What a weekend! The second eaglet hatched at Trempealeau, a male eagle – Mr. T? – has finally started to help with brooding and stocking the pantree, and the tiny North nest bobbleheads were replaced by great growing eaglets in grey flannel pajamas. We’re looking forward to hatch at Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain nest on or around April 10, hatch at the N1 goose nest next weekend, and the leap of faith a day or two later. It’s springtime and everyone is on the run, the fly, or the nest!
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Decorah North Eagles
April 6, 2024: Look at those clown clompers! The eaglets’ feet and legs have turned orange and are growing rapidly. It won’t be long before they can stand on their feet.
DN17 and DN18 turn 15 and 14 days old today. They are entering their third week of life: visibly larger, greyer, more active and – based on the painted and splattered crib rails around the nest – much better at sitting up, bending over, and shooting poop! Parental and filial imprinting are waking up innate behavior as the terrific two explore and move nesting materials, warble, wingercize (look at those tiny flaps!), and interact with one another. Their formerly pink legs and feet have turned orange (look at those carrot toes!) and their talons are turning taupe. So many changes are happening in their rapidly growing little minds and bodies right now! You can read more about that here: https://www.raptorresource.org/2024/04/08/eaglet-growth-and-development-week-three-2/.
April 6, 2024: A messy dinner turned the eaglets’ faces and beaks bright red.
April 6, 2024: Napkins, please! https://youtu.be/JyioZZ1EPy4?si=8m7IhTrLgsepV-VV. What in the world are they eating? DNF brought in a deer or cow fetus – like placenta, an easy dinner that can’t run away or fight back. It provided several messy meals for the eaglets. Spring is an excellent time to raise flighted predators at this latitude given the flush of food: animals leave hibernation and begin wandering more widely and sometimes rather carelessly; ice melts, increasing food availability for any animal that forages in riparian environments; fish migrate and spawn, often on shallow sand and gravel bars; and many animals give birth or hatch young. The food flush lasts well into June, with young of many species sometimes providing a meal for others. And so goes the great chain of life: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/ecology-ap/energy-flow-through-ecosystems/a/food-chains-food-webs. Follow this link for another look at the fetus and see if you can ID it: https://youtu.be/IHPvvsOn-yQ?si=pEiZR80Y1YSFrn6x.
April 5 was an excellent day for eagle watching! This video gives us three minutes of sweet eaglet closeups: https://youtu.be/0jwJ1dticjU?si=d-1WGW73lpdOK0Bc, this video opens with closeups and transitions to a nice look at how tall the eaglets are getting: https://youtu.be/hKDcUCfgJOA?si=n7fc4f7uDZf-p5gl, and this video – my very favorite! – shows up clown clompers, earholes, and thermal down in the making! https://youtu.be/rQIHSYb-EVA?si=Oj0xt5Vgt8StKDD1. Start at 3:55 for lovely views of the little carrot toes – they aren’t pink anymore! – and taupe talons. Squeeeee!
April 6, 2024: Talons make the most comfortable pillows! Eating and snoozing are important, especially when eaglets are growing so rapidly!
April 4, 2024: DNF offers a fish tail- “Mom, it’s as big as our heads!” – https://youtu.be/O58XbySmWng?si=GeINdg__ksfqGnU3. Mr. North and DNF are excellent parents, but we still see moments that make us go ‘Hmmmmmmmm’. DNF is feeding the dynamic duo. After one small bite, she offers them a fish tail, turned the wrong way around for the eaglets to eat. Neither eaglet bites and she eats it herself.
April 2, 2024: Mr. North and DNF put up the Mombrella and Poptent on a cold, rainy night!
April 2, 2024: Mr. North stays to help out on a stormy night – https://youtu.be/hPHi-7e1FJg?si=WsBUQvry4ZHywUJH. Mr. North stayed in the nest with DNF from about 7:45 PM to about 9:26 PM, although this video shows only a very short portion of it. This is very unusual for him today: he usually wings away to sleep perched on a nearby branch, standing guard over the nest as he slumbers. Was he helping to protect DN17 and DN18 from wet snow and freezing rain? He certainly got wet and snowy while standing there!
We know that bald eagles can go to great lengths to protect their young. While Mr. North can’t tell us what he was doing, this looks like another example – as we saw with Dad in 2018! – of a male eagle stepping in to help protect his young from extreme weather. Eagles are well-protected against the cold, but slashing rain and low temperatures are dangerous. His chosen spot would have provided a wind and rain shadow to help keep the eaglets warm and dry. By the time he left, the rain had largely turned to snow.
Trempealeau Eagles
A male eagle has returned to the Trempealeau nest. He’s (kind of) delivering food and taking a very occasional turn on the nest, although he hasn’t fed the eaglets as of this posting that I know. Could he be a first-time father? The Hanover nest failed this year when the male, a new mate and presumably first-time breeder, didn’t participate in egg care. The Fulton Trio started when the first male there – a new male – failed to care for his eggs and young, causing that nest to fail. We thought Mr. North – the male eagle at another one of our nests – might be a new Dad the first year we watched there, since he brought food to the nest but he didn’t initially brood or feed. This male seems a little hesitant to brood and hasn’t yet fed his young, although he has brought food. Perhaps he has a lot to learn this year!
April 6, 2024: Mr. T dropped off a large mouth bass. He shared this one quite nicely!
He could also be a new male if the original male vanished during incubation. But I’d be a little surprised if the female let him into the nest when she had hatchlings, and I don’t know if an unmated male’s hormonal cycle would be synched correctly to brood, which this male finally did (https://youtu.be/BCfroCRg6Z8?si=WMVC3tHSkoO0tqgh). But maybe our recorded footage will show us otherwise. Either way, I’m glad a male eagle is helping with nest life. I’m going to continue referring to him as ‘Mr. T’ because we don’t know that he isn’t. We’ll think of something else if we learn otherwise!
April 8, 2024: T1 trying out wings, does a tiny PS – https://youtu.be/feJGPHVjAPQ?si=BX-h6F5gE8FS9no2. Poop is a good sign, since an eaglet won’t poop if it’s not eating!
April 7, 2024: Welcome to the world, T2!
April 7, 2024: Mr. T brings a small fish and takes off with a big fish – https://youtu.be/vJ0Y3YKQgZc?si=cszogVAccCsu1L0W. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this behavior here: https://youtu.be/dvEI4k6rxoA?si=XD03BlpSYo7gaFMJ. It isn’t always easy for eagles to share!
April 7, 2024: Looks like T2 has hatched! https://youtu.be/2Hncam8L_vU?si=IvraegNvXPJet53J. It’s a wet and rainy day, so we don’t get much of a look. But T2 has finally hatched! We’ll be looking for growth and developmental differences between the two, since they should be easier to tell apart than ‘eagle twins’ DN17 and DN18!
April 6, 2024: Mr. T(?) returns, Mrs. T takes off, he broods – https://youtu.be/vjUUCtcwcYA?si=T4ogm7Kl3aJdNg4h. And he brought a fish, too! She vocalizes loudly and softly as he enters the nest, but doesn’t react aggressively before flying out and perching on a branch near the nest. He looks a little uncertain – instinct is weird! – but eventually settles down over T1 and the egg.
April 3, 2024: Welcome to the world, T1! https://youtu.be/-kRGZiWhE5s?si=CC5BrvxrdttI3pcj. Bald eagles have nested here since 2017, so number one could change! But it was the first eaglet to hatch here this year, so we’ll keep it until I have a count. In all they joy of another eaglet hatching, there was already concern about the seeming disappearance of Mr. T. But Mrs. T did a great job of feeding and caring for her young and the weather cooperated.
The Raptor Resource Project