Eagle eggs hatching today on live web cam

Vanity Post?? ^ | May 22, 2003 | Apple Pan Dowdy

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Please excuse the "vanity post" but I thought many of you would be interested in seeing this awsome view of nature. A live web cam in Washington State is inches away from a Bald Eagle's nest high up in a tree where the 2 eggs are showing signs of cracking... thus about to hatch.

Once at the site, linked above, click on the "live cam" link and select "eagle cam #2 (its the best view).

The female's name is Star and she laid 2 eggs back on April 11th and 14th. Her longtime mate, Patriot, was with her then. A few weeks later, Patriot faught with a younger male and both fell to the ground, then flew off. Patriot has not been seen since, and the new male has now taken his place. The male usually sits on a nearby tree limb, which you can see in the upper right corner of camera #2.

It's facinating to watch a Star tends her eggs. Last night as they were cracking, she gets up often to turn them and look at them. She leaves the nest occaisionally and the male will come stand in the nest, nerviously watching, alternately the eggs and the sky, for her return.

Incubation facts say that the eggs will hatch 12-24 hours after showing signs of cracking.... so that should be TODAY! So call the kids, the whole family, and go watch one of God's greatest miracles. Isn't the net great?

Below are a couple of screen shots from last night:

[Calpernia]

BUMP!!!!!!!!

Love it, thank you!

[Calpernia]

FYI, choose EagleCam2 - Clearer view.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Some on the cam's discussion board are speculating on whether or not he eggs will hatch because of the inattentiveness of the new male not sitting on them while Star is feeding..... so this should play out to be a great drama today... facinating... and we are all praying for Star and the chicks!

[Calpernia]

Interesting. I'm surprised the wildlife WDFW personnel didn't take the eggs and use an incubator then. I thought they normally intervened with endangered until the population was up to safe numbers.

[MotleyGirl70]

Thanks for posting this.

We had the same thing setup here in mid-Wisconsin. They were shown live a few times a week on PBS. It is a rare miracle to see this.

I will check in on Star throughout the day and hope the chicks hatch healthy.

During Memorial Day weekends past while fishing on the Wisconsin River in upper Wisconsin I can usually see no less than a dozen bald eagles. A few times I was fortunate enough to see a few of them come swooping down about 40-50 yards from the boat and pick up a fish. It is truly a thing of beauty and a very rare sight to see that.

[habs4ever]

ping

[Corin Stormhands]

Weren't we at this spot when I came to the Hobbit Hole last year?

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

I don't know... possibly so. This is the 3rd year that this cam has been opperating. She hatched the eggs around the last week of April last year as I remember.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes! - That is the same next we watched last year!

I completely forgot to look in on them this year!

So this is a new male? Is that what I gathered?

[HairOfTheDog]

Our Eagles are not that endangered.... We have a healthy population of Eagles here, no need to intervene.

[HairOfTheDog]

Last year about this time, when the new eaglets had just hatched, they brought back a fish to the nest and splattered fish guts right on the lens of this camera! The view was so smudged that we couldn' see anything and I never got to see much of the raising of them.

This will be neat..... Thanks!

For another treat, check out the other cams.... Heron cam is pretty impressive.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Yep, you are right about the splattering on the lens last year... I had almost forgotten about that...LOL

Just a few minutes ago I got a good look at the eggs when she got up... one has a huge crack and is beginning to come apart. You can download a cool magnifyer to see it better

[westmex]

Thanks Habs.....
And a ping for the eagles....

.........Westy......

[HairOfTheDog]

Cool.... I did see cracks in one egg when he/she got up.

I like watching them.... I learned quite a bit about their behaviors last year, how they hunker down and scream, presumably because there is another bird around threatening.

We were pretty into it at the Hobbit Hole, and I have let them know about it again for this year.

[westmex]

Eagle Fishing Lake Washington,WA.

......Westy.....

[HairOfTheDog]

Cool.... Thanks Westy!

The thing that stuns me when we see them fishing in front of our beach house, is how seagulls will harass them. We always frown about the seagulls not knowing their place!

But the relatively small seagulls can definately outmanuever the eagles, and can sometimes dive-bomb them into dropping the fish. Course, The eagle has the advantage when he comes back around for it, the seagulls can't fly far or fast with a big fish.

[HairOfTheDog]

Westy how did you grab IMG SRC links for the live cam last year? - I have tried. I know they will only stay live for 15 minutes now.... but....

[Ima Lurker]

Ping....

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

They had to change the cam to 15 minute intervals this year becuase too many people on it at one time crached the server... people would turn it on and go off for the day leaving it on.