on their website. We want to thank the CBF and the Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth for spearheading the campaign to stop this mega-development, and we thank the Maryland government and all those who helped by signing the CBF petition and by writing letters. If the wildlife could party, they'd be partying today!

----------------

The other big news in the past week was the powerful nor'easter storm that moved up the East Coast and caused a lot of havoc for humans and wildlife due to the heavy rain and hurricane-strength winds. Such strong winds often bring down nests, and locally we did lose a few including an osprey nest on the local Severn River that blew down (along with the eggs it was holding) and also a well-known eagles' nest at Shorters Wharf near Blackwater Refuge. The Shorters Wharf nest held two eaglets at the time that it came down, but fortunately the eaglets survived the fall. We hear that one eaglet has a fractured wing, but he is expected to recover. The birds are now at Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research -- the local facility that does such an excellent job of helping our bird life. Much thanks to Tri-State for coming to their aid.

We were very fortunate here that our osprey platform and eagle cam nest survived the storm, and we hear that other cam nests did well too. The eaglets at the Norfolk Botanical Garden survived the storm, and on Tuesday they were banded live on their Eagle Cam. In Maine, they say that the Eagle Cam nest and family are doing fine although many humans are still without power there [Updated Note: I've just heard that there might be a problem at the Maine nest. The parents have been off the nest a lot today, indicating something might have happened to the young.] And from what we can tell at the Barton Cove, Massachusetts Eagle Cam (which is having technical problems) the two chicks are hanging in there as well.

Speaking of the Barton Cove nest, our friend Melanie Lynch from Chesapeake Bay Magazine put together a short QuickTime movie showing how the eagles there dealt with a huge snowstorm in March. After watching this, it's hard to believe they produced two healthy eaglets just three weeks later. Thanks to Melanie for this clip: Barton Cove (Quicktime video, 4MB).

Eaglet Videos Pt. 3

Our Blackwater eaglets are now around seven weeks old and are rapidly becoming impressive juvenile birds of prey, with strong talons, sharp beaks and long wings. They are getting so mature, that today we saw the eagle parent drop off a fish as a way of encouraging them to learn to feed themselves. The oldest eaglet tried to tear into the fish, but gave up and eventually moved over to a partially eaten piece of prey. He did go back though and try to eat the new fish after a while. Our babies are growing!

On Saturday, I captured eight video clips of our eaglets in action (via the live TV monitor at the Refuge Visitor Center). These clips offer an impressive look at how big our birds have become. I'll post four video clips in this web log entry and then the remaining four in the next entry. Just left-click on the links below to play or right-click and choose "Save Target As" to download to your computer.

In our first clip, we see a funny episode between our two eaglets as they lie in the nest together. Often in the gallery we see images where one of the eaglets has a wing or leg stretched out, and in this clip you see the youngest bird sticking his large wing and foot right into the face of his bigger sibling -- who doesn't seem to enjoy it all that much but doesn't get angry.

5.5 MB

In the second clip we see a nice wing flap from our youngest eaglet. It's interesting to note how when one eaglet flaps, the other often watches him. And flapping from one eaglet can often induce the other bird to stand up and flap as well. Apparently the activity is contagious. :-)

Both eaglets will be practicing their flapping a lot as they approach fledging time, and this exercise is necessary to build up their muscles and wing control. As they get stronger, they will be able to raise themselves above the nest and hover briefly. It's at this time that they need to be careful that a strong wind does not blow them out prematurely.

4 MB

In the third clip we see a scene that is reminescent of a video clip we saw with the adults awhile back, where one bird puts grass or pine sprays on top of the other. This clip shows the oldest placing a small piece of grass on the back of the youngest and then one on himself. Then the two eaglets play a little game of tug-of-war with the nest grass. While watching the monitor, I noticed that the eaglets often engage in nest maintenance -- practicing skills they will one day use in their own nests as adults.

5.5 MB

In the fourth clip we get a good look at the oldest eaglet's face, and we also see a nice wing flap from the eaglet, along with a small jump as the bird moves around the nest. We can see how strong the eaglets are getting, and it's not hard to imagine that they will soon be branching. "Branching" is when young raptors hop out to the branches of their nest tree and perch. We will lose sight of them when they do this, but it's a necessary part of preparing for that first big flight away from the nest.

4 MB

In my next web log, I'll post my final four clips. In those clips you'll see a little friendly competition between the eaglets and also a funny scene where our oldest chick swallows a bird's foot whole.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

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.

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
(contact)

Second, I wanted to pass along a cam equipment update. We have a bad solar panel controller on the Eagle Cam. It is not charging our battery, so we have ordered a new one via overnight shipping. The battery on the cam has been charged by our cam technician, but once it runs out of power, we will have to wait for the controller to arrive before we'll be able to get the cam back up for good.

So if the cam goes out again, that's why. And we ask for your patience just a bit longer until the new part arrives.

Gallery Images

We've just updated the Eagle Cam Gallery with quite a few new shots, so be sure to check them out.

I wanted to highlight a few of the photos here in the web log. Our eaglets are 31 days old and 29 days old, and the biggest change happening with our young birds is that they are starting to turn darker as more of their feathers come in. Here is a shot showing the spots where the feathers first started to appear. And in this photo from Sunday, we can see how the oldest chick is getting darker faster, since it has the age advantage.

The chicks are getting better at standing, as we can see in the photo I have posted on this page. Once the eaglets' feathers are in, the flapping that we're seeing will become more productive in that it will actually allow them to lift off the nest and hover above their home. At that point, the eaglets won't be far from fledging.

Another interesting shot in the recent Gallery update showed an eaglet calling out to the parents. At this age, the eaglets are not quiet -- if they have needs, they will call out and let themselves be heard.

Also we saw a couple shots that clearly showed the eaglets with full crops. Again, a crop is a storage area that birds have on their chests where food is collected for later digestion. During a meal, the eaglets' crops will fill with food, and this part of their anatomy is getting easier to see now that the birds are getting bigger.

And if the chicks get hungry while the parents are out of the nest, they can also scrounge around in the nest bottom for leftovers, which is something we see the eaglet likely doing in this shot.

Speaking of food, a cam watcher recently asked about the duck that the eagle family was eating when we had the cam offline on Saturday morning. Eagles prefer fish, but they will eat a variety of things, such as waterfowl, small mammals, turtles, carrion, etc. Unlike ospreys -- which eat fresh fish almost exclusively -- eagles have a more flexible diet, and that is the reason that eagles in the Chesapeake Bay area do not have to migrate like ospreys do. When the weather turns cold and the fish are hard to find -- or the water even freezes over -- ospreys would find living hard if they tried to stay up north. But when the fish are hard to come by for our eagles, they just switch to another food.

Bird News

In other bird news, we have a couple videos from the Santa Cruz eagle nest in the Channel Islands of California. First here is a video of one of the eggs being laid. And sadly, here is a video of one of the eggs being lost, which apparently happened on Friday. In the video, it appears the mother may be eating part of the egg remnants -- that is not an uncommon act for birds. I don't think it's clear yet why the egg failed, but at this time there is still one egg remaining.

Also, I wanted to share a website link for Birdcam.it, the Italian birdcam site. The site features falcon and kestrel cams and also has a forum with an English-speaking section. They've been discussing our Blackwater cams on their site, and we wanted to thank them for giving us some international publicity.

Here at Blackater Refuge we are always amazed and pleased to see how many international visitors come to our website to see our raptor cams. Here you can see a graphic from Google Analytics that shows the international traffic we receive on the Friends of Blackwater cam pages. Although we pull mostly U.S. cam watchers, we also pull a nice amount from a variety of other countries. And it's worth noting that the countries on this chart are just the top tier in our statistics. Included in the second tier of countries that have visited us are Thailand, New Zealand, Iraq, Brazil, Switzerland, China, Romania, Turkey, and Spain -- just to name a few.

We're proud that so many citizens from around the world have shown an interest in our raptor cams and in our little corner of Maryland. We hope all of our cam watchers have found the eagle and osprey families to be not only fun but also educational. And we hope that we have adequately conveyed how important wildlife conservation is to most Americans.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
(contact)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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)

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.

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.