Decorah Eagles and Blogs

March 18, 2024: NestFlix and Chill!

March 18, 2024: HD visits the N1 tree, upsetting the geese.

We have your Monday NestFlix, but let’s look at the week ahead before we put our feet up and chill! We’re looking forward to hatch beginning at Decorah North on Saturday or Sunday, first eggs at peregrine falcon sites (my bet’s on Dubuque for the first egg at a nest we monitor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFtQqGanrX0) and a possible return of winter weather later this week! Well, we’re not really looking forward to that last one, but we are curious about what egg-laying

March 3, 2024: Day Trip To Decorah

DM2 in back and Mom in front

Story and photos by Robin Brumm I had been to Decorah a couple of weeks ago, but Mom and DM2 were not incubating at that time. It was a busy week, and just when I was about to write a day trip, I found out that John saw Mom & DM2 were incubating on Friday. So I decided to wait on the day trip and head to Decorah again last Sunday to see if I could get some pictures of

March 4, 2024: NestFlix and News!

March 3, 2024: HM on the Y-Branch. She's not nesting here this year, but she doesn't seem interested in letting geese have it, either!

It’s been a busy few days for everybirdy! We have eggs at Decorah North, Fort St. Vrain, and Trempealeau; an ever-changing group of female falcons trying to catch Newman’s attention (Lisa has so far chased them all off); Canada Geese looking at N1 (HM says absolutely not), and falcons showing up at every site we watch. I’m still trying to get band numbers at our sites, so please give me an email if you get one! We’re estimating hatch in

What is a brood patch?

March 30, 2018: Mrs. North's brood patch

Daylight length, or photoperiod, strongly influences hormone production in birds. In the northern hemisphere, our story begins shortly after the winter solstice in December. As daylight length increases, a cascade of hormones causes birds’ gonads to swell in preparation for reproduction, egg-laying, and incubation. In this blog, we’ll discuss the role the brood patch plays in incubation and determining clutch size. How do bald eagles keep their eggs warm in subzero temperatures? They apply heat via a special area of

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Won't you be my neighbor? A Pileated Woodpecker plays peek-a-boo at the North Nest.

Bald Eagles play an important role in ecosystems. They stand on top of the food chain or web, are generalist hunters who consume and produce carrion, and are a keystone species: a species that is vital to the health of its ecosystem. We know and write about their trophic relationships, but we don’t often consider the importance of their nests to other species. Alternate, abandoned, or in use, large bald eagle nests stand for many years and serve as homes,

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 11 days!

Chicken embryos roughly 25% of the way to hatch

What do embryonic eagles look they look like as they develop and grow inside their eggs? Dr. Peter Sharpe from the Institute for Wildlife Studies developed a table of bald eagle embryonic development based on work done by Hamburger and Hamilton (1951). While not all bald eagle eggs hatch in 35 days, the stages of development look something like this… What happens between the third and the 11th day? When we last touched on the topic, our embryonic eagle had

February 26, 2024: News, NestFlix, and new cams!

February 26, 2024: Handsome Mr. North incubating eggs.

We know it is late February, but it really feels like spring has sprung! We’ve got eagles on eggs at the North nest and our new Trempealeau eagle cam, we’re eagerly awaiting eggs at Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain nest, female falcons are lining up for Newman’s food gifts at GSB, the ice is entirely out on the Flyway, and we’re seeing and hearing spring arrivals everywhere! We’re also getting ready for our First Egg Fundraiser on March 2, chatting

February 12, 2024: NestFlix and News from Decorah North and Decorah!

February 12, 2024: Mr. North, left. DNF, right. I think they are one of the best-looking eagle couples around!

Are you as egg-cited as we are? All of the eagles we watch are beginning to switch their focus from bringing in sticks to piling up soft, fluffy materials, working on egg cups and cup footings and, in DNF’s case, calling for room service as she builds the resources she needs – especially water! – to lay eggs. Eggnancy is hungry work! Astute watchers might also notice that the eagles are developing brood patches – a patch of bare skin

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