(1st chick: 10 days old; 2nd chick: 9 days old)

A few items to discuss, so I thought I’d do another blog update.

First, I know folks have been worried about the long time the parents have been off the chicks. We did have mild weather yesterday and the sun was out, so we gather the mother eagle thought she could be off them more. We need to remember the mother has been largely responsible for the chicks, and she needs to feed herself because there hasn’t been a lot of food in the nest, so it’s possible she spent time doing that yesterday. We don’t know if the father was around (out of our view) watching the eaglets, but we hope so. I did see a parent on the nest this morning feeding the chicks twice with what looked like a new fish, so that was good to see.

I also know some folks think we’ve been too hard on our eagle father, but yesterday the NCTC Eagle Cam in West Virginia got their first eaglet, and look what was waiting in the nest for this tiny bird. This is the quantity of food that has greeted our eaglets in past seasons at our Blackwater Eagle Cam. In fact, as soon as an eaglet appeared, our previous father went fishing or hunting, sometimes having two fish or a fish and a duck in the nest together. So we naturally expected this type of behavior from our current father.

I think one of our cam watchers summed it up best the other day when she labeled our eaglets “The Hardy Chicks.” They’ve had to make do with the food available and they’ve also been on their own quite a bit. But they seem to be hanging in there and growing, so they are indeed “hardy” little raptors.

One final note about the eaglets — several folks have asked about their current size. At birth, bald eaglets are about 4-5 inches, and since they are now approaching two weeks old and have obviously grown some, I can speculate they’re pushing about 6 inches, but that’s just an educated guess.

Osprey Return

We did get to see our first osprey on the nest on Thursday! The bird (possibly a female) was around for a little while, but then an eagle appeared on the nest late in the afternoon; this possibly means no osprey is yet claiming the nest as their own, because when that happens, the eagles usually leave for good. While eagles might steal an osprey’s fish, they don’t seem to be willing to challenge the nesting ospreys for their home at the cam platform.

It’s possible our female has returned and she’s just waiting for her partner to show, so we’ll be keeping an eye out for a shot showing two ospreys on the nest together. And for those who are new to observing ospreys — or fish hawks — it is a bit easier to discern the sex of the individual birds. Osprey males often have a white chest, while females often have a “necklace” or brown coloring on their chests. Here you can see a clear example of a female with a noticeable necklace, although I should point out that sometimes females have a very faint necklace that is hard to see from a distance. Also, just like eagles, osprey females are bigger than the males.

We hear the commercial bucket truck is scheduled to come out Friday to adjust our cam, but again, if the truck operator has any kind of delay in his schedule, we might have to put off the visit. They are calling for a slight chance of rain Friday afternoon, and again, that would prevent the bucket truck from going up high into the air to service the pole. Whenever we have to arrange for the bucket truck, it’s a tricky affair because we have to coordinate schedules and gamble with the weather. It’s part of the reason why we don’t like having to get the truck out to the nest.

105th Anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System

I wanted to point out that today is a special day for wildlife refuge fans. Today marks the 105th Anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System — the only collection of federal lands in America where wildlife is supposed to come first. Blackwater NWR is one of the units in the Refuge System, having been formed back in 1933. This year is also the 75th Anniversary for Blackwater, and we’ll be honoring that event at our Eagle Festival on Saturday, March 15. All are welcome to join us that day.

The Refuge System was formed by President Teddy Roosevelt, when on March 14, 1903, he signed an executive order establishing Pelican Island (in Florida) as the first federal bird reservation. He went on to create a network of 55 bird reservation and national game preserves for wildlife, and these lands eventually became the National Wildlife Refuge System, which today includes 548 national wildlife refuges and 37 Wetland Management Districts (altogether equaling about 97 million acres), which is supported by over 200 Refuge Friends groups, like the Friends of Blackwater, who run the Blackwater cams that you enjoy. Each year the Refuge System hosts about 39 million visitors, who help contribute approximately $1.7 billion to local economies across America.

I’d like to end this web log entry with some words from Teddy Roosevelt — words which remind us why he is considered the greatest conservationist president America was lucky enough to have:

“We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation.”

“I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.”

“Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.”

“Spring would not be spring without bird songs, any more than it would be spring without buds and flowers, and I only wish that besides protecting the songsters, the birds of the grove, the orchard, the garden and the meadow, we could also protect the birds of the sea-shore and of the wilderness.”

“Short-sighted men, in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things.”

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, Blackwater Refuge, Pelican Island, Teddy Roosevelt, National Wildlife Refuge System

 

First, a nest update. On Sunday morning — after a brief period of snow — our female eagle was seen sitting down in the nest. After she left, we could see a small indentation in the nest where the nest cup will likely be when she’s ready to lay eggs. In two of our three years of the Eagle Cam, the first egg appeared around January 24-25, so we’re getting close to that prime time.

Normally eagles do not like to spend a lot of time in the nest, especially at night. They prefer to be perched in the trees during the day, and even at night when they sleep. So anytime we see the female actually sitting down in the nest, we get excited because it means she is gearing up for nesting season.

In the last three years of our cam, the one huge hint that something was about to happen was when we saw the female spending the whole night on the nest. Every time we have seen this behavior, an egg appeared the next morning. So we’re keeping an eye out for shots showing the female on the nest late at night in the sleeping position; that will be our cue that she feels an egg is about to be laid.

Florida Eagles

For those who missed my note on the Eagle Cam page, the Audubon of Florida Eagle Cam has one or possibly two eaglets in their nest. Go to the “For the Love of Eagles” forum and scroll down about halfway to see a cute photo of one eaglet.

Florida raptors — both eagles and ospreys — nest earlier than our birds here in the north. This is because the Florida parents want the young out of the nest and independent before the brutal Florida summer arrives. In fact, quite a few of Florida’s immature bald eagles actually head up here — to the Chesapeake Bay — for the summer, as we have less intense heat and lots of fishing for the young birds. Once the summer passes, the birds head back down toward their home state.

Pelican Island NWR

Speaking of Florida, I wanted to spend a little time talking about a very special place in Florida — Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, near Sebastian, Florida on the east coast.

During the late 1800s, it was the fashion in America for women to wear bird feathers on their hats. According to Audubon Magazine: “In 1886 Frank Chapman hiked from his uptown Manhattan office to the heart of the women’s fashion district on 14th Street, to tally the stuffed birds on the hats of passing women. Chapman, who would later found the first version of this magazine [Audubon], was a talented birder. He identified the wings, heads, tails, or entire bodies of 3 bluebirds, 2 red-headed woodpeckers, 9 Baltimore orioles, 5 blue jays, 21 common terns, a saw-whet owl, and a prairie hen. In two afternoon trips he counted 174 birds and 40 species in all.”

Despite a great deal of effort by conservationists, it was unbelievably hard to get the fashion industry — and American women — to cut back on the demand for bird feathers, even though millions of birds were being slaughtered for the fashion market.

Pelican Island was one of the last stands in this war between feather hunters and conservationists. The little island was a favorite target of hunters, but it was also the last breeding ground for brown pelicans on the entire east coast of Florida, and after hearing about the pelican slaughter on the island, Teddy Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1903 establishing Pelican Island as the first federal bird reservation. Local boat builder Paul Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager at Pelican Island, and he was paid $1 a month by the Florida Audubon Society, as Congress had not set aside funds for this executively created refuge.

Being a warden protecting birds from feather hunters was dangerous work — in fact two other wardens were killed in the line of duty. Kroegel — who had a family homestead near Pelican Island — had watched the hunters blast away at the pelicans, and he was determined to do his best to protect the local bird life. When Kroegel saw the hunters approaching, he would head out with only his boat and gun to protect him, and there is no doubt, Kroegel was the best friend the birds could have.

Kroegel remained the refuge manager at Pelican Island until he retired in 1926. In 1963, Pelican Island was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior because of its status as the first federal area set aside specifically to protect wildlife, and in 1968, Florida expanded the lease with the refuge to include 4,760 acres of mangrove islands and submerged lands. In 1970, Pelican Island became the smallest wilderness area (six acres) in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Pelican Island received another honor in 1993 when it was recognized as a Wetland of International Importance. The refuge has since acquired over 500 acres through purchases, management agreements, and conservation easements along its eastern boundary to provide a buffer against encroaching development, and provide a link to the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

I recently paid a visit to Pelican Island NWR, and it’s truly a wonderful location for wildlife. In 2003, which was the 100th anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System, a Centennial Trail was built at Pelican Island to honor the Refuge System’s anniversary. The trail features a boardwalk with planks that honor each refuge in the System. I searched for the Blackwater NWR plank and found it near the end of the walk (the planks are arranged chronologically). The very last plank in the long boardwalk is for Pelican Island NWR — the very first refuge.

At the end of the boardwalk is a gazebo that offers an overlook of Pelican Island and the beautiful Indian River Lagoon. The entire area really is an amazing place, filled with mangrove islands and loads of bird life. The lagoon also hosts manatees.

I also visited the charming town of Sebastian, Florida, and it’s attractive Riverview Park, which offers another view of the Indian River Lagoon, as well as a life-sized bronze statue of Paul Kroegel — the first refuge manager and the pride of Sebastian. (See the statue here).

Pelican Island is not without its problems these days. Encroaching development, erosion, sea level rise, infestation by exotic species, and budget and staff cuts threaten to undermine protection of the refuge. But despite these challenges, I think Paul Kroegel would be proud to know how the Refuge System has grown and how many species have been protected because Teddy Roosevelt made that first declaration way back in 1903.

If you’d like to see current photos of Pelican Island’s bird life, visit the Osprey Watch website where our friend Bob Montanaro follows the adventures of ospreys at Pelican Island NWR. Bob recently went on a boat tour around Pelican Island, and you can see his photos showing the many pelicans.

And if you’d like to learn more about Pelican Island and its history, visit the websites below. Visitors should definitely make a stop at the attractive town of Sebastian, Florida. Besides Riverview Park, the town also offers nice amenities for tourists to the area. Also note that on March 8, 2008, they will be holding the Pelican Island Wildlife Festival.

Pelican Island NWR
Pelican Island NWR Friends Group
Saving Pelican Island

And more about Paul Kroegel
One Person Can Make a Difference

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland, Pelican Island Refuge, Florida