As I mentioned on the cam page today, I’ve just uploaded six new videos to our Blackwater YouTube Channel. In this web log entry, I’m offering a few higher-quality copies of some of the more interesting videos from our YouTube channel and also offering some discussion about the family behavior on display.

As for the current standing at the nest, our father eagle has been erratic, to put it politely. The mother eagle has had to leave the chicks for long periods (especially in the morning) to go hunting. Sometimes the father returns to sit on the chicks, sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he helps feed them (usually with mom’s food), sometimes he doesn’t.

So at this point, we’re just happy that the eaglets seem to be hardy enough to withstand the cold when mom is gone. And we’re also happy that no predators have tried to visit the nest while she’s away. In all fairness to the father, it’s possible he’s sitting in the nest tree or in a nearby tree when the mother is gone — watching over the nest — but of course we can’t see that from our view. And it would definitely be better if he was sitting on the eaglets when it’s only 25 degrees out.

But enough about that, let’s go to the clips. In our first featured clip below, we see the mother eagle flies in with a fish. Both parents seem to be calling out during this video, and we’re not sure who or what they’re calling to, but it could be another bird that was interested in the fish. If you’d like to hear the sound the parents are probably making, listen to this audio file:

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While watching the cam feed at the Refuge, I noticed that one eaglet is a little bigger than the other, so there is a slight size difference. Also, the older eaglet was pecking the younger chick on the head a bit to establish its dominance in the nest (a very normal behavior). One interesting behavior I saw though was that the younger eaglet was also doing its share of pecking at the older bird. In fact, on the day the second chick hatched — when it could barely hold up its head — it was still trying to peck at its older sibling, often falling down in the process.

Pecking is an instinctual trait with eaglets, and seeing as how they do it almost straight out of the egg, you wonder if it might be nature’s way of helping to strengthen the eaglets’ necks so they can later tear up food to feed themselves.

In the second clip, we see some eaglet sibling rivalry on display. At first the older eaglet pecks at the younger bird to make the youngster keep its head down, then the two eaglets play tug-of-war with their beaks. Biologists state that normally parents do not interfere with sibling squabbles, but in this clip it seems that the parent tries to interrupt the pecking both times, and eventually stops the fighting altogether by ending the feeding session and sitting on them.

4.9 MB

In the third clip, we see a feeding session between one parent and the eaglets. The feeding sessions are touching in a way because you can see how patient the parent has to be while trying to feed little eaglets that keep looking around or falling over or dropping the food that the parent passes to them. Sometimes the piece of food is too big, and then the parent bites down on it to make it a bit smaller, and passes it off again. At this stage of their lives, the eaglets definitely require some patience.

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And for our final clip, we see a short look at how the mother eagle settles down for the night — first wiggling herself so she is comfortable over the eaglets, then tucking her beak into her feathers. Biologists state that birds tuck their beaks into their feathers to reduce heat loss during the night.

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We hope you enjoyed these videos — and the two extra videos on YouTube. We’ll try to capture some more shots as the eagles continue to grow and begin developing their all-important feathers.

And thanks again to all those who have been following our birds, watching our videos, emailing questions, and sending in their cam photos. We always appreciate the support our cams receive.

Eagle Cam Merchandise

I wanted to announce that our online Eagle’s Nest Gift Shop is now selling Eagle Cam t-shirts (for adults and kids) and is also selling a DVD video featuring highlights from last season’s nest — the nest with our youngsters Justice and Majesty. If you’d like to help us spread the word about the Blackwater Eagle Cams or if you’d like some souvenirs of our cam but you can’t attend the Eagle Festival on Saturday, this merchandise might be just the thing you’re looking for. So visit our cam store page and check out our new items. Also note that we’re offering a specially priced DVD/t-shirt combo that comes with a free Eagle Cam postcard.

And as a final reminder, all proceeds from our store go toward supporting projects at the Refuge, including our raptor cams.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, eaglet videos, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

 

Chick Scorecard

We’ll be updating our Gallery soon, but for those who missed it, here is a sequence of shots showing our second chick hatching on March 5. I also wanted to say that when we update the Gallery, we’ll be spreading the credits around for the photos, so you might not see your name on every photo you sent in. We’ll also be posting some videos of the chicks early next week, when we have a chance to edit and upload them.

For those who are keeping score, here is how our 2008 clutch played out this year:

1st egg laid: January 26
1st egg hatched: March 3
Days of incubation: 37 days

2nd egg laid: January 30
2nd egg hatched: March 5
Days of incubation: 35 days

The chicks were a little over a day apart in hatching, so this should give the oldest only a slight size advantage. We prefer that the chicks are close in size as it helps to decrease the bullying and aggressiveness that we might see from the oldest chick. The other thing that decreases the aggressiveness is plenty of food in the nest, so we hope the parents can keep the growing chicks well fed, otherwise we might see an increase in sibling competition as the chicks begin to require more food.

Tonight we saw the mother eagle trying to keep the eaglets dry during our rain storm. Lots of folks ask me if anything is wrong when they see the parent in this position, but this is very normal because this is how a parent looks when they’re doing their best to keep the chicks dry. By spreading out her wings, the mother can keep a larger area of the nest from getting too wet.

So far our parents seem to be sharing in the hunting activities somewhat, and that should work out all right as long as the father hangs around to watch the chicks while the mother eagle is hunting.

Our fish-challenged father might get a break soon. The Refuge ospreys should begin returning around mid March or so, and then dad can start targeting the fish hawks and steal their fish. As many eagle fans know, bald eagles are notorious for letting ospreys catch a meal only to take it away from them minutes later. This is a behavior that we’ll talk more about in the future, but the father eagle could use these fish-stealing skills to help him feed his family. Also, once the ospreys return, the eagles will give up the Osprey Cam platform, so dad won’t be able to hang out there anymore.

For the next few weeks, our eagle parents will be spending lots of time sitting on the chicks to keep them warm. Eventually the eaglets will be able to control their own body temperatures, which will mean the parents won’t have to spend as much time on them, and the chicks will be a little less dependent on the parents.

Eagle Festival

A big reminder: March 15 is our 8th Annual Eagle Festival. This is without a doubt the best time for eagle fans to visit Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. We will have guided Eagle Prowls, an early-morning bird walk, birds of prey, kids’ activities, food, the Eagle’s Nest Gift Store, plus you will be able to see live video of our two new eaglets on the TV monitors at our beautiful Visitor Center. Visit our Eagle Festival page for our schedule of activities. And please note that while all the events are free, some events do require that you call ahead and reserve a spot.

Other Eagle Nests

Lots of egg laying going on at other eagle cam nests around the country. The Massachusetts Eagle Cam now has three eggs and so does the Colorado cam nest. Also, someone alerted me to a nest in Oklahoma that has an amazing four eggs! Boy, talk about pressure on those parents. :-)

Also, remember that the NCTC Eagle Cam in West Virginia should have hatching soon with their three eggs.

Fun Stuff

I wanted to share a few fun things that several cam watchers have sent in. First, for all those eagle fans following the various nests on the Web, you might find this Eaglet Information Table helpful in keeping track of all the nest action.

Also, Jack Migliore, who is one of our cam watchers and a teacher in Salem County, New Jersey, has put together a wonderful nature movie called “Wings of Success,” which features some of his eagle photography. Note that this website will ask you to download/run the Move Media Player in order to see the movie, and downloading it is safe to do.

Next, photographer Tom Lorsung was kind enough to share a photo he recently took here at Blackwater Refuge. It shows two immature bald eagles fighting over perching rights on an unused osprey platform in the Blackwater River. Beautiful shot.

Also, Bob Quinn has notified me that he has new photos up in his online Gallery. The last batch of photos on this page shows our white pelicans — this would normally be an unusual species for the Refuge as they normally are found much further south, but over the last few years these pelicans have adopted the Refuge as their own. And just so you’re not alarmed — the smoke you see in the one photo is from a controlled burn on the Eastern Shore. Much thanks to Bob for a look at the current conditions at the Refuge.

And last but certainly not least, we have several new photos from photographer Jon McRay who was recently out at Blackwater. Below we see two shots of an eagle collecting nesting material in the marshy fields. In the third shot we get a wonderful look at an eagle landing on a popular snag at the Refuge. And in the final shot we see an amazing collection of snow geese at the Refuge. Click on the thumbnails below, and much thanks to Jon for these incredible shots.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, eaglets, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

 

Weather and Cam

I wanted to thank everyone for their patience as we were troubleshooting our image problem. Something with our satellite dish service suddenly changed, and we were struggling to alter our software so it could accommodate the new setup. We’ll keep an eye on it, but we hope the problem is solved.

Also, we’ve had our website moved to a new web server that should be able to handle our increase in traffic once the hatching starts, so hopefully this preemptive move will head off any technical trouble once we start seeing eaglets around March 1.

One final cam note, we’re expecting some messy weather (rain and snow) starting possibly tonight. The snow might accumulate a couple inches, but the weather should be better by Saturday. So far our parents have done a very good job of keeping the eggs dry, so they should be able to handle it, although you might see them looking pretty ragged in the rain and snow.

Norfolk Eagle Pair

I want to thank all those who kept me up-to-date on the drama at the Norfolk Eagle Cam website. I had been out of town over the weekend and missed some of the events.

Apparently there was a lot of confusion — even by the biologists — about what had been happening, but from what they now gather a young intruder female managed to drive the resident female away, and now the resident male seems to be bonding with the new female. This development led to the abandonment of the eggs, so the biologists received permission to go up and retrieve the eggs for study, which they did the other day. Now the new couple has been seen hanging out at the new nest, and it is hoped that they will lay their own clutch.

WVEC.com has posted photos of the eagle eggs that were taken from the nest. Be sure to check out these shots as they offer a rare opportunity to see bald eagle eggs up close.

Ken Scheibech, who is one of our cam watchers, was kind enough to tape the footage showing the biologists going up to retrieve the eggs. I should point out that the Norfolk Eagle Cam website had been reporting that the couple had three eggs, but the biologists found only two and no broken egg shells (possibly meaning there was never a third). I’ve taken the liberty of editing Ken’s movie down to a web-friendly size. Left-click on the link below to play the movie or right-click and choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As” to download. And thanks to Ken for capturing this for us:

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As I mentioned on the Eagle Cam page a few days ago, the Norfolk scenario is somewhat similar to the one we saw develop at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge near Washington, DC with the resident eagle pair nicknamed George and Martha. George and Martha had a long productive history together, but a very aggressive female came into the territory and attacked Martha, injuring her so severely that she was taken to Tri-State Bird Rescue for rehabilitation. George was seen hanging around the new female, but he reunited with Martha when she was released. Sadly, Martha later hurt her elbow when she apparently flew into a power line, and Tri-State was not able to repair her wing, so she was euthanized. George then began hanging around with the new female and they began to bond.

While it is normally true that eagles mate for life, they will “divorce” if they are not productive as a couple. And now we are learning that if a third bird is aggressive enough, eagles might also split up if one partner is driven away.

Both of these circumstances drive home the point that as eagle populations grow, it means we are going to see new and possibly confusing behaviors from our local eagles — especially as eagles are forced to confront the challenges of a growing human population and fewer quality nesting sites near water, which will put pressure on single eagles to take over established nests. Although it’s not pleasant to see an eagle couple driven apart, the upside is that it is a symptom of a growing eagle population.

Norfolk Owl

I also wanted to offer a follow-up on the Great horned owl that had appeared at the Norfolk Eagle Cam a while back — this is the owl that made an appearance at the nest before the female eagle intruder arrived. According to the Norfolk biologists, it now appears this was a chance encounter, and that the owl did not likely know the eagle nest was occupied until it found the female eagle on the nest laying the first egg that night when the two raptors clashed. Since that time the owl has not reappeared, so apparently the owl was not attempting to take over the nest — it was just revisiting a nest it probably thought was not occupied. Our apologies to the owl for mistaking its intentions. ;-)

Other Nests
Some photos of other nests I wanted to share. Here we see the parents at the NCTC Eagle Cam protecting their eggs from the recent snow. Their eggs will hatch after ours. And here we see the two adult eagles on the Kent Eagle Cam in Washington state, where the nesting season is just beginning. Some other eagle cams to watch as nesting season approaches up north: the Barton Cove, MA Eagle Cam, the Ft. St. Vrain, CO Eagle Cam, the Maine Eagle Cam, the Hancock Eagle Cams in Canada, and the USFS Oregon Eagle Cam, which has an annoying intro page that you have to sit through before the cam will load.

Blackwater Eagles

Our 2008 Blackwater Eagle Cam appears to be relatively quiet right now (and we suddenly feel very fortunate about that!), and so we are on schedule to see our eggs hatch beginning around March 1. Of course, we can only hope the eggs are fertile, and we won’t know that for sure until the beginning of March, but our parents have been doing an excellent job carrying out their incubation duties, so there is no reason at this point to think the eggs won’t hatch. In the next blog post we’ll talk more about what we can expect come hatching time.

As for our parents, we know that sometimes they like to visit the Osprey Cam platform, which is near the Blackwater River and a variety of food, such as fish and waterfowl. Photographer Jon McRay got in touch with me recently about some photos he just took of eagles hunting at the Refuge, and he has generously offered to share those photos with us (see below). Based on Jon’s description of what he saw, it’s very likely that Jon was watching one of our parents.

According to Jon, “This past weekend the Snow Geese were in full force and were inside the end of the Wildlife Drive for a while, which made for some nice photos. As the geese were heading back out to the Blackwater River late in the day, some eagles perked up. One, possibly from the cam-nest, took a perch behind the Visitor’s Center on a stake and began watching the geese. She (or he) took flight, a few other eagles joined in, and they began to work on the geese. Within a matter of seconds, an eagle was in hot pursuit of a goose that had broken off from the group. The eagle swiped at it, and the goose fell from the sky. The eagle left the goose in the water, I suspect because it would have been too wet and heavy to carry, and she (or he) probably waited for it to wash up on a shallow patch.”

Below are Jon’s photos; click on the thumbnails for a larger version. As we’ve mentioned before in our blog, eagles will often try to target ducks or geese that have broken off from the group, because that makes them easier targets. As the adage goes, there is safety in numbers, and when a flocking bird goes it alone, that’s usually when it’s most vulnerable.

In addition to these shots, Jon has a fantastic Blackwater Refuge gallery on display at Flickr.com. Be sure to spend some time checking out his work. He has a lot of great eagle shots, including a fantastic eagle mating photo and also an incredible photo/animation of an eagle couple cartwheeling, which is a classic eagle-bonding ritual. Much thanks to Jon for sharing his work! I’ll definitely be highlighting more of his photos in the future.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, eagle eggs, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland