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.

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

 

Well, as many of our cam watchers know, we had previously been worried about the small amount of food that the father eagle had been bringing to the nest while the parents were incubating the eggs. Today the father eagle did not bring a meal to the nest, despite the fact that the mother and new chick were counting on him to do so. The mother eagle appeared to do most of the incubating — although it’s possible the father did perform that duty some of the time, because he has shown that he will sit on the nest with the eggs. But beyond that, he was not at the nest much.

The mother eagle fed our new chick some pieces from the leftover item in the nest (what we think was possibly a small mammal), but clearly the mother needs the father eagle to be the provider right now, and it’s still a mystery why the father is not hunting more. We could guess that the father is not healthy or has some kind of physical problem, but we did see him bring a fish to the nest not that long ago, and he’s obviously feeding himself, so we gather he is capable of hunting.

The main problem now is that the mother cannot do both the nest-sitting and the hunting, mainly because eaglets cannot control their own body temperatures for the first few weeks of life. So while the mother is capable of hunting, she would need the father to sit on the chick and egg while she is gone.

So the mother has a few options: 1) She can wait and hope the father starts hunting; 2) She can try to get the father to sit on the nest, and then go hunting herself; 3) She can try to use her bigger size and bully the father into doing more of his job. We do know from a story our ranger told me that during incubation a few weeks ago, he saw the mother eagle leave the Eagle Cam nest and go harass the father, who was perched at the Osprey Cam nest. The result was he returned to the Eagle Cam nest and began incubating.

Mother eagles harassing males into performing their nest duties is not uncommon. Canadian biologists saw a female eagle calling and calling to a male who would not return to the nest. Eventually she flew at him, and using her bigger size, almost knocked him off his perch. He then went back to the nest and took over incubation.

So for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds between the couple. Some cam watchers have asked if we would intervene, and right now the answer is no. We normally try to treat the cam nest as if it was just any other nest where nature would take its course. In the end, the mother eagle may learn the hard lesson that she has selected a less than desirable mate.

I know cam watchers have asked us if this is the same male as previous years, and based on this performance, I would suspect he is not. We can never know for sure because our birds are not banded or marked in any way, but our previous male was a good provider the majority of the time, and did not show this kind of unwillingness to work at hunting for the family.

I did want to point out one other item that I know bothered a lot of cam watchers, and that was when the mother left for a brief period and it appeared the chick or the egg went missing. An eagle parent will sometimes put grass over the chicks or eggs when they leave the nest; this not only helps to keep them warm, it also makes them less visible to any predators that might be flying over the nest.

Right before the mother settled down tonight, we thought we might have seen a crack in the second egg. We can’t confirm if the second chick has hatched, so we might have to wait until morning to see what unfolds.

We know it’s distressing and frustrating for our cam watchers to see the father letting his family down — and we don’t enjoy seeing it either — but nature can be a hard place, and while the cams are a very enjoyable and educational window into nature, sometimes what we see is not always pleasant.

I want to thank everyone for the photos they’ve sent in. Over the next few days, I’ll try to get them organized so we can do a Gallery update.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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