(Eaglets eight weeks old)

As I mentioned on the cam page, we have picked the two winners for our 2008 Eaglet-Naming Contest. We have emailed the winners, but we haven’t heard back from both of them yet, so we’ll hold off announcing the names since we normally like to share a little personal info about our winners when we make the announcement. Thanks to all those who took the time to enter our contest and share their creative skills with us. We got a lot of great names.

As we noted earlier, we are hearing from staff and volunteers at the Refuge that the eaglets are tearing off food for themselves now, but we are still seeing shots showing the eaglets being fed by a parent. This could be a case where even if the eaglets can do it themselves, it’s just easier when mom does it.

Regarding the eaglets’ size, I’ve been watching the cam over the last week or so to see if we can tell the gender of our chicks now that they’re two months old. It appears to me that they both look about the same size, which seems to indicate we may have two of the same sex. In addition, I’ve been looking at how they compare to the female eagle (the bigger of the parents), and it appears that our eaglets are smaller than she is. We’ll never know for sure the gender of our two youngsters, but based on these images, we might hazard to guess that we have two males.

Branching Eaglets

The eaglets are now about eight weeks old, and it’s amazing how fast the time has flown and how big our youngsters have become. Bald eaglets normally fledge at 9-13 weeks of age, but before they take that first flight, they spend a good bit of time branching.

Branching is when the eaglets hop out onto the branches of their nest tree and perch there. This activity helps them develop their perching skills (remember they’ve been sitting in the nest all this time) and also gets them acclimated to maneuvering in and out of their nest and around the tree branches.

Our friend Woody Dawson, from up near Susquehanna State Park in Maryland, loaned me this animated GIF (975KB) that he made showing one of his local bald eaglets branching. Notice how the eaglet uses its wings to maneuver its talons along the branch. Once the eaglet is in a secure place on the branch, it will perch there and observe the world around its home nest.

We also have a branching video clip from our own cam. In this clip from last year, we see our eaglet Majesty flapping out to one of the branches under the web camera. Then later in the clip you see our other eaglet, Justice, flapping her wings and skipping along the nest — she was very close to flying at this point. Note that as a female bald eagle, her wingspan could have reached 6-7 feet.

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The loblolly pine tree that holds our web camera — and the eaglets’ home — has several branches for the eaglets to choose from. On our current camera view you can see one of the branches in the upper left corner. Also there is a big branch on the right and a third under (and to the left) of the cam — this is the branch Majesty used in the video clip.

We can’t move the camera (or zoom out) to see the branching, but I have asked our volunteers and staff at the Refuge to let us know if they see any branching from our live TV monitor at the Visitor Center. It’s easier to see the branching on live video because you can see the eaglets jumping in and out of the nest. I will be getting some new video from the Refuge soon, and I’ll be sure to share those clips here, but thus far we do not have any confirmed branching yet from our eaglets.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending in images for our Eagle Cam Gallery. We’ll post an update before the end of the week.

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

 

Happy Earth Day to everyone!

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, by 20 million people across the country, and every year since then concerned citizens in America have tried to mark this day as a moment to raise awareness about our environment. If you’d like to read about how Senator Gaylord Nelson organized the first Earth Day back in 1970, visit the Wilderness Society website for more information.

In honor of this day, I thought it would be a good time to talk about the interesting relationship that exists between eagles and ospreys — the two wonderful raptors that we celebrate with our web cams. Eagle and osprey populations in the U.S. were not always as healthy as they are today. In the post World War II years, large amounts of the insecticide DDT were introduced into their environment, and the poison affected the ability of eagles and ospreys to reproduce successfully — much in the same way that DDT in the waters off California is affecting the reproductive success of eagles in the Channels Islands today. The eventual recovery of eagle and osprey populations was greatly helped by the environmental awareness that grew out of events like Earth Day and the publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring. In fact, DDT was banned in America two years after the first Earth Day was held.

Eagles and Ospreys

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is fortunate in that it has a large population of both eagles and ospreys, so confrontations between the birds here is not uncommon. Often when the two raptor species tangle, the battle is about fish. Ospreys are considered perhaps the best anglers in nature, and while eagles are also skilled at catching fish, they are better known for being opportunists that will sometimes use their larger size and greater power to steal a fish from an osprey rather than catch it themselves.

The bald eagle’s propensity for theft is what gave it a less than noble reputation in the eyes of founding father Ben Franklin. In a letter to his daughter, Franklin voiced his objections about the eagle:

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.”

Biologists today are not as critical of the bald eagle and recognize this fish-stealing habit as an effective survival skill rather than a moral defect. And the eagle does often find success because despite efforts on the part of the osprey to keep its fish, many accounts of the birds’ battles end with the osprey being forced to drop its meal. But if the osprey puts up a fight, then you might see something more dramatic.

In the book The Bald Eagle: Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch, one of the authors describes an event on a Saskatchewan lake that showed a surprising twist to the usual skirmish:

“The eagle attacked from a few feet above and to one side of the Osprey — once, twice, and then a third time. On each pass the Osprey visibly flinched, for the eagle’s talons barely cleared its back. We anxiously awaited the outcome. Many observers had described how typically the Osprey drops its fish, and with surprising agility the Bald Eagle snatches the fallen prey in midair. We were not prepared for what happened. After three unsuccessful attacks, the eagle turned to brute force. This time coming up fast from behind and below, the eagle flipped onto its back, thrust its talons upward, and ripped the fish right out of the Osprey’s grasp. What a sight! After quickly righting itself, the eagle turned and flapped leisurely to deposit the booty on its nest.”

During the times when the osprey comes out on top, it’s often because it outsmarts the eagle. For example, sometimes osprey couples will team up to protect their food from the eagles. Our Blackwater ranger, Tom Miller, witnessed this when he saw an osprey fly toward an eagle to intercept it while the osprey’s partner quickly flew to the home nest with the fish.

In addition, ospreys can be even more aggressive if they’re protecting their young and their home nest. At Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, local photographer Bob Montanaro captured this type of event on film as he watched a group of four ospreys drive off a group of immature bald eagles that were flying too close to the ospreys’ nests. Be sure to view these amazing photos where you can see the osprey aggressively flying at the immature eagle and making it clear that the ospreys will not tolerate the eagles in their territory.

At Blackwater, our ospreys at the Osprey Cam nest will react to bald eagles that are perched in the woods to the left of the nest. You can’t see these woods on the cam image, but it’s an area where eagles sometimes like to sit, and the close proximity to the osprey platform makes the ospreys agitated when an eagle is there.

A few years ago, I was at the Refuge with my video camera and was lucky enough to capture an episode showing the cam mother chasing off an eagle that was trying to perch in the trees near the cam. The first video below shows the eagle flying into the trees near our Osprey Cam nest and the other shows the mother consequently dive-bombing the eagle. In this instance, the mother did a good job of sending a strong message to the eagle, but it was somewhat risky for her to have to leave the chicks alone to do this. (Left-click on the Windows Media Video file links below to play, or right-click on the links and choose “Save Target As” to download to your computer):

Eagle Flyby (3.5MB)
Osprey Dive-bombing (2.5MB)

Just recently, photographer Bob Quinn was out at the Refuge and witnessed a similar episode between our Osprey Cam birds and an eagle that had been sitting in those trees. His photo (on the right) offers a dramatic glimpse at how these aerial battles look when a smaller raptor tries to take on a much bigger challenger.

Even with all the ospreys’ spunk and determination, there is no denying the fact that bald eagles are more powerful. A great example of this can be seen on a YouTube video I saw recently that shows a bald eagle taking a fish away from an osprey on Lake Merwin in Washington state. The speed with which the eagle overtakes the osprey is truly amazing to watch. The chirping you hear in the background is the osprey “yelling” at the eagle for stealing its meal. In such a situation, there’s not a lot the osprey can do but accept the fact that the eagle won this battle.

[A sidenote to teachers and parents — this video includes a slightly muffled profanity at the end by one of the observers in the video who got excited watching the scene, so just a little warning for the youngsters in our audience.]

Happy Earth Day!

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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

 

(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
Contact

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