We wanted to give an update on our fast-growing eaglets. Our two chicks are now almost three weeks old, and you can see their second coat of down — the darker, woolier coat — is visible on their bodies.

Their heads are the last place where they’ll lose their first white, fuzzy coat of down, so if you look closely, you can see the eaglets are getting a little white cap where the old down still shows — eventually this will be replaced with the darker down, and then feathers.

Speaking of feathers, today we saw a photo that seemed to show tiny pin feathers on the tail of our older bird. At least that’s what it looked like.

We’re also beginning to more easily see the eaglets’ big yellow feet. The youngsters’ feet and beaks will grow to adult size first, so you’ll notice the chicks looking a little funny with their big awkward feet sticking out in front of them.

Eagle Photos

We also have some interesting photos to share regarding other eagles. As many of you know, the Norfolk Eagle Cam now has three chicks. These parents are normally very good providers, so the birds should do well. Here’s a cute photo of one of them being fed.

Also, here’s a funny photo from the Carolina Raptor Center Eagle Cam, showing the mother doing some rearranging of the furniture — she’s going to poke an eye out if she’s not careful.

And finally, here’s a blog from one of our cam watchers who has put together some very nice slideshows of our Blackwater eaglets — with the photos displayed at an extra-large size.

Much thanks to all those who sent these in.

News from Blackwater NWR

Despite the rain, our Eagle Festival was a success this past Saturday, and we thank all those who braved the elements to come out and see the wildlife and the Refuge.

Tom Lorsung — who was one of the exhibiting photographers — sent me a photo of our white pelicans, which he took while at the Festival. According to our ranger, this past week was the first time that the pelicans have been seen all winter.

White pelicans aren’t normally seen this far north on the East Coast, but they’ve discovered the Refuge and they keep coming back year after year — often bringing friends with them. We’re happy they think the Refuge is a nice place to be, even though we’re always a little surprised to see them this far out of their range.

We’ll post an update to our Eagle Cam Gallery later this week; thanks to all those who have been sending in photos of our adorable chicks. They won’t be this cute for much longer.

Until next time,

Lisa – webmaster
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Tags:
eagles, eagle cam, wildlife refuge, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

Our eaglets are now almost two weeks old, and we have some observations and videos to share regarding their development.

First, we continue to be amazed at the quantity of food in the Eagle Cam nest. I do know both parents are bringing in food (not just the male), but this is the most food we’ve seen on the Eagle Cam I think at any stage during our six years online. At one point, I saw what looked like six fish in the nest, and we’ve also seen at least two birds (maybe a duck and a red-winged blackbird) brought in. We don’t know if this level of fishing/hunting will continue, but the eaglets are enjoying a bounty of food and it does seem to have reduced some of the competition in the nest between the two youngsters.

We still see some pecking activity from both chicks, and the older eaglet has established itself as “first to feed,” which is probably why it’s getting a size advantage over the younger bird, but neither eaglet is having to fight hard for a meal.

Speaking of the large volume of food, I’ve noticed that during meals, sometimes we can see that the eaglets’ crops already contain food. (A crop is a pouch on the eaglet’s chest where extra food is stored). So the eaglets are still eating even while their crops already appear full.

One other item I wanted to mention before we go to our new videos — one of our cam watchers asked about the rate of growth for our eaglets. Bald eaglets are the fastest growing birds in North America, so they’re changing right before our eyes. On the American Bald Eagle website they offer some guidance on eaglet development, and they also have some great photos of bald eaglets in the nest:

The young birds grow rapidly, they add one pound to their body weight every four or five days…By three weeks they are 1 foot high and their feet and beaks are very nearly adult size.

At three or four weeks, this eaglet [see website photo] is covered in its secondary coat of gray down. In another two weeks or so, black juvenile feathers will begin to grow in. While downy feathers are excellent insulators, they are useless as air foils, and must be replaced with juvenile feathers before an eaglet can take its first flight, some 10 to 13 weeks after hatching.

Between four and five weeks, the birds are able to stand, at which time they can began tearing up their own food. At six weeks, the eaglets are very nearly as large as their parents.

At eight weeks, the appetites of the young birds are at their greatest. While parents hunt almost continuous to feed them, back at the nest the eaglets are beginning to stretch their wings in response to gusts of wind and may even be lifted off their feet for short periods.

And now for our new videos. Note that these videos are also being offered on our YouTube channel for those who prefer to view them that way. For the clips below, left-click on the link to play the Windows Media Video file or right-click and choose “Save As” to download to your computer.

In our clip from March 4, we see the mother eagle feeding the older chick, while the younger chick is looking in the opposite direction. The younger bird has learned that the older sibling gets fed first, and in the middle part of the clip we see a little pecking by the older bird to remind the younger chick that it should be submissive. But then our mother eagle does something interesting — she pulls the fish over to the side of the nest where the younger eaglet is located and begins feeding the chick.

I’ve often read that raptor parents will usually feed the chick that is the most aggressive and that is in front of the parent, but clearly our mother eagle is seeking out the more passive chick and attempting to feed both her young regardless of whether they’re actively looking to be fed or not. Very cool clip.

In the second video, which is the first of three clips from March 5, we see a normal feeding session with the older chick in its position of dominance, but as the session progresses, the younger chick asserts itself and moves in for a few bites. Normally I would expect the older eaglet to pounce on the younger sibling, but the older bird doesn’t react — again I think part of the reason is the large quantity of food in the nest.

In the second clip from March 5, we see our younger chick showing off a new skill — what falconers call “slicing,” which means defecating. Eaglets and osprey chicks are able to shoot it quite far, which helps keep the center part of the nest clean (although the rim of the nest is starting to show some of the whitewash).

In the third clip from March 5, we see a funny scene where the older eaglet isn’t ready for nap time, and keeps its head and body out from under Mom for as long as it can. (Notice at the beginning of the shot that you can see the full crop of the older bird.) We also get to see the chick yawn, and then see it watch as Mom moves grass around the nest. Finally the chick heads under the parent for a nap.

With the milder weather and the eaglets’ thicker down coming in, they are starting to spend more time out from under the parent during the day.

And in the final clip, which is from March 6, we see the mother feeding our two eaglets, but the younger eaglet gets passed a chunk of fish that is just too big, and it has trouble swallowing the fish. The older bird attempts to take it away (”If you’re not going to eat that, I will.”) but the younger bird eventually seems to swallow it, only to be passed an equally large piece, which it drops. It’s clear that sometimes parents have to “downsize” food chunks so the small eaglets can swallow them.

Osprey Cam

Finally I wanted to give a quick update on the Osprey Cam. As you can see, we realigned the camera, and we also moved the pole closer to our access road, which should help with future maintenance. We have noticed that the view is tilted — we tried to avoid that but the weight of the camera arm moved the cam more than we thought it would, so our apologies. We’ll try to fix that on the next visit.

We expect our ospreys to return around St. Patrick’s Day. Normally the male returns first and then the female (they migrate to different areas in Central and South America). Once they return, they won’t likely start nest-building right away, as it takes them a few days to eat and rest up from migration, but after they’ve regained their strength and bonded a little, we should see them bringing in new sticks for the platform.

If either of our parents did not survive during the winter season, then the remaining adult will have to hook up with a new mate after it arrives at the osprey platform.

I should also mention that like many places on the East Coast, our water osprey platforms took a real hit during the winter season. Ice on the rivers took out many of our platforms, and we’re trying to replace them now, before the birds return. The same is true for tree nests up and down the coast — many of them were wiped out by the snow. None of this affects our Osprey Cam nest, but some of your other favorite nests (at Blackwater and other locales) might not be quite the same this year or might need to be repaired before the birds can use them.

Until next time,

Lisa – webmaster
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Tags:
eagle, wildlife refuge, eaglets, eagle video, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

Our two eaglets seem to be doing well, and our parents are bringing in some impressive looking fish — most of which seem to be gizzard shad. You can definitely tell that the river has thawed and the fishing is good.

As we promised in our last web log post, we have several eaglet videos to share. These were captured from our live video feed at Blackwater Refuge on February 27 and February 28. Since our chicks hatched on February 26 and 28, they’re a bit wobbly in the clips since they’re not very old.

Note that these videos are also being offered on our YouTube channel for those who prefer to view them that way. For the clips below, left-click on the link to play the Windows Media Video file or right-click and choose “Save As” to download to your computer.

In our first video we see one parent arrive to relieve the other parent of nest duties, and we get our first good look at our older eaglet. The chick was only about half a day old here, and its head was bouncing a bit since its neck muscles were still a little weak.

In the second clip from February 27, we see another parent switch, but after the first parent arrives, both parents start calling out at something. We’re not sure what they were “yelling” at, but it’s possible another large bird flew too close to the nest — maybe attracted to the fish. After the calling stops, the parent on the chick/egg stands up and we see our eaglet and what looks like a small hole in the remaining egg (keep in mind the second eaglet hatched the following morning). At the end of the clip, we get a good look at how the parent settles down on the chick/egg and rocks back and forth to position itself. Amazingly the chick can somehow breathe even with the parent on top of it.

In the last clip from February 27, we see a brief feeding session with our first eaglet. If you thought the parents needed patience when incubating during the snow storms, you can see they need just as much patience when feeding tiny eaglets. Often the eaglet will stab at the food but miss since it hasn’t quite got the knack of taking food from the parent’s beak. Sometimes the food will fall into the nest, but the eaglet never looks down for it — the young bird always looks to the parent’s beak for food — so the parent has to pick it up and try feeding it again to the chick. And sometimes the parent will hold out the food but the eaglet will just stare back, like it’s not sure what to do next. Eagle parents have to be very patient if they’re going to feed their young.

And in our final clip, which is from February 28, we see the second eaglet has arrived and both eaglets are sitting up for a feeding session. As you can see in the clip, the newly hatched chick makes several stabs at the food in the parent’s beak but only gets a tiny bit of it toward the end. During these sessions, the parent will continue to hold out food until it looks like the chicks are getting tired, then the parent will go back to sitting on them until it’s time for another try. During the upcoming days, the chicks will get stronger and the feeding sessions will get longer and more productive.

I should note that while watching our parents feed, I did see both the female and male feeding the eaglets, so our male is participating in the feeding sessions as well, which was nice to see.

After having watched male parents on both the Osprey Cam and Eagle Cam over the years, it seems the male eagles are more prone to helping feed the young than our male ospreys have been in the past. Our male ospreys do help with incubation duties, but only certain males will feed the chicks. I’ve even seen chicks standing in front of a male osprey waiting to be fed, but the male would not participate, either indicating that he didn’t know how to feed or he was unwilling to take on that chore.

Technical Note
I wanted to make a quick mention about the static you might have been seeing on the Eagle Cam. We see it too, and we’ve checked our equipment but we can’t seem to clear it up. It’s possible we need to clean a connector on our equipment near the nest tree, but we can’t do that now since it might disturb the parents. So we plan on checking those connectors once the chicks are a bit older and when it will be safe to approach the nest tree. Hopefully the static won’t get worse while we wait.

Until next time,

Lisa – webmaster
Suppor the Blackwater Cams
Contact

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