Avis and Aquila are now about 13 weeks old, and we believe both eaglets have officially fledged. As you can see from the cam, it also appears one of them hit the cam box again, giving us yet another view of the nest tree. This happens each season, but one of these years we’ll find a way to secure the cam box tight enough so that it doesn’t move so easily.

We expect to continue seeing our eaglets on and off for the next month, although over time they’ll become less dependent on the nest and their parents, and eventually the nest will have such a small amount of activity that we’ll turn it off for the summer. But for now, we’re still enjoying some eaglet antics.

Our eaglets don’t realize it, but they’re very lucky in that they were hatched at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, which has one of the largest breeding populations of bald eagles in the United States. Our eaglets will find lots of quality fishing spots, as well as lots of other bald eagles to mingle with. Sometimes when looking out the observatory window at our Visitor Center, you can see immature eagles hanging out together around the marsh or perching near each other in the tall loblolly pine trees — activities our eaglets might participate in one day. In the meantime, our Eagle Cam parents will be showing our eaglets how to catch a meal and where to roost at night, when the eaglets are not sleeping in the nest.

If you’ve never been to Blackwater NWR, and you’d like to see the environment where our eaglets will be flying and playing, be sure to visit our Facebook gallery — Blackwater NWR Overview — for some excellent photos of the Refuge habitat.

Our Eagle Cam parents did a wonderful job getting their two eggs through the record snowfall we had earlier this year (when we really thought they’d lost them), and now they’ve done an excellent job raising two confident eaglets that have fledged. The eagle parents have been an inspiration to watch, and we feel very lucky that we have this pair on our Eagle Cam.

Below we have three new videos to share with you. These might be the last eaglet videos we post, since we’ll soon start recording action on our Osprey Cam as hatching time draws near for our three eggs. As always, 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 from May 15, we see a parent (possibly the father) fly in with a very small fish and immediately abandon it to the aggressive older eaglet — Avis — who then begins mantling the food, just because she’s big and she can. Soon Aquila notices his big sister isn’t eating it, so he takes the initiative and lifts the meal after offering her a peck to show he means business.

In the next video, which is the first from May 22, we again see the parent bring a fish and quickly release it to what appears to be Avis. It’s important to remember that at this age, Avis is bigger than her father and dominates the interactions between them, at least when it comes to the all-important meal time.

And in the final video, which is the second clip from May 22, we see a few takeoffs and landings from our newly fledged eaglets. In the first two shots, notice how the nest and camera shake from the power of the birds. They really have turned into mighty raptors.

We appreciate the photos that our cam watchers have sent in from the Eagle Cam. We’ll try to get the gallery updated next week, and we’ll continue to update the gallery until the Eagle Cam is turned off, probably sometime in late June, depending on when the action stops.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
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We have some new videos to share with you, and I think after watching them you’ll notice the dramatic change in our eaglets’ behavior now that they’re around 10 weeks old and very close to flying. Our eaglets are definitely becoming young raptors. No longer do they meekly sit in the nest and wait for the parent to feed them. If they see some food they want, they go for it.

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 April 16, we see one of our eaglets flapping and hopping around the nest, and you can see how much stronger their wing movements are now. It’s possible that our oldest eaglet — Avis — is branching a bit, but I don’t believe both eaglets are branching because we often see at least one of them in the nest. But in the coming few weeks, both eaglets should be hopping out onto the branches of their nest tree to prepare for their first flight. (First flights are normally at 10-13 weeks of age).

In our second video, from April 23, we see an interesting interlude between our eaglets. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what they’re doing, but they appear to be simulating the movements a grown bird would make when feeding an eaglet food.

And in our final video, which is from April 24, we get a dramatic look at one of our eaglets practically attacking the adult (and biting its talon) as it returns to the nest with a fish. This aggressive behavior shows our eaglets are rapidly becoming assertive young raptors that go after what they want, and this eaglet wanted the meal.

After the parent regains control of the meal in the video, both eaglets eat politely for a while, but then the aggressive eaglet one again lunges for the fish and grabs a big chunk, leaving the adult with a small bit of the remainder. At the end of the video, we also see the aggressive chick exhibiting some mantling behavior, which is when a bird protects its meal by spreading its wings and body over the food.

We did hear from one of our Refuge volunteers that while watching the cam monitor, they saw a parent drop off a still-flapping fish in the nest. Both eaglets then jumped on it and ate it by themselves. So our young birds are proving that they have learned how to grab live prey, kill it, and eat it themselves. Our chicks are growing up.

We’ve asked the volunteers and staff at the Refuge to keep an eye on the Eagle Cam monitor and let us know if they see any signs of branching or first flights in the coming weeks.

Other Eagle News

A couple quick notes. Be sure to check out the CCB Eagle Nest Blog to learn about the banding of the Norfolk Eagle Cam eaglets. They have some wonderful photos on that blog.

Also, they opened the hacking tower door for Noah — the Carolina Raptor Center eaglet that was raised by captive parents — although I don’t believe she flew on her first day.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
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We have several videos to share that really show how big our eaglets are getting, but first we wanted to make a quick announcement. We have a new t-shirt in our Eagle’s Nest Gift Store at the Blackwater NWR Visitor Center (also available online through mail order), and it features the most famous endangered species currently living at Blackwater Refuge — our Delmarva fox squirrel.

Blackwater hosts the largest natural population of Delmarva fox squirrels, and this handsome shirt highlights both our famous squirrel and Blackwater Refuge, so be sure to check it out. And remember that all proceeds of gift store sales go towards supporting programs at the Refuge, like our raptor cams.

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 video from March 25, we get a great view of both parents feeding the chicks. The father eagle (on the right) is trying to feed our younger chick, but the chick is focused on the mother eagle. Eventually the eaglet realizes the father is holding out food for it and takes advantage of both parents being available at mealtime.

In our video from March 28, we see the younger eaglet slice onto the shoulder of the older eaglet (oops!) and then the older eaglet gives a nice little flap. The younger eaglet then pulls on one of the mother’s feathers, and also offers a nice flapping exhibition. Note how the nest is rocking in the strong winds.

In our final video, this one from April 4, we can see the eaglets being fed by one parent when the second parent flies in. The older eaglet pulls at some food in the nest and appears to try to tear off a bit, but eventually goes to the mother eagle who is offering a fish meal.

In years past, we’ve noticed that even when the eaglets were already fledged and fully capable of feeding themselves, they sometimes would still go to a parent and let the adult feed them. I guess the eaglets figure if the parent is there, why not let them do the work. :-)

A final reminder that our Eaglet-Naming Contest will end on April 15, so if you’re still thinking up your names, don’t wait too much longer. Thanks to all those who have already entered.

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

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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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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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