(Chicks six weeks old)

Eaglet-Naming Contest

Although we’ve mentioned it on the cam page, I also wanted to announce here that we have now started our 2008 Eaglet-Naming Contest. Visit our Contest page for all the details you need to enter, and remember that the window for entering your names is two weeks, so the contest will end on April 26.

Eagle News
The Barton Island Eagle Cam in Massachusetts now has two chicks. Our friend Kimmarie at Falcons and Friends has posted an entertaining video of the first hatch, which you can see here.

Also, our friend Bobby from Kentucky alerted us to the hatching going on at the three-egg nest on the Colorado Eagle Cam. Here’s a great capture of the first hatching.

Raptors and Lead Poisoning

About a week ago, an event regarding a bald eagle came to my attention, and I’d like to talk about it here with the hope of producing some good out of an unfortunate situation.

One of our cam watchers was with his wife near Vienna, Maryland, which is not far from Blackwater Refuge on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He spotted an adult bald eagle in a tree, and at first he thought the eagle looked very old, since the eagle was listless but with no visible signs of injury. He wrote me when he got home and sent me the photo you see to the right. I forwarded the photo to a volunteer with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, which is a wonderful bird rehabilitation outfit on the Eastern Shore. Before anyone could go out and look for the bird, a representative from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources brought a female adult bald eagle to Tri-State, and it had come from this same general area, so we suspect it was the same bird.

The Tri-State vet discovered that the eagle was dehydrated, anemic and underweight. The in-house lead test they performed on her was very high, and radiographs showed seven discrete metal densities in her ventriculus (gizzard) and the pellets appeared to be lead shot. The vet started treatment, and they saw hopeful signs at first, since the eagle was trying to stand, but after a couple days of treatment, she died — the poisoning was just too far along.

This sad event brings to light an important issue in the avian world — lead poisoning. According to the website Wildlife Without Lead (which was created by HawkWatch International):

Raptors may scavenge or prey upon birds, mammals, or fish that have been exposed to lead, resulting in the risk of secondary lead poisoning. This became strikingly evident in the summer of 2000 when five of the captively-bred California Condors reintroduced into the Vermilion Cliffs area of Arizona died from lead-poisoning. It is believed they ingested lead shot from a mule deer carcass.

Any raptor species that forages on game animals is at risk of secondary poisoning including Golden and Bald Eagles, California Condors, and accipiters such as Cooper’s Hawks and Northern Goshawks. Digestive acids wear down the leaden material which is then absorbed into body tissues. When lead enters the circulatory system, it mimics the movement of calcium. It becomes stored in the bones and some may be excreted into the feces via the bile. Eventually, concentrations may reach toxic levels causing a variety of problems which often end in death…In many birds, sub-lethal dosages present a variety of symptoms. These include immune suppression, reproductive impairment, weight loss, wing droop, diarrhea, and tissue damage. Many of the sub-lethal problems result in death due to reduced physical performance, susceptibility to disease and infection, and increased predation.

And raptors aren’t the only birds affected. Other birds susceptible to lead contamination include: Common Loon, Trumpeter Swan, Mississippi Sandhill Crane, Canada Goose, Mallard, American Black Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Redhead, Wood Duck, Greater Scaup, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, White-winged Scoter, Sandhill Crane, Great Blue Heron, Common Egret, Snowy Egret, White Ibis, King Rail, Clapper Rail, Herring Gull, Laughing Gull, Royal Tern, Brown Pelican, American While Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant.

As for how an eagle could become poisoned, the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota reports that:

When lead fishing sinkers are lost through broken line or other means, birds such as loons, swans, and eagles can inadvertently eat them. Some birds swallow lead when they scoop up pebbles from the bottom of a lake or river to help grind their food; others ingest lead by eating fish that have swallowed sinkers. When lead ammunition is used in the hunting of large game, and gut piles are left behind or the animal is wounded and dies later, eagles can swallow a piece of shrapnel as they scavenge on the remains of the dead animal.

Although it’s difficult to get accurate statistics on casualty rates from lead poisoning (since many poisoned animals are never found), the Center states that “Between 1980 and 1996, The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota reported lead poisoning in 138 of 650 eagles treated by the Center. Since 1996, an average of 25 percent of the bald eagles admitted to The Raptor Center each year have toxic levels of lead in their blood.”

In 1991, the use of lead shot for waterfowl hunting was banned in the U.S., and just recently California responded to the threat of lead poisoning in Condors by making hunters switch to non-lead ammunition when they hunt big game and coyote in Condor habitat. While both these acts were important steps in the battle to reduce lead poisoning, lead is still the primary material for ammunition used to hunt mammals and upland birds and for weights used to fish.

What You Can Do

If you have a friend or family member who hunts or fishes, then pass along the two brochures provided below to these people. Show them what the consequences of lead poisoning can be and show them that they can make a difference by avoiding lead-based materials. Included in the brochures are tips for finding non-lead products at local retailers.

If you hunt or fish yourself, consider the many species you are inadvertently hurting with your use of lead and make plans to switch to non-lead products. In addition, it’s also important to dispose of the lead products you currently have by taking them to your household hazardous waste facility for proper disposal. Finally, you can help by patronizing retail stores that promote and sell non-lead products.

We can’t do anything now to save this bald eagle that was poisoned, but we can do something to save the many other birds that might die in the future. So take a moment to alert those around you to the dangers of lead, and encourage them to find alternatives that they can live with — and that our wildlife can live with, as well.

Until next time,

Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, raptors, lead poisoning, Blackwater Refuge

 

(Chicks: four weeks old)

First, I wanted to make a quick announcement about Earth Day (officially April 22). In honor of Earth Day, Blackwater Refuge will be holding a litter pick-up on April 12 and also a tree planting on April 27 and May 3. If you’d like to celebrate Earth Day, this is a great way to do it — for individuals, families, and community groups. The litter pick-up not only helps make the Refuge more attractive, it helps reduce roadkill (animals are attracted to the trash); and our tree planting will help restore vital habitat at the Refuge. So visit our Earth Day page to learn more about joining us and giving something back to nature.

Eaglet Update

Our eaglets are doing well and growing more each day. We’ve recently seen the mother eagle bringing in a little more food, and both chicks seem to be getting fed, although it’s clear the older eaglet is getting the most.

Right now the routine seems to be that when the mother brings a meal, the older eaglet asserts its dominance and the younger eaglet acts submissive. But then once the older eaglet is full, the younger bird steps forward and gets fed. As an indication that the eaglets are getting fed, we’ve noticed we can now see their crops after a meal. A crop is a pouch on the chest area of each eaglet and it’s used for storing food for later consumption. So when you see an enlarged crop, it means the chicks have been given a decent meal.

We’ve had folks ask what the eaglets look like up close, and this photo is about the best look we can give you. This is an eaglet with the second coat of down and also with a few new blood feathers (on its lower right wing). Both of our eaglets are showing signs of blood feathers (dark brown areas on their bodies, especially on the tips of their wings and their backs), so they look a lot like the bird in the photo.

Another question we’ve been asked is whether or not the eaglets are feeding themselves. It is possible at this stage that the eaglets are tearing off some food themselves, although they are still reliant on the mother for a good bit of the feeding. But it won’t be long before the eaglets will be able to tear into a fresh meal themselves.

Miscellaneous Eagle News

Before we get to our new videos below, I wanted to share some miscellaneous eagle news. Biologists in California are helping the eagles in the Channel Islands recover from the lasting impacts of DDT (the banned pesticide), and one way they do this is to remove eggs from eagle nests on the island and manually incubate them, then put the chicks back into the nest once they’ve hatched. They do this because DDT that was dumped into the California waters decades ago still weakens the eggshells of the raptors. Here is an amazing video of two of the incubated eggs, and in the video you can hear what the eaglets sound like right before they hatch. Keep in mind this is the sound the eagle parents hear, which lets them know that the chick is coming. Very cool!

Videos at Three Weeks of Age

About a week ago, I was given some new videotape of our eaglets. These clips show the young birds at about three weeks of age, and they were recorded from our live video feed, which you can see on the monitors at our Visitor Center. You can left-click the videos below to play them or right-click and choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As” to download them. Also, you can see these videos on our Blackwater YouTube Channel.

In the first video, we see one of the eaglets flapping its wings. This is just the beginning of what will be many hours of flapping practice as the young birds try to develop their wings for that first big flight.

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In the second video, we see the father eagle arrive with what looks like a small mammal. The mother takes the father’s offering and prepares to feed the eaglets. This video gives us a nice view of one of the somewhat rare times when the family is all together.

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In the third video, we see one of the eaglets slicing over the edge. Slicing is the falconer’s term for defecating, and chicks know at a very early age to back up to the edge to relieve themselves. (This is why you see whitewash on many of the branches around the rim of the nest.) Also in this video we see the same eaglet using its talon to scratch its face.

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And in the final video, we see a funny episode where the older eaglet tries to swallow a very long bone — which doesn’t seem like such a good idea to the mother — and eventually the young bird has to cough it up.

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Osprey News

Tom Lorsung recently sent in a beautiful photo taken at one of the water osprey platforms at the Refuge. In addition to our land-based Osprey Cam nest, the Refuge also has several water osprey nests that you can see from our Wildlife Drive, like the one in Tom’s shot. So even if our cam nest action is erratic, we are getting regular action at our other nests.

Also, I wanted to share this amazing video from the Puleston Osprey Cam in New York where the male osprey delivered a fish to the female. Only problem was the male had a hard time removing his talon from the meal, and the female flew away with the fish while he was still attached to it! We hear the male returned to the nest later, so he was all right.

As for our nest, as we mentioned on the cam page, we appear to have three ospreys (some cam watchers think four ospreys) vying for the cam nest. We’ll just have to wait and see if one pair claims the nest and begins refilling it with sticks. We had an odd year on the cam last year, and it appears this year will be unusual too.

A final note: One cam watcher asked about when I’ll start the Osprey Cam Web Log. I’m waiting to see if we’ll actually have a nesting pair on the platform before I start the web log. But in the meantime, for those who want to learn more about ospreys, be sure to visit our Osprey fact page, and also visit our Cam Central page to find links to our old Osprey Cam Web Logs. The 2006 season was particularly rewarding as we had four chicks hatch on the platform that year, and all of them fledged — a somewhat rare occurrence for a North American nest.

Until next time,

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

 

(1st chick: 20 days old; 2nd chick: 19 days old)

Well, after singing the praises of our father eagle in the last post, the male has slipped into his erratic food delivery schedule again, and consequently food has not been abundant in the nest. After a couple days of not seeing any new meals brought in, the mother produced a decent-sized bird, only to have the father bring in this small contribution. We’re not sure where he finds such tiny fish, but it actually looked smaller than the eaglets.

We did see a good-sized fish brought in early Sunday morning, and we’re not sure who brought it, but since the father eagle appeared in the image, we’ll be optimistic and pretend dad brought it. :-)

The lack of food is putting some stress on the younger eaglet, as we’re seeing submissive behavior from the younger chick and some bullying behavior by the older eaglet, who is doing what all older eaglets do when food is short — making sure it gets the most food.

We’ve seen images where the younger chick appears submissive during meal time — such as staying down and in the back while the parent is feeding. Also we’ve seen the familiar submissive posture where the younger eaglet puts its head down and away from the older chick, usually as a result of pecking from the elder eaglet.

These are normal behaviors in a nest where the food is light and the two chicks are playing the game of “every eaglet for itself,” but we had hoped to see less of this since Blackwater appears to have enough food for a two-eaglet family.

Several cam watchers have asked if the eaglets could feed themselves. While we have seen shots showing what looked like eaglets pecking at the food, it’s not likely they can tear off meat at this stage. Duck and fish can be very tough to tear apart, and the eaglets need to be bigger and stronger before they can tear off meat for themselves. Once the eaglets are bigger, we’ll see the parents just drop food into the nest and let the eaglets “go at it,” but at this stage in their lives, they need a parent to do a lot of the tearing for them.

We did see one exciting thing this past week, and that was an eaglet clearly flapping its wings. We’ll see more of this activity in the weeks to come, but it’s good to see the eaglets beginning to exercise their wings in preparation for the day when they become mighty fliers like their parents.

Speaking of the eaglets, you might have noticed I’ve tried to avoid calling either of them “him” or “her” because we aren’t sure about their sex just yet. While it is true that female bald eagles are larger than the males, at this age in an eaglet’s life, size is related more to order of birth, so we can’t really guess the gender of our eaglets at this point. However, when they are older — around the time they get ready to fledge — we should be able to guess their gender by their comparative size.

Last year, our two eaglets — Justice and Majesty — exhibited this difference, as you can see in the image to the right. Justice, on the left, was definitely larger and appeared to be a female, and Majesty appeared to be a male.

As for our eaglets this year, we can speculate that the first chick might be a female. The reason for this is in the book The Bald Eagle: Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch, Canadian eagle biologist Dr. Gary Bortolotti offers evidence of a sex bias based on observations that he collected while studying 37 eaglet broods around Besnard Lake in Saskatchewan, Canada. He reports, “Even though there was an overall nestling sex ratio of one to one, the order in which the sexes hatched was not random; 63% of first-hatched eggs were females, and 68% of second-hatched eggs were males. A sex bias in hatching sequence has only recently been discovered in birds.” The reasoning they offered for this was that because male eaglets develop faster in the nest, having the female born first would reduce the competitive advantage of the faster-growing male.

So we’ll be keeping an eye on our eaglets’ growth, and after they develop their feathers we’ll likely have a better idea as to their gender.

Also, now that we have chicks, several cam watchers have asked if we will hold our annual Eaglet Naming Contest this year. The answer is yes, and we’ll be announcing the start of that when the eaglets get a little bigger. For those who are new to our website, normally we allow folks to enter a name for each eaglet, then judges pick the winners, and the winners get a prize from our Refuge gift store, as well as get recognized on our website.

Speaking of the contest, it just occurred to me that I don’t think I’ve mentioned WildCam.com this season. For those who are new to our cams, we have a partner in WildCam.com, which is based in Africa. We share our Eagle and Osprey Cam feeds with them, so if you ever have a problem accessing the Friends of Blackwater website, check out WildCam.com to find our cams there as well. You have to register, but it’s free, and they won’t share your email address with anyone.

Once the Eaglet Naming Contest begins, it will be hosted on the WildCam.com site, although we’ll obviously publicize it here and give folks instructions for entering their names at WildCam. So stay tuned for more info on the contest.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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