Blackwater YouTube Channel

In case you missed it, we’ve posted four videos on our Blackwater YouTube Channel (look for the videos with 2009 in the title). These first videos of the 2009 season offer some interesting shots of our parents interacting and playing tug of war with a piece of food that the mother brought in (and didn’t want to give up!). Also one of the videos clearly shows a hole developing in the first egg — this was right before the snowstorm hit.

I have some more videos from the Refuge (our ranger tapes them for me) and I’ll be posting more clips soon, so stay tuned.

Every year we are amazed at how fast our little eaglets grow, and this year is no exception. We’ve been seeing some interesting shots on the Eagle Cam, and here are a few I wanted to point out:

• We saw a photo yesterday that showed the eaglets’ bulging crops. A crop is a pouch on the bird’s chest where extra food is stored for later consumption. Bulging crops mean the chicks are well fed.
• We’ve seen the eaglets holding out their tiny wings as they begin to slowly exercise them. We’ve also seen more entertaining shots of the eaglets peeking out from under the parent’s chest.
• Also, on at least two occasions, we’ve seen one of the parents calling out or clearly shielding the eaglets. It’s possible that a young immature bald eagle was tempted by the fish in the nest or was simply flying too close to the nest, and this alarmed the parents. It’s good to see the parents are on the ball when it comes to scaring away intruders.
• We’ve also seen the mother put grass on the eaglets, either to hide them or to keep them warm while she was off of them.
• And finally, we’ve seen more big meals coming to the nest. One of our cam watchers recently provided me with a great link that shows the most common fish in Maryland waters. You can use this site to ID the fish that the eagles (or ospreys eventually) bring to the nest. Based on this chart, it looks like the meal in the photo was a common carp. Another popular fish with the eagles is American gizzard shad.

Many cam watchers have commented on how mobile the chicks are becoming. In fact a couple times they wandered a little too close to the edge and made some of us nervous, but the parents were good about herding them back toward the nest bowl. Nancy G — one of our cam watchers — put together a Quicktime movie (800KB) that shows the eaglets moving and then being brought back under the parent. Much thanks to Nancy for this neat clip!

A final note about our parents: Some cam watchers have asked if this is the same father from last year, since his food-delivery performance has greatly improved. It’s highly likely it’s the same father — but now he’s more experienced. It’s not uncommon for raptor parents to improve with practice. Some young parents lose their offspring to predators because they lack experience in protecting them. I’ve also heard of young raptor parents building poorly constructed nests in unstable trees, but eventually learning to build better nests in better locations. So raptor parents can learn and they can improve over time — a lot like human parents.

IWS Eaglet Videos and Photos

A couple cam watchers asked me to post the IWS Eaglet Videos and Photos link again, so I wanted to do that. Be sure to take a moment to watch the videos — you’ll see how feisty little bald eaglets can be. They love to peck.

Great Horned Owl

Finally, I wanted to talk a bit more about our Great horned owl, which has been visiting the Osprey Cam nest somewhat regularly now. In years past, we’ve had the occasional visit from a Great horned owl on the Osprey Cam, but the appearances have been rather rare. This owl (we can only assume it’s the same) has been a regular visitor. The reason it’s meaningful is because while Great horned owls are helpful to humans because of the quantity of rodents they eat, the owls are also known to be predators of osprey chicks — and even sometimes osprey adults.

At Jug Bay Natural Area in Maryland they have over 30 osprey platforms, and they have often had an issue with Great horned owls preying on osprey chicks. In fact, on an osprey banding trip last year, a dead, banded adult female osprey was discovered in the water beneath a nest — apparently the victim of a Great horned owl. Considering how large a female osprey is, this was quite a large predator to take on.

As I mentioned on the Osprey Cam page a few days ago, Great horned owls have also been known — on somewhat rare occasions — to take over osprey nests, as can be seen in this post on the Stokes Birding Blog.

We’ve never had a problem with Great horned owls attacking an osprey on the Blackwater Osprey Cam nest. At this point we can only hope that the sight of our returning osprey couple will be enough to keep the owl away. Once the ospreys return north and reclaim their nest, they’ll likely present enough of a challenge that the owl will decide to give up perching at the nest.

As each day passes, we get more excited about the thought of our first osprey showing up on the Osprey Cam. We hear quite a few ospreys have already been seen around the Chesapeake Bay. Won’t be long now!

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
Contact

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

Well, we’re off to an exciting start to our 2009 Eagle Cam season! We’ve never had chicks hatch into bad weather before, and to be honest, we were more than a little worried about them since we know eaglets have perished at other cam nests when hatching into storms. But we caught a break with the weather in that the storm moved through rather quickly (although it left a lot of snow) and our parents have been doing an amazing job — as a team — to keep the eaglets safe and fed.

For those keeping track, here is the official 2009 season scorecard:

1st egg laid: January 23
Hatched: March 2 (early AM)
Days of incubation: 38 days

2nd egg laid: January 26
Hatched: March 3 (early AM)
Days of incubation: 36 days

As those who have followed our Eagle Cam in the past know, we always like to see the eaglets hatch close together, because it helps to keep them closer in size and might lessen some of the competition between them. We’ll still see sibling rivalry in the nest (the older eaglet pecking the younger one on the head), but fortunately this year the eaglets hatched very close to one another, so one eaglet won’t have 2-3 days of growth advantage over its sibling.

We continue to be amazed at the performance of our parents. Both parents have been bringing in food (fish and a bird), which is a marked improvement from last year, when our father seemed to not be aware that his job involved providing regular meals. In addition, the parents have also done a great job of sharing the incubation duties, especially through the storm. They rarely left the eggs/chick uncovered for long, and both parents gave each other a break from incubation duties so the other could leave the nest and feed.

Speaking of the storm, on the morning of March 1 — just before the older eaglet began the hatching process and before the storm arrived — we saw a touching scene on the nest. Normally our male eagle roosts elsewhere (probably in a nearby tree or in the nest tree) during the evening hours and we never see the parents sleeping together on the nest. But on the morning of March 1, the two parents slept together for a short time. It was hard to tell who was the extra parent, but it was probably the male. We’re not sure why they slept together on this particular morning, but maybe the older eaglet had just started chirping from inside its shell, and the other parent decided to stay close.

Now that the eaglets have hatched, our cam watchers have likely noticed that the eaglets spend a good bit of time with their faces down in the nest. Right after birth, their neck muscles are still rather weak, so it takes a while for them to get strong enough to hold their heads upright for long periods of time, but this will quickly improve.

Another aspect of young eaglets is that they are not able to regulate their own body temperature for a few weeks, so it’s important that the parents keep them warm and dry by sitting on them. This explains why we get so few looks at the chicks, but as they grow and as our weather warms up in the coming days (we’re supposed to be in the 50s by Friday), we’ll see more of them.

As for the eaglets’ coloring, when the chicks first emerge from the eggs, they’re covered in a soft light-gray down. Eventually this will change into a second coat of down that will be heavier and darker. And then finally the darker down will be replaced with growing dark brown patches, which will be the eaglets’ feathers coming in. So before the eaglets leave the nest, they’ll look like the all-brown immature bald eagles that we’ve been seeing on the Osprey Cam platform.

American bald eaglets are supposedly the fastest growing bird in North America, so our eaglets won’t stay this small and cute for long, but this is one of the more enjoyable stages of eaglet development to watch because they are very entertaining.

Thanks to all those who have sent in photos. As you can imagine, it’s taking me some time to sort through them all, but we’ll try to get the gallery updated in the next couple days. Also, some folks have asked if we’ll be holding our annual Eaglet-Naming Contest, and the answer is yes, we’ll be doing that later this season, so start thinking up your names.

And one last item — someone emailed me to ask about the size of bald eagles, but they didn’t include a return address. The All About Birds eagle page will have the info you’re looking for regarding their size and wingspan.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
Contact

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

We got the news today that the Norfolk Eagle Cam did get their third egg, although it was a tad late, so we’ll have to wait and see if it hatches. Here’s wishing much success to our neighboring cams at NCTC and Norfolk.

As for the Blackwater Eagle Cam, we’ll be the first to see hatching among the three eagle cams, and it usually works out this way because our eagles tend to lay their eggs earlier than the Virginia and West Virginia cams. We hope to see hatching around February 27-28 and then again on March 2-3, although we could see hatching a day before or after those date ranges.

So what should cam watchers look for when hatching time arrives? The amazing thing is that because this is our fifth year with the Eagle Cam, we can say with some certainty what should happen if the eggs are fertile. It’s worth remembering that it wasn’t that long ago when most people had no idea what happened in a wild eagle nest during nesting season. Now we’re all getting to be old pros — although that certainly doesn’t diminish the magic of seeing brand new eaglets come into the world.

In the past, we have had eggs hatch in the morning and also the late afternoon, so we can’t say for sure when we can expect hatching to begin. For those who are new to our Eagle Cam, here is a series of shots showing the first egg hatching in our 2004-2005 season. During that season we had the camera closer to the nest, although it proved to be too close when the chicks got bigger, so we’ve since moved the cam further up the tree.

When the eaglet is ready to hatch, it will turn itself inside the egg and pierce the egg’s air sac, then the chick will take its first breath of air from within the shell. Next the chick will use its neck muscles and egg tooth (on the tip of its beak) to pip or punch a small hole in the shell. The eaglet will continue to slowly turn and peck until it has cut a hole around the diameter of the shell so that it can push out the bottom half and free itself. This process is very tiring for the chick and can take 24 hours to complete since the young bird will frequently stop to rest. Once the eaglet is out, it will be wet and tired with its eyes closed, but it won’t be long before it dries off and is soon able to see and sit up.

Here you can see a photo of our first eaglet in the 2004-2005 season sitting up for the mother eagle, even as its sibling is hatching right beside it.

The parents will be our best clue that something is happening. When the eaglet first begins to chirp from inside the shell, the parents will hear it, and so we can watch their body language for signs that they hear something. If the parent in the nest looks fidgety or keeps getting up and looking at the eggs, that means the parent hears something.

Cam watchers often ask if the parents help the chicks during the hatching process. Biologists normally say that the parents do not, although I occasionally hear the rare story about a parent that pulled on a piece of the eggshell to help the chick. If those kinds of stories are true, then they are the exception, as normally the parent lets the chick work its way out on its own.

As those who were with us last year know, we think we had a new father eagle last year because he seemed to struggle with bringing food to the nest for the chicks on a regular basis (unlike our father from previous seasons). It’s possible something happened to our previous father and our female found a new mate. So this year, we’ll be watching closely to see if the father does what a good eagle provider is supposed to do — bring food to the nest so the female can spend most of her time with the chicks.

Up to this point, both our parents have been eating their meals away from the nest (like at the Osprey Cam platform), but on Thursday night we did see the father bring in what looked like a bird and share it with the female at the nest, so that might be a good sign.

Also cam watchers often get worried when they don’t see the chick being fed right away. This is not a reason for alarm. Before the eaglet hatches it absorbs the yolk and uses that for early nourishment. So if we don’t see the parents feeding the eaglet right away, that doesn’t mean that the eaglet is being deprived of food. Once the eaglet is hungry, the parents will know and will try to respond.

I want to thank all our cam watchers for their photos and comments. We’ll try to get the gallery updated before the hatching begins.

Best of luck to our parents in the coming weeks!

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
Contact

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