Jordan Lake. First Nest. Triplets!!! Kate and Bard have three chicks. The usual number of chicks in a nest is two – 3 is uncommon. The small chick laying across the front of the nest is probably the youngest of the 3. Sometimes eggs are laid and hatched several days apart. The 2 bigger chicks are looking up at Dad Bard – you can see the back of his head and his tail.
Jordan lake. 1st chick seen this year at the nest. The afternoon backlighting of the nest made the chick sparkle. The chick is at the light green arrow. There may be a possible chick at the light pink arrow but we will have to wait to see them both at the same time to know for sure.
Jordan Lake. First Nest. Kate and Bard have a chick or chicks that have hatched. 1) Kate is very proud to be a parent. 2) Mom Kate had been feeding chick(s) below my line of sight then stopped and looked very hard at her youngsters. It will be a while before we actually see the chicks.
Jordan Lake. An incubating bald eagle – one sitting on eggs – occasionally just has to stretch their wings. That’s a dangerous maneuver. If it is wintertime (bald eagle’s normal temperature is 99.5°F ) and the parent is off of the egg(s) even briefly the eggs will die because they quickly become chilled. This is dad eagle at First Nest. From the time he leaves the nest until he gets back and settles in on his eggs is 43 seconds. We need to keep this in mind when we’re thinking about the Shelter 8 nest. Because intrusions of any kind, human or otherwise, that keep the parent off the nest too long can be fatal to the eggs (which haven’t been laid yet at Shelter 8).
Jordan Lake. First Nest. I had not seen any eagles at all anywhere near First Nest for at least six weeks. Then I was sent a text that said an eagle was in First Nest. Indeed there was a female in the nest and eventually we saw the male out flying. These photos were done this morning in the rain and so they are not the clearest at all. It looks like the female is incubating eggs! I will have to wait to get a very good photo of both parents before I know for sure whether or not they are Kate and her mate. Stay tuned!
Jordan Lake. There are three days left until 21 December and the beginning of winter. Kate is making the most of the last of the autumn weather. She is one magnificent bald eagle!
doc ellen's journey 