In case you missed the announcement, we have started the 2010 Eaglet-Naming Contest. Please visit our contest page for all the details, and thanks for participating.

Our two eaglets are now about one month old, and we’re clearly seeing feathers developing on both birds, but especially on our older chick. These pin feathers are visible mostly on their backs and along the edges of their wings.

If you’re new to the term “pin feathers” it basically means newly forming feathers. As each feather develops, it is encased in a thin shaft of waxy keratin (like your fingernails), which will eventually fall off or be pulled off by the eaglet, thus allowing the new feather to unfurl and grow to its full size. Looking at the little sheaths and pointy new feathers from a distance, they look like little pins on the eaglets’ bodies. To show you a close-up example, here’s a great look at pin feathers on an osprey chick. In the photo, you can see the shaft (it’s blue because it’s filled with blood, which feeds the feather), and the feather that’s protruding out. The blood supply is also why pin feathers are sometimes called blood feathers.

An adult bald eagle can have around 7,000 feathers on its body, and although the feathers are light, together they will weigh twice as much as the eagle’s skeleton.

Under U.S. and Canadian law, a permit is required for anyone to possess authentic bald eagle or golden eagle feathers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs the National Eagle Repository in Colorado where feathers from dead eagles are collected and distributed to Native Americans so they can legally use them for their ceremonial purposes.

According to the National Eagle Repository, the demand is great and “applicants can expect to wait about 3 and one half years for a whole bird order to be filled. Approximately 95% of the orders are for whole eagles. Currently, there are over 5000 people on the waiting list for approximately 1000 eagles the Repository receives each year.”

Possession of live or dead eagles or their feathers, without special permits, is a federal offense, punishable by stiff fines and possible prison sentences, but unfortunately that does not discourage some parties from killing eagles and moving them across the border between the U.S. and Canada. Eagle traffic on the black market amounts to millions of dollars each year, and a single bald eagle feather head dress can bring more than $10,000.

For our bald eaglets, their feathers are important not because they’re valued by humans, but because these feathers will give them the power of flight. Although our eaglets are only four weeks old, we would expect them to possibly fledge as early as 10 weeks old, although it might be as long as 13-14 weeks depending on the individual eaglet.

As the eaglets’ feathers continue to come in, the young birds will start to look a little comical in that they’ll be sporting various combinations of down and developing feathers. In this photo of a young bald eaglet, you can see the youngster has white down on its head, darker down on some of its lower body and newly developing feathers — all at the same time! Eventually the down will disappear from view and we’ll only see the coating of dark brown feathers. Right before our eaglets fledge, they will look like this — like a handsome and powerful raptor.

As I mentioned on the cam page a while back, it’s hard to believe that our little flapping balls of fuzz will grow into mighty soaring birds of prey, but that’s part of the miracle of nature. And we’re very lucky to be along for the ride.

We’ll update both our galleries later this week. Thanks to those sending in their photos.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
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I wanted to start out this web log post with a small correction. In our last update, we mentioned that our white pelicans had been seen at Blackwater Refuge during the Eagle Festival, and we thought that was the first spotting of the birds this winter. We have since been informed that as far back as January 27, a pelican was seen, so they’ve been around a bit longer.

As a treat, we have a video on YouTube of our pelican gang at the Refuge. In this clip, which was taken recently, you see our pelican group along with some tundra swans and Canada geese that were all hanging out together in the marsh. We expect the swans to be heading north any day now.

Eaglet Update

Our eaglets are now three weeks old, and they’re making remarkable progress each week. We can see the first traces of pin feathers on their bodies (we’ll talk more about pin feathers in the next post), and we’ve also seen a couple shots (like the one on the right) where the eaglets seem to be trying to pull off food for themselves.

In this post, we have several videos that offer further insights into our eaglets’ rapidly maturing personalities, so we hope you enjoy them. But before I get to them, I wanted to offer two quick Eagle Cam mentions. First, for those of you watching the Carolina Raptor Center Eagle Cam, be aware that they’re saying Noah will be moved to a hacking tower on March 27. He has captive parents, but Noah will be a wild eagle, so they need to move him to a place where he can properly fledge.

And second, we want to offer a big congratulations to our good friends at the NCTC Eagle Cam in West Virginia. No Eagle Cam had a worse time with the snow than their cam, and out of four eggs, only one has hatched — but that was still a surprise. We hear that the great folks at the NCTC Eagle Cam blog have named the sole eaglet Palmer, after Deb Palmer, who was a wonderful person and big supporter of both the NCTC cam and our Blackwater cams, and even helped with reestablishing the osprey population in her home state of South Dakota. Deb unexpectedly passed away at the end of last year, so the NCTC fans wanted the eaglet named after her.

Videos

And now on to our videos. Please note that the videos below 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, which is from March 11, we see the mother eagle indicating that she wants to feed the chicks, so the father gets off the youngsters. Next we see the younger eaglet take an unexpected peck at the older bird, and considering that the younger chick is smaller, this is a bold move that naturally produces a strong reaction from our older chick.

Cam watchers have asked me about sibling rivalry, considering how much food is in the nest this year. We do see some pecking, because it’s in the nature of raptor chicks to peck, but the rivalry has been much less this year. Often the older chick will get fed first, but before long, the younger bird steps up and gets fed right beside its sibling — like a little chorus line — where in years past, the older bird was fed until it was almost full, then the younger bird was fed.

In our second clip, which is from March 14, we see an example of a very democratic feeding session. The younger bird is facing the parent in the beginning of the session, so it gets fed first. Then the older bird joins in, and even though the younger bird acts a bit submissive, both birds continue to feed together.

Something else to notice in this clip is how at one point the mother twists her neck to pull off a piece of fish. Tearing off fish pieces — especially from a newly caught meal — can be hard work, which is why the parent does the ripping at this stage of the eaglets’ development. Eventually the eaglets will have strong enough necks and beaks to do the ripping themselves.

In our third clip, which is the first from March 19, we see a good example of the chicks trying to cool off. Last week we had some mild temperatures and bright sunshine, and since the eaglets are sporting their heavier down, they got a bit hot. To cool themselves off, they spread out their legs, pant, and try to find any shade they can. Sometimes the shade they seek out is created by the parent’s body, as we see in this clip.

And in our final clip, which is the second from March 19, we see the mother eagle arrive with some fresh grass in her talons. She promptly puts the grass on the eaglets, covering our younger bird. We then see our older bird backing up to the edge of the nest to slice, and then the mother settles over the chicks for a nap. These days, however, the eaglets are just too big to fully cover.

We hope you enjoyed the latest installment of our video clips. In our next web log post we’ll discuss the development of our eaglets’ feathers and what they’ll look like when they turn into impressive immature eagles.

Also, we’re making plans to start our Eaglet-Naming Contest in about two weeks, so start thinking up your names. Normally we prefer gender-neutral names (since we don’t know the gender of our eaglets yet), but we’ll take all kinds of submissions.

To give you some guidance, last year our chicks were named Chesapeake and Choptank because Blackwater Refuge is near the Choptank River and the Chesapeake Bay. Other name combinations have been Intrepid and Destiny (2008), Justice and Majesty (2007), Waiwash and Nause (a local Indian tribe near the Refuge, 2006), and Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (The Three Musketeers, 2005).

Until next time,

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

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

We want to officially welcome our two new eaglets into the world! After the heavy snows we had this winter, I think many of us were a little worried this day wouldn’t come, but our eaglets hatched right on time and look very healthy, thanks to our incredible parents.

For those keeping score, here is the final tally:

1st egg
Laid: January 20
Hatched: February 26 (early evening)

2nd egg:
Laid: January 23
Hatched: February 28 (early morning)

At this point our father eagle has brought in several good-sized fish, so the chicks and mother eagle have plenty of food. Our ranger said one of the fish looked like a gizzard shad for those who are interested in fish species.

We were also happy to see the chicks hatch so close together, which might mean the older bird has less of a size advantage. Bald eaglets are the fastest growing birds in North America, so it doesn’t take much time for one chick to get bigger than the others in the nest, and then use its size to establish its dominance. We should still expect to see some bullying though, because that’s just how raptor chicks behave. In fact, while I was at the Refuge watching the TV monitor of the Eagle Cam this past weekend, I saw the younger chick take a peck at its older sibling. This kind of behavior won’t be tolerated for long by the older chick, and the pecking order will soon be established with the older bird as ruler of meal time.

Our next milestone for the chicks will be the development of their second coat of down, which will be heavier and darker than the light-colored down they have now. This heavier coat will help protect them from the elements, and it will be their last down covering before their first set of feathers come in. Also in a few weeks, the chicks will develop the ability to control their own body temperature, and at that stage the female will not have to spend so much time covering them up and keeping them out of view.

I’m sure some cam watchers are curious about the gender of our eaglets. It’s very hard to tell at this age, so we won’t even try. But once the eaglets are close to fledging, they will be almost full grown, and we should have a clear indication as to their sex, with females being the bigger birds. Statistics do seem to show that most firstborns in bald eagle nests are female, but we’ve had firstborn males on the Eagle Cam, so I’m not sure the stats are helpful.

And for those who are wondering about our traditional Eaglet-Naming Contest — we will hold our annual contest this spring to name our eaglets. We’ll make further announcements about the contest here in the web log and on the cam page once we get ready to post our contest page in about a month.

As for video clips, while I was at the Refuge over the weekend, we did capture some video footage of our eaglets, and we plan on posting video clips sometime later this week showing our wobbly-headed youngsters.

Eagle Festival

If you’ve been thinking about making a trip out to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to see our two eaglets in person, you might want to plan on a visit March 13 — this is the day of our 10th Annual Eagle Festival. The Eagle Festival is our most popular event of the year, and it contains many activities for both adults and kids. We offer a free bird walk and also free Eagle Prowls, where you can get a guided eagle tour of Blackwater. We’ll also have live raptors on display, as well as special presentations that will tell you more about eagle behavior, the Chesapeake Bay, and Blackwater Refuge.

And perhaps best of all, if you come to our beautiful Visitor Center, you’ll be able to see live video of our two new eaglets on the TV monitors, which we have on both the 1st and 2nd floors of the building. We also have a real eagle’s nest on the first floor of the Visitor Center, as well as a wonderful gift store full of eagle and osprey merchandise, so you can take home some nifty Blackwater souvenirs.

Check out our Festival page for a schedule of events and make plans to come for what is sure to be a very fun day at Blackwater.

Other Nests

In other cam news: We hear the Iowa Eagle Cam now has an egg, as does the Pelican Harbor Eagle Cam on the Channel Islands in California, so be sure to check them out. Caltrans Eagle Cam has three eggs and the Colorado Eagle Cam has two eggs. Finally the three eggs at the Norfolk Eagle Cam should begin hatching around March 9.

Speaking of eagle cams, Wonderful West Virginia Magazine just posted a very nice article on the Eagle Cam at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia, where they’re hoping the fourth egg was protected from the deep snow and might eventually hatch.

Also, one of our cam watchers sent in a good shot from the Carolina Eagle Cam where, as we’ve mentioned, they have a captive bald eagle family with one chick.

Photo Submissions

And our final topic today is in regards to photo submissions sent to us for our galleries. I want to thank all those who sent in photos during our hatching period. If you noticed that your particular photo didn’t get included in the gallery updates, please know we have to edit the number to keep the gallery at a reasonable size, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate receiving the shots. I would always rather have too many photos than not enough, since sometimes one cam watcher sees something that the rest of us miss. So thanks again for taking the time to capture and email your photos. We appreciate them all.

And if you’re new to our site and wonder how people submit photos, visit our instruction page for details. Basically we just ask that you keep the image the same size as it is on the cam page and that you send it as a JPEG file.

Until next time,

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