Watching a pair of eagles raise a family is another of those cool experiences brought to us by the wonders of video cams and the Internet. I got hooked last spring after DJan posted a link to the Hornby Island Eagle Cam.
Mom laid her first egg of 2011 on Tuesday evening. She is likely to lay another by Saturday. Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,000 viewers were watching, and more than 300 were logged into the chat room. Some will be there from sunup until dark for the next several months. I won't be there quite that much, but it does get to be habit-forming, especially once the eaglet pokes its way out of the egg, about 35 days from now.
Last year's story didn't end well. The healthy and active eaglet called Phoenix (the only hatchling in the nest) died suddenly of a lung infection, probably from eating tainted roadkill lovingly provided by her parents. But the cycle has come around again, and if you are interested, you can check out the YouTube video below (and sign up for updates) or the Hornby site, or both.
Two or three minutes into this video, Mom begins to make birthing sounds (who knew?). Then voila, an egg.
P.S., I just discovered this eagle cam at Norfolk, Virginia, where three eaglets have already hatched. They don't provide sound, but the video quality is excellent.
13 comments:
I really enjoyed this. Thanks.
I'm scared, Karen. I was so attached to Phoenix, and when she died, a part of me died too. Can I put myself through this again??? Keep posting about this and I may go over there and take a look. Or not.
Thank you so much for telling us about this site. I am excited to watch how this goes. So very interesting.
I'll send this to the grands. How exciting! Thanks.
This is completely amazing! I'm so grateful that you brought this to our attention-- and that I chose today to get re-connected to reading the blogs I love! (It's a long story, but we've had some adventures around here...)
Thanks for the great post!
Incredible!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Such magic!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Such magic!
What a really marvelous post. Magical things happen all around us, but we sometimes don't take the time to see them. I'm glad you did.
That was great1 I wacthed last year.
I have a hard time with the Eagles..because they are so mean to the Loons and often take the eggs or kill the young loons..call me Loony:(
I watch some last time! Thanks for the info!!
I checked the cam, but looks like it's dark there now (as everyone who was on chat was saying). So, I looked at the YouTube video and that is really pretty wild. Suddenly! An egg! I guess the beauty and awesome of labor and delivery is not specific to the human race. Thanks for the links! I'll check back during daylight hours.
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