Decorah North Eagles and Blogs

The Decorah North Nest has failed

February 28, 2025: Mr. North's gift

We are sorry to announce that the North Nest has failed. DN20’s egg is 40 days old with no signs of hatching. Based on everything we know, it’s not going to. We don’t know why the nest failed, but we’re discussing next steps and will keep everyone posted. We have hatch at two other eagle nests coming up. They are: This is not the outcome we wanted or expected, but thank you for sharing this journey with us.

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News

Eaglet DN19

February 15, 2025: DNF's eggs. Eagle eggs don’t freeze easily or quickly.

We are sad to announce that DN19 died in hatch. We saw the egg’s first external pip at 12:03 PM on March 20, but after four days of hatch in progress, all movement ceased. Hatch had been proceeding for about 103 hours at that point: longer than the longest documented hatch time that we could find, and much longer than the 24 to 48 hours post-pip that we usually see here. As of this post, we don’t know why DN19

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News

Decorah North Hatch Update!

1:23 PM on Saturday, March 22.

Hatch update! The hatch windows are getting larger and both eaglets are still making progress, although it’s been slow going this year and the cold, wet weather isn’t helping when it comes to glimpses. Mr. North and DNF are old hands at this, which means they aren’t dallying when it comes to covering the hatchlings! A huge thank you to our camera operators. The cold, wet weather means that these glimpses are few and far between. But they are there

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News

Peek inside a Bald Eagle egg – at hatch!

Peek inside a Bald Eagle Egg - at hatch!

The camera operator gave us a wonderful peek at the eggs when Mr. North left this morning. The hatching window is larger, and we can see the outer shell, the inner membrane, and the eaglet moving around inside the egg. I’m not sure whether this is DN19 or DN20: we saw the first pip at 12:03 PM and the second one at 1:18 pm, which means these two eaglets will probably be hatching very close together! It wasn’t especially warm

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 24 days!

An embryonic chicken at roughly the same stage as a 24-day old eaglet. Image credit Carolina Biological Supply.

As of this blog post, DNF’s two eggs are 28 and 25 days old, Mrs. T’s three eggs are eight, five, and two days old, and Ma FSV’s four eggs are 18, 14, 11, and 7 days old. Hatch watch for Decorah North begins on March 19. 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

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News

A Second Egg for the Trempealeau Eagles!

Mrs. T laid her second egg today at 12:41 PM

Congratulations to Mrs. T! She laid egg #2 at 12:41 PM CST! We don’t eggspect a third egg, although we didn’t expect a fourth egg at Fort St. Vrain, either! Hatch watch for this nest starts on Tuesday, April 9. The first eaglet to hatch this year will be TE3 and I’m curious to see what eaglet care looks like. Our Decorah North and Xcel Energy Fort St. Vrain nests laid early – substantially so! – but Mrs. T laid

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News, Trempealeau Eagles

A Subadult Intruder at the North Nest

March 7, 2025: A subadult intruder in the North Nest

We witnessed an intense 18 minutes at the North Nest last night when a subadult eagle dropped in for a dusk-time snack. DNF was not pleased, but rather than risk a struggle that could endanger her eggs, she mantled over them and vocalized sharply, making it clear that the intruder was unwelcome. At first the subadult focused on nestovers, paying little attention to DNF. But when it moved toward her – roughly two minutes into this video or about 16

Read more Decorah North Eagles, News

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 17 days!

This chicken embryo is roughly equivalent to an eaglet at about 13 days. We can see the bony plate around its eyes, long folded limbs, rudimentary feet and 'hands', feather germs, and oversized head. Next up: feathers and scales!

As of this blog post, DNF’s two eggs are 22 and 19 days old. We have a three-day-old egg in Trempealeau and four eggs ranging from 11 days old to two days old at Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain nest. What do embyronic eagles 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

Read more Decorah Eagles, Decorah North Eagles, Fort St. Vrain Eagles, News

March 3, 2025: What are we looking forward to? News and NestFlix from all around our nests!

Mrs. and Mr. T. She's at left, he's at right.

What are we looking forward to this week? Mrs. T still hasn’t laid her first egg yet, which is making me wonder whether we have a new Mr. or Mrs. T! I would be surprised if she didn’t lay this week, especially given the amount of time she’s spent loafing around the nest recently. Go Mr. and Mrs. T! https://www.raptorresource.org/trempealeau-eagles/. The Mississippi Flyway and Castle Rock eyrie cams are both back online. Watch for falcons at Castle Rock – and

Read more Decorah Eagles, Decorah North Eagles, Fort St. Vrain Eagles, News, Trempealeau Eagles
« Older Entries