We want to welcome everyone to a new season with the Blackwater Refuge Eagle Cam!

For those who are new to our Eagle Cam, this is our fourth year with the eagles and their nest, which is 80 feet up in a loblolly pine tree at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland.

The Friends of Blackwater run both the Osprey Cam and the Eagle Cam, as well as this website. The FOB is a nonprofit citizen support group that helps the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff carry out their educational, interpretive, and recreational missions at the Refuge. All of the Friends who work for the Refuge are unpaid volunteers, and we give our time because we believe in the Refuge System’s goal of protecting local wildlife and habitat.

Blackwater NWR is one of over 540 wildlife refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is the only group of federal lands where wildlife is supposed to come first. Blackwater Refuge is unique in that it hosts one of the largest breeding populations of bald eagles in the country.

Over the last three seasons, we’ve seen a total of seven eaglets hatch and fledge, so our cam nest has seen a good amount of previous success. If you’d like to learn more about our nesting eagles, be sure to check out our entertaining Eagle Watchers’ Guide (2.5 MB PDF file), which features highlights from our first year with the Eagle Cam.

Now that we are live for another season, cam watchers have been asking us about the eagle couple, which we’ve seen bonding on the Eagle Cam. Eagles are very loyal to their nests and will return year after year. If the nest falls down, they often rebuild the nest in the same tree or in a tree nearby. So based on this loyal behavior, we highly suspect that this couple is the same eagle pair from our previous cam seasons. If it is, then they are very experienced eagles that know what they’re doing when it comes to raising young.

Folks have also asked if this eagle pair is the same as the one on the Osprey Cam. We’re not really sure — the two nests are not that far apart (for a large flying bird) but there have been times when we’ve seen two eagles on the Osprey Cam and at the same time seen one or two eagles on the Eagle Cam, so in those instances, obviously they would not be the same couple. As for other times, we’re just not sure.

In the past, we’ve seen our first eagle egg around the end of January, so that is when we would expect to see one this year. Because our couple is experienced, the female often lays her eggs relatively early compared to other nests in the region.

After the first egg appears, an additional egg or two might arrive, with the eggs coming 2-3 days apart. Both parents will take turns incubating the eggs for about 32-36 days before they hatch, assuming the eggs are fertile.

If you’d like to learn more about Chesapeake Bay eagles, read our Eagle fact page. And if you’d like to learn more about our Eagle Cam, be sure to read the Eagle Cam Q&A, which provides some background information on our Eagle Cam operation.

And speaking of the cam’s operation, we have noticed that the Eagle Cam has occasionally been showing static. Our cam technician is working to fix that problem, so we appreciate your patience while we work to eliminate it.

We thank you for joining us for another season with our eagles. We hope this season goes as well as the previous three; if so, then we’re in for a lot of fun!

Unitl next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland