Eaglets ten weeks old

We hear from our Refuge gift store manager that on Saturday, she saw what definitely looked like an eaglet flying into the nest. We suspect this was Chesapeake, since the older bird was further along in its development than our younger eaglet, Choptank. In the last few days, we had noticed images on the cam showing one eaglet by itself, looking longingly out into the woods. So with Chesapeake and the parents flying, it should provide good motivation for Choptank to join them as soon as the young bird is ready.

We did notice today that the cam view has moved to the left. This usually happens at this time of year when the eaglets are jumping and flapping around the nest a lot. Eventually they thump the cam box just the right way that it moves slightly from its braced position.

One cam watcher wrote in this evening because they were concerned that one of the eaglets was holding its wing funny (like it might have been hurt), but we don’t see any sign that either eaglet is hurt. Sometimes the birds air out their wings and feathers by holding them out while lying in the nest.

Gender

We’ve been trying hard to examine any images where the two eaglets are together to determine if one bird is bigger than the other, and right now I’m beginning to think they look similar in size. If that’s true (meaning they’re the same gender), than the next question is how big do they look compared to the female adult — which would be a good indication as to whether both eaglets are female or male.

Other Eagle Nests at Blackwater

Photographer Bob Quinn posted some new photos recently that included shots of another bald eagle nest at Blackwater Refuge. The nest in his photos has one eaglet this year, and the photos give a good look at how big an eaglet that’s about to fledge is when compared to an adult. Our eaglets are likely about the same size, so you can see how much they’ve grown in just 10 weeks. And to drive that point home, here’s a photo comparison from our nest showing how much the eaglets changed in just two months. Amazing!

Hornby Island Eagle Cam

I did have some sad news to pass along, and the main reason I share this is I know a lot of our cam watchers follow other Eagle Cam nests, so I thought it might be of interest. The well-known Hornby Island Eagle Cam (which is located in British Columbia, Canada) had two young chicks — Hope and Echo — and yesterday Echo perished in a very bizarre accident that is something I haven’t seen before on a raptor cam.

Echo somehow became entangled in its mother’s feathers on the underside of her body. The Hornby Island cam personnel were at a loss as to what could have happened, but they speculated that the chick either got tangled in her feathers, tangled in something she had attached to her leg (like fishing line) or “glued” to her by way of excrement possibly from one of the chicks.

The end result was the mother could not disengage poor Echo from her underside, and after a long period of trying (and the chick chirping in distress) she flew away — apparently on two different occasions — eventually returning the second time without Echo. The Hornby Island cam personnel later found Echo deceased on the ground.

Today on the Hancock Forum they said that after examining Echo, there did not appear to be any sticky areas on the chick to indicate how it became attached to the parent, so it appears the strange accident will remain a mystery. They have since buried Echo in a garden on the property:

A “forest flame” shrub is on one side of him and a scented azalea on the other side. He is surrounded by blue bells, hyacinth and bleeding hearts. A deep red rose and a white rose grow up the fence behind him.

The beach can be seen from here, the deep blue water and the distant mountains - lovely surroundings for our lovely little eaglet. He is now resting in peace.

You can read more about Echo and see video of the events (it comes with a warning because it’s a little disturbing to see the eaglet in distress) on the Hancock Wildlife Channel Forum.

Here at Blackwater we have had tremendous luck with our Eagle Cam families over the last five years, but events like this remind us that we shouldn’t take anything for granted, because each season brings new opportunities for peril and misfortune.

And while we’re grateful to have Internet cams that give us such intimate views of nature, watching does come with a price — and the price is that we will occasionally witness sad and awful events. But they too are a part of nature.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Blackwater NWR, Eagle Cam, Eaglets, Fledging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.