I had planned to post an entry tonight offering reasons why our first eaglet might be late, but instead I can happily post an entry about our newly hatched chick.

The mother stayed on the eggs throughout most of the hatching, so she didn’t give us much of a chance to see it happening. Here is the best sequence we can put together of the first hatching of 2008.

This chick arrived on the 37th day of incubation. This is the latest we’ve had one of our first eaglets hatch on the Eagle Cam, but it was not too late, so the chick should be fine. We now are waiting for our second chick to hatch on Wednesday or Thursday.

Earlier today it was pointed out to me that some of the folks who are watching the Norfolk Eagle Cam brought up the theory that sometimes eagle parents intentionally delay the full incubation of the first egg so that it will hatch closer to the second egg. Our eggs this year were laid about four days apart. Normally you want the eggs to be about two to three days apart. So did the parents intentionally delay full incubation of the first egg to bring the two chicks closer together? We honestly don’t know if our parents were that clever, but if they were, then that was a very good strategy and would explain why this first hatched a bit late.

At this point, we’re now waiting to see how good our father is going to be at playing the provider. Up until this point, he has not been wowing us with his hunting skills, so we’ll be watching to see how much food is being brought to the nest. In the end, mom might have to leave dad with the young chick and go out hunting herself at some point.

I wanted to mention one final detail that I’ve been asked about, and it concerns the dark object that you see lying at the top of the image. The item is an old piece of food that one of the parents brought to the nest a while back, and we’re not really sure what it was — possibly a small mammal. But I just wanted to say that it’s not a chick and it has been in the nest for a few days.

Thanks to all our cam watchers who were patiently waiting for our first eaglet. We hope the chick gets a sibling soon.

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