We have a few last videos to share of our 2009 eaglets — Chesapeake and Choptank — and we’ll use this post to wrap up our web log for the 2009 season, since the eaglets are now rarely at the nest. Please note that although we’re ending the web log, the cam will be staying online for the time being, and the gallery will remain open as long as the cam is online. Also, we might have one or two more videos from the last batch of tapes from the Refuge — if we do, we’ll put them on our Blackwater YouTube Channel and post a note on the cam page.

But before we get to the videos, I wanted to share a photo that we came across recently that gives a unique perspective to our eagle fans. For those who watched our Eagle Cam during the last month, you know we often saw the eaglets sitting at the very edge of the nest together, and we wondered what they were doing. Maryland photographer Skip Conover recently took a photo of an eagle nest in Annapolis, Maryland, and his photo shows us what our own eaglets were likely doing. [The nest is a former osprey nest and is in close proximity to a couple homes.] In Skip’s photo we see the two eaglets are sitting near the edge of the nest because the parent is perched nearby on a branch. So when our eaglets seemed fascinated by something near the nest (but out of our view), it was likely one of the adults! Thanks to Skip for this interesting photo from his local nest.

Final Videos

To view the videos below, left-click on the video link to open in Windows Media Player or right-click the link and choose “Save Link As” to download. And remember that these videos are also available on our Blackwater YouTube Channel.

In the first video below we see the eaglets at almost six weeks of age. The father eagle has just flown in with a fish (which was still flapping a bit), and begins to eat it. The mother eagle then flies in and takes the fish from the father. The father (convinced he’s lost his meal) flies off, and the mother begins feeding Choptank.

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In the second video, we see a scene not too long after the first video where the father brings in another fish. This time he offers some food to Chesapeake, but eventually the mother decides she should be in charge of feeding, so she takes the fish and begins feeding Choptank. If you look closely, you can see Choptank already has a bulging crop (on its chest), so the eaglet had already been recently fed. This was a good day for fish. :-)

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In the final video, we see the eaglets at almost eight weeks old. In the opening scene, Chesapeake is tearing off some fish by herself while Choptank gets fed by the mother eagle. Then Chesapeake holds out her wings and gives us a great view of her impressive wingspan. And in the final segment, Chesapeake begins exercising her wings, and we can really see how much stronger the eaglets are here, since they’re only a few weeks from flying.

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We want to thank all our cam watchers who followed our two chicks from the first day they entered the world (remember the snowstorm when we thought they wouldn’t survive!) up to the time they both successfully fledged. We were lucky to have had another great year here at the Blackwater Eagle Cam, and our streak of at least two healthy fledgling eaglets each year continues.

We also want to thank all those who sent in their photos and questions throughout the season. And finally we want to thank Tom Miller, our ranger, who kindly took on the duty of taping footage from the cam so we could put together these wonderful video clips.

The Eagle Cam will stay online for now, but at some point soon we’ll be taking it offline. As you can see, once the eaglets become airborne, they don’t spend a lot of time at the nest, and soon the only thing to see will be the occasional squirrel or rare eagle visit. But we will be back online in December for a new season, so we hope you’ll make plans to join us again at the end of the year.

Until December,
Lisa - webmaster
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eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

As our regular cam watchers can testify, our two eaglets — Chesapeake and Choptank — are spending less time at the nest now that they’ve become more skilled at flying. Next in line for our eaglets is developing their hunting and fishing skills, which will be the hardest abilities to master but will determine if they survive their first winter.

In the fall of this year, our eaglets will eventually become fully independent and will break off from their parents for good. At that time the eaglets will have to provide their own meals and will truly be on their own. Many young eagles do not make it through their first winter because they have difficulty catching or finding regular meals, so the preparation that our eaglets are doing now — developing these important food-finding skills — are crucial for their long-term survival.

Wildlife research has taught us that young bald eagles that are searching for easy food (and not bound by a mate or nest) will travel long distances, often showing up in areas that might surprise us. Solar-powered satellite transmitters are the devices that allow researchers to follow the movements of birds (and other animals) to discover just where they go and when. In the Chesapeake Bay area, bald eagles have been tracked in the past by different organizations (educational, nonprofit, and government) using satellite transmitters, which incorporate technology that is becoming more sophisticated every year. Although many eagles in the Bay area have been tracked, most of the birds studied have been from the Upper Chesapeake Bay rather than from the Lower Chesapeake Bay, which is where Blackwater NWR is located (see map).

Earlier this week, I had mentioned on our cam page and on our Twitter account that folks from the Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) at the College of William and Mary went to the Norfolk Eagle Cam on May 20 and fitted the cam’s biggest eaglet (a female named Azalea) with a satellite transmitter. This was exciting not only because we got to watch the event on their live cam but also because this is one of the somewhat rare instances of an eaglet from the Lower Chesapeake Bay being fitted with a solar-powered transmitter that could potentially tell us a great deal about where these eaglets go when they leave home for good but before they reach breeding age (about 4-5 years of age).

The CCB folks did say that the transmitter should last about a minimum of 3 years, but eventually the eaglet could pull it off, so the transmitter does have a limited life. They also mentioned that eagle research using satellite transmitters has revealed that Bay eaglets sometimes travel north to areas like Labrador, Canada and south down to North Carolina, so even though our adult bald eagles in the Bay area don’t migrate much, their offspring can explore a wide area before settling down.

And since we’re talking about satellite tracking, I should mention that there is some controversy about putting satellite transmitters on birds — especially young birds that have not fledged yet. While the transmitter pack is often fitted using soft teflon ribbons (a more bird-friendly fastener), there is some concern that it could offer an unnecessary impediment to a young bird that is trying to learn to fly. On the Norfolk Eagle Cam blog, they did report the following:

The largest of the chicks will be selected to ensure the best fit. Choosing the largest of the eaglets will also reduce the ratio of the weight of the transmitter relative to the eagle. As a general rule of thumb the weight of a transmitter shouldn’t exceed 3% of a bird’s body weight. The transmitter being used weighs 70 grams (equivalent to about 14 U.S. nickels). At the time of the banding the largest eaglet was #2 (readable band HH) at 2973 grams. By the time the bird fledges the transmitter will only be about 1.5% (or less) of its body weight. The eaglet will be weighed and measured again while on the ground being fitted with the transmitter.

So it does appear that the CCB folks are being cautious in not burdening the eaglet with something that will interfere with its ability to fledge in a normal way, just like its siblings.

Be sure to visit the Norfolk Eagle Cam home page where they have links to a slide show and video showing Azalea being fitted with her transmitter. Also visit the websites EagleTrak and WildlifeTracking.org to learn more about the tracking of Chesapeake Bay bald eagles.

Note that Azalea is still a nest-bound eaglet at this time, so her tracking information will not get terribly exciting until she has fledged and begun exploring her home area. We wish her the best of luck for a long life that will hopefully further our knowledge of the movement patterns of young bald eagles.

As for our two youngsters — Chesapeake and Choptank — we have what will probably be our final round of video clips to post, and we’ll do that in the coming week, so stay tuned to our site. Even though the eaglets are around less, we’re still not done with the season.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

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

Chesapeake (our older eaglet) and Choptank (our younger bird) have been doing a lot of branching lately, but we hear from the Refuge staff that there are no clear signs of flying yet. Eaglets normally fledge around 9-13 weeks of age, so if they had flown, it would have been a bit early.

Cam watchers have asked about their gender. We’re not sure because it’s been hard to get a good shot of them side by side (the one on the right is about the best we have), but we do think there is a chance that Chesapeake is a female (she looks longer) and Choptank is a male, but again we’re waiting for a good shot of them lying side by side before we can be sure.

Cam watchers have also asked about what will happen to the eaglets when they do finally fledge. Normally the first flight is a short one — maybe to a nearby tree where a parent is perched and then back to the nest. Very often the landing is the most difficult part of the first few flights. Eaglets may know instinctively how to fly, but landing is a skill that must be perfected. If you visit the wonderful site ARKive, you can see an interesting video of a white-tailed eaglet (a close cousin to our American bald eagle) flapping and then taking its first flight. At the end of the clip, we see the eaglet swimming (something bald eagles can do as well). It’s not clear, but perhaps the swimming was necessary because the eaglet accidentally landed in the water. :-)

In the book The Bald Eagle: Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch (by Jon Gerrard and Gary Bortolotti) the authors witnessed a bald eaglet’s bad landing near Bernard Lake in Saskatchewan, Canada:

“Flapping slowly but strongly, C2 cruised past the nest, banked toward shore, and crashed into the canopy of a tree. We could hear the slapping of wings against branches all the way to the blind. When it was over, C2 was hanging upside down from a limb and holding on with just one foot. From out of nowhere the adult male flew in, calling excitedly, and soon perched on a spruce directly above his clumsy offspring. The adult female took off from the nest, circled above C2, and joined in the chorus of cackles. C2, rather calmly, just hung there, occasionally looking from side to side. After three minutes, C2 released his grasp and crashed to the ground.”

The authors played the good samaritans and retrieved C2, placing him on a rock near the nest. When they returned the next day, he was perched in a smaller tree near his home nest and he sported a bulging crop, showing that the parents had recently fed him and he was fine.

Once our eaglets have fledged and practiced their landings for a while, they’ll soon be as graceful as their parents. But the eaglets (or new fledglings) won’t be independent just yet. Chesapeake and Choptank will come back to the nest occasionally during the weeks that follow, and we’ll likely see them on occasion into the month of July. The parents might meet them at the nest with a meal, or the eaglets might come back to sleep or just to rest for a bit. But eventually we’ll see less and less of them, and that will mean they’re becoming independent young raptors that no longer need a nest. At that point, Blackwater Refuge — and the Chesapeake Bay area — will be their home.

Immature bald eagles do not settle down right away — they won’t even get their adult plumage (white head and tail) until about 4 years of age — so in the meantime they’ll wander around, learning to hunt and having adventures as single eagles. They might even venture to locales up and down the Mid-Atlantic coast before coming back to the Chesapeake Bay area to seek out a mate and a potential nesting site when they’re about 4 or 5 years old.

If you’ve never been to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and you wonder what kind of habitat the eagles have to enjoy, here are four photos that offer a nice look at the Refuge. Blackwater NWR is home to one of the largest breeding populations of bald eagles in the United States, so our eaglets are very lucky that this is where they were born and where they can one day return again to raise their own families.

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

We wanted to get caught up with our latest batch of eaglet videos, so we’ll do that in this post. Remember that these videos are also available on our Blackwater YouTube Channel.

To view the videos below, left-click on the video link to open in Windows Media Player or right-click the link and choose “Save Link As” to download.

In this first video from March 27, we see the two young eaglets scratching their new pin feathers, then later in the clip we see a cute scene where they play Simon Says and both stretch their left wing out — one right after the other.

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In the second video from March 27, we see a feeding session, and at the end we see Chesapeake (the older eaglet) take a few nips at the parent’s tail feathers before the parent leaves the nest.

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In the first video from March 29, we see a collection of activities from the eaglets — slicing, stretching and scratching. Just a day in the life. :-)

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In the second video from March 29, we see Chesapeake attempting to pull off some meat from a leftover meal in the nest, then we see a nice wing flap from the same eaglet.

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In the first video from April 5, we see the father eagle feeding the eaglets, but then the mother eagle comes and takes some food from him and then begins to participate in the feeding session as well.

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And in the final video, also from April 5, we see the eaglets engaging in some playful snapping as bedtime nears. At the end of the clip, it almost looks like the mother attempts to end the squabble by putting grass on the older chick.

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We hope you enjoyed these videos, which offer a nice recap of our eaglets’ early days. And in case you missed the posting, we have chosen our winners in the Eaglet-Naming Contest (see our contest page). Now the eaglets are called Chesapeake and Choptank. Congratulations to our winners and much thanks to all who participated.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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

At this stage, our older eaglet might be only a few weeks from its first flight. Normally eaglets fledge around 9-13 weeks of age, although we expect our younger eaglet won’t fledge until 10 or 11 weeks of age since its development fell a little behind during the bullying period.

Cam watchers have asked if the eaglets can feed themselves at this stage, and we do think they are able to tear up food, although they might have trouble making the first rip in a newly caught fish. In this recent photo we can see one of the eaglets nibbling on some leftovers in the nest. Although it’s possible the eaglets can feed themselves to a certain degree, we have noticed in previous seasons that even when the eaglets can rip off food, they often like to have the parent feed them if the adult is nearby. I guess it’s just easier to have Mom do it!

Branching

Each day our eaglets get a little bigger and a little more independent, and it’s a bit sad to think that in the near future they’ll both be gone from the nest for a good part of each day, flying around the Refuge. But before either eaglet makes that scary first leap, they’ll 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, who photographs eagles 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 can perch there and observe the world around its home nest.

The loblolly pine tree that holds our web camera — and the eaglets’ home — has several branches for the eaglets to choose from. If you look in the bottom left corner of our current Eagle Cam image, you can see a branch that points to the left; in past years we’ve seen eaglets use that limb for branching, so it’s likely this year’s eaglets will use it as well.

We did see a photo from Monday where only one eaglet was clearly visible in the nest. We’re not absolutely positive, but we could speculate that during this time the older eaglet might have been engaged in some brief branching. We’ll continue to keep an eye out for photos showing either of the eaglets standing on that branch or jumping from the branch back into the nest.

In our next blog post, we’ll have some new video clips of our eaglets. And as a reminder, we’ll be announcing the winner(s) of our Eaglet-Naming Contest around the end of the week. Thanks again to all those who took the time to send in their names.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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

Our eaglets are doing very well and quickly growing their dark brown feathers, which will eventually give them the ability to fly. Normally eaglets fledge between 9-13 weeks of age, with younger birds fledging in the latter part of that range.

A full-grown eagle has over 7000 feathers on its body and has a wingspan of 6-7 feet (upwards of 8 feet on the larger female). The eagle’s large wingspan means it must use a great deal of energy to flap its wings. Consequently bald eagles don’t do that much flapping but instead spend a great deal of their time soaring, which requires about a 20th the power needed for flapping.

Eagles soar or glide when they migrate, and also when they hunt and fish. Using thermals and updrafts, an eagle can soar continuously for hours while using little energy. Eagles can fly to an altitude of about 10,000 feet and during normal level flight reach a speed of 30-35 mph.

Like all birds, eagles have very light bones; in fact most of their bones are hollow and contain only air. If you added up the total weight of their bones, it would be about half the total weight of their feathers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our two eaglets currently have blood feathers (or pin feathers) on their bodies. These blood feathers have a shaft that encases the growing feather and feeds it blood (hence the name). Once the feather grows and unfurls, the shaft will fall off or the eaglet will pull it off. Eventually the blood feathers will lead to a full coat of feathers.

Eagles have several types of feathers to aid them in flight, including the primary and secondary wing feathers, tail feathers, and coverts.

The ten outer primary feathers are on the end of the wing; these feathers are stiff and narrow because they meet the air first and must provide wind resistance. These outer primaries are also notched and they can open like fingers, which can help a flying eagle to achieve lift and drag.

The inner primaries and secondary feathers are flatter and will overlap to provide a smooth lifting surface.

Body, plume and downy feathers are needed for body covering, streamlining, waterproofing, and temperature regulation.

This graphic shows you individual samples of several different types of feathers for both the adult and immature bald eagle.

Lately we’ve been seeing photos that show our eaglets exercising their wings for eventual flight: 1) younger eaglet flapping and 2) older eaglet flapping. In a photo from Tuesday, our older eaglet opened its wings up wide, and we got a good look at its impressive wingspan.

If you were to see our older eaglet up close at this stage, it would look something like this young bird. As you can see, our eaglets are going from tiny, fuzzy chicks to large, fierce raptors. All in a matter of weeks!

In the next blog post, we’ll provide some new Eagle Cam video clips. And as a final reminder, our Eaglet-Naming Contest will end April 18.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

We have a few new videos to post in the blog. These videos are also on our BlackwaterRefuge YouTube Channel — see the first three videos on the channel page.

To view the videos below, left-click on the video link to open in Windows Media Player, or right-click the link and choose “Save Link As” to download.

In the March 8 clip posted below, you notice a common sight from this season — the mother eagle digging up grass and putting it over the fish meal and then the eaglets. We’ve noticed the mother eagle covering the chicks more frequently this year, although we’re unsure as to why she’s doing it even now when they’re bigger. But she probably covers them to camouflage the chicks (or the meal) from birds flying over the nest. After this clip ended, the eaglets quicky uncovered themselves again. :-)

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In the clip from March 15, you see the father eagle fly in with a fish during a pause in a rainstorm. The mother takes the fish and starts to feed one of the eaglets, although the eaglet seems to get distracted by something toward the end of the clip and the mother is left holding out the food.

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And in the clip from March 21, you see the parent come in with a meal that appears to be the foot of a bird. The younger eaglet starts to feed, but the older eaglet asserts its dominance by pecking the other chick on the head, and the younger eaglet puts its head down and turns away from the meal. This is how the bullying by the older eaglet worked, although there does appear to be much less bullying in the nest at this time. At the end of this clip, the younger chick sneaks a bite.

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We have some additional video from the nest, but I haven’t had time to edit it, so we’ll save it for another post. But both eaglets seem to be doing well and, as I mentioned earlier, there does appear to be less bullying now that the younger bird is getting bigger.

Also, I wanted to repeat something I mentioned on the cam page — folks have asked about the gender of our chicks. We won’t know that until they are close to fledging. By then they will be almost fully grown and we’ll be able to compare their size (to each other and to their parents) to see what gender they are.

On a slightly different topic, I had someone ask about us setting up a deer cam, but the person didn’t include their email address. We don’t plan on starting a deer cam, but there is a good one currently online in western Pennsylvania. Be forewarned that they have a couple different cam shots, and one of them sometimes has a deer carcass, which is used to attract other animals like foxes and birds. The PA cam is especially interesting at night when the live deer and raccoons can appear in large numbers. During the early morning, the cam often has wild turkeys.

As a reminder in case you missed it, we recently updated the Eagle Cam Gallery. Also, our Eaglet-Naming Contest is open until April 18.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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

First, I wanted to remind everyone that the Eaglet-Naming Contest is open and you have until April 18 to get your names in for our two eaglets. Much thanks to those who have already submitted their names.

Second, I wanted to briefly mention our osprey action — or lack thereof. We’re a little confused by the lack of nesting action from our migrating ospreys this year. We had heard that action was slow at many local nests, which seemed to indicate that the ospreys may have started their migration late because of the cooler weather. We recently heard from photographer Bob Quinn — who makes frequent visits to Blackwater Refuge — that many of our Refuge nests are light on action at this time. We did see two ospreys on the cam nest Saturday and they brought in a few sticks, but then we’ve seen very little of them, so at this point we’re just in a waiting mode to see what our local ospreys are going to do. Hopefully we’ll eventually get a pair (any pair!) at the Osprey Cam nest.

Speaking of ospreys, many folks might not know that Finland is home to a very large and healthy population of ospreys, and there are two Finnish osprey cams that offer some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen on a bird cam. I wanted to point out two recent photos from these cams that offer an interesting look at some non-osprey action in Finland. The first Finnish cam offers a view of a forest behind the nest, and recently there was a raven making itself at home. As you can see, they’re still battling with the last bits of winter in Finland. The second Finnish cam offers a stunning view of the water, and this nest often sees action from white-tailed eagles — a raptor that is a close cousin to our American bald eagle. When visiting these cams, just keep in mind their daylight hours are a bit different than ours.

Talons and Pin Feathers

I know folks have been worried about our younger eaglet, although the youngster seems to be doing rather well the last couple days. The food has been pretty good in the nest, and we’ve seen both chicks getting fed. As I mentioned on the cam page, our younger bird lost the white down on his head a little faster than normal because he was being pecked by the older bird, but the youngster won’t have any lasting damage from this.

The white down on our older eaglet’s head is the last of the bird’s first coat of down (they lose it on their heads last). The eaglets are now dark gray on their bodies because they have their second woolier coat of down, and in addition to this gray coloring you can also see the eaglets’ pin feathers starting to come in on their backs and their wing tips. If you were to see our eaglets up close, this is what they would look like at this stage (note the feather shafts starting to appear on this eaglet’s wing).

We’ll talk more about pin feathers in another post, but in addition to their beginner feathers I also wanted to point out the eaglets’ big yellow talons, which are often visible when the birds are sitting up in the nest or sprawled out in the sun.

The beaks and talons of young bald eaglets grow faster than other parts of their bodies, and by about mid-April, their beaks and talons will be close to adult size. Full-size beaks allow the eaglets to feed themselves and full-size feet allow them to hold on tightly to the nest when they’re moving around during windy weather or when they’re flapping their wings in practice for eventual flight.

The eagle’s talons are comprised of four powerful toes that can break through tough fish skin or animal skin and can hold tight to their prey while carrying it home or to a branch. These talons are similar to the osprey’s in that they both have tiny spicules on the toes (spicules are little bumps that help the raptors hold onto slippery fish). But the osprey has one advantage that the eagle does not have — an opposable toe. One of the osprey’s front toes can rotate backwards so that two toes are holding the fish from the back and two from the front. An eagle can only hold the fish with one back toe (called the hallux). This means an osprey has an easier time holding onto a thrashing fish.

Norfolk Eagle Cam

If you haven’t been watching the Norfolk Eagle Cam, I strongly urge you to check out their live video. They’ve been offering some wonderful close-up shots of the three new eaglets. The Norfolk parents have been providing a huge amount of food to this hungry mob, and both parents have been helping to feed the chicks. Also the other day I saw the male adult feed the female adult a few pieces, which she ate. I had seen this behavior with osprey parents before, but never with eagle parents.

I borrowed a few photos from the Norfolk slide shows because I wanted to point out some interesting action here:

• in the first shot you can see one parent passing food to the other. The Norfolk blog said sometimes the male would pass food to the female who would then feed the food to the chicks
• in the second shot you can see the last eaglet hatching next to its two siblings
• in the third shot is a great close-up of two young bald eaglets. Note the white tip on the eaglets’ beaks — that’s the egg tooth which falls off not long after hatching
• and in the fourth shot you can see the large quantity of food — in fact at least three fish and one bird in this view

We feel especially glad that Norfolk is enjoying such great success this year because if you remember, last year they had only one chick and it developed avian pox. Biologists decided to remove the bird and it was taken to the Wildlife Center of Virginia for treatment, and it remains there at this time.

We’ll try to get the Gallery updated later this week. Also, I’ve been told that some new videotapes from the Eagle Cam are on their way to me, so we should have some new clips to post online soon.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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

Aline was a valued cam watcher, sharing many photos that contributed greatly to our galleries and to our understanding of both the eagles and ospreys. She was also a big fan of the American Panda Cams (as many of us are), and she had dreamed of a trip to America to see Blackwater, the pandas, and some of her other favorite “Internet” spots. We will miss Aline and her enthusiastic love of nature. We’re glad she did not suffer long.

Note: The Eaglet-Naming Contest is Open

Eaglets three weeks old

Eaglet #1

When the eaglets first hatched, we were very excited that they were born only a day apart (meaning they’d be close in size) and we were just as excited to see lots of food coming to the nest, which we knew would reduce the sibling rivalry between the chicks. Unfortunately, this situation has changed. For some reason the parents cut back on the food supply, which increased the competition between the chicks, and now the older chick has firmly established itself as Eaglet #1.

The older bird gets fed first, gets the most food, is growing larger, and spends most of his non-eating time making sure the younger eaglet keeps its head down and acts submissive. During meal time, you’ve probably noticed the younger eaglet often keeps its back turned and head down until the older eaglet has finished eating. This is because the younger bird has learned that Eaglet #1 gets to eat first — and if the younger bird objects, he gets pecked and harassed.

We do believe that both birds are getting enough food — in fact today was an especially good day with fish and a rabbit in the nest. So we don’t worry about the younger eaglet surviving, we just wish things were a little easier for the youngster. The good news is this situation will not last forever. Each day the smaller bird grows bigger (although not as fast as its well-fed sibling!), and eventually it will be big enough that the older bird won’t be able to mess with it as much.

Cam watchers have asked about photos they’ve seen where the younger bird was near food in the nest but did not eat. The eaglets are still small enough that they can’t tear off meat for themselves — they are dependent on the parents to do that, but this will also change. Eventually the younger eaglet will be strong enough to tear off food and feed itself, so if there is leftover food in the nest, it won’t have to wait for a parent to feed it.

On a final observation, I know some cam watchers were worried about how often the chicks are left uncovered. The birds are able to keep themselves quite warm now, especially since they have developed their heavier and woolier second coat of down, so the parents don’t need to sit on them as much. We do see the mother return at night and stay with the chicks, but this is more for protection since the eaglets are still small enough to possibly be a victim of a Great horned owl attack. If it rains, then protection from the parent is still needed since the eaglets do not have their waterproof feathers yet, but each day we see evidence that the eaglets are beginning to develop tiny pin feathers that will eventually provide them with a nice waterproof coat of feathers like their parents have, and this will keep them safe from the elements.

We’re very close to opening our Eaglet-Naming Contest — I’ve approved the contest page and we’re just wrapping up some final technical details, then we’ll make the announcement. Thanks for your patience.

Oh — and as a final parting gift, we just recently discovered an old photo on one of our computers showing the Eagle Cam tree. I know lots of cam watchers have expressed an interest in seeing the tree, so I thought I’d share the shot.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
Contact

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