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Decorah North Eagles and Blogs

Bald eagle tongues and beaks!

April 11, 2023 RaptorResource

We know that bird beaks are specialized for feeding and daily tasks. Birds of prey have strong, curved beaks with sharp edges to help them tear meat. Falcons specialize even further, adding a tomial tooth to help them kill prey. Dabbling ducks have tiny, comb-like structures on their beaks to strain small animals, insects, and plants from water and mud, while piscivorous ducks have saw-like structures to help them hold on to struggling fish. But what about bird tongues or,

March 28, 2023: What are we looking forward to this week?

March 28, 2023 RaptorResource

What are we looking forward to this week? Eggs, eggs, eggs! We have four eggs at Dairyland Power’s Alma plant, at least one egg at Great River Energy’s Elk River campus, and eggy falcons at Minnesota Power’s Hibbard plant and three other sites that aren’t online. We don’t know how many eggs Mother Goose will lay, but she’s laid four so far and should be going into full incubation soon. We’re also looking forward to hatch in Decorah (our estimate

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 24 days!

March 24, 2023 RaptorResource

There are two eagle eggs in Decorah trout hatchery nest N1. DH1 is about 27 days old and DH2 is about 25 days old. What do they look like? Let’s take a peek! What do embyronic 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 this animation uses a chicken

The Norths’ egg has broken

March 24, 2023 RaptorResource

The Norths’ lone egg broke on March 21 at about 3:00 PM. We posted about the lone egg and intraspecific intruders at the North nest on March 16: https://www.raptorresource.org/2023/03/16/nest-guarding-and-intraspecific-intrusions/. Given that the egg wasn’t viable, this is good news. It is early enough that the North’s might be able to reclutch/recycle. The two have been nestorating and copulating, and Mr. North has been bringing food gifts. We’ll see what happens!

March 20, 2023: What are we looking forward to this week?

March 20, 2023 RaptorResource

What are we looking forward to this week? On Friday, we’ll be hosting a movie night at Convergence Ciderworks in Decorah! Come watch EaglePower with John, Dave, and Amy, meet Dave’s Red-tailed Hawk Jewel, learn more about our programs, and drink delicious cider. Doors open at 5:30 and the program starts at 6pm. More here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1404200043743501. We’re in what Bob used to call the incubation doldrums at our Decorah Hatchery and Xcel Energy Fort St. Vrain eagle nests. But we’re

Nest-guarding and intraspecific intrusions

March 16, 2023 RaptorResource

The Decorah North Eagles have been dealing with a lot of intraspecific intrusions this year. Intrusions happen when members of other species encroach on or enter a nest in search of food, nesting materials, or a nest: think squirrels, mice, raccoons, chickadees, woodpeckers, red-tailed hawks, house sparrows, and other animals we’ve seen in and around our nests. Intraspecific intrusions happen when other eagles intrude on daily nest activities in search of food, new mates, or breeding territories. They can lead

Monday. March 13: NestFlix and News

March 13, 2023 RaptorResource

Ma FSV laid her third egg at Xcel Energy’s Fort St. Vrain nest on Thursday, March 8, which brings the total number of eggs in our nests to six: three at FSV, two in Decorah, and one at Decorah North. DNF and Mr. North’s lone egg is 21 days old, HM and HD’s two eggs are 16 and 13 days old, and Ma and Pa Jrs eggs are eleven, eight, and four days old! Here’s a peek at what’s going

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 11 days!

March 6, 2023 RaptorResource

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

March 6, 2023: What are we looking forward to this week?

March 6, 2023 RaptorResource

Another Egg for Ma FSV? As of this post, we have one egg at Decorah North (hatch estimated on or around March 28), two eggs in Decorah (hatch estimated on or around April 4), and two eggs at Fort St. Vrain (hatch estimated on or around April 10). Ma usually lays three eggs, so it’s possible she could lay again on March 9th. Are the geese going to lay eggs again? We’ve seen them checking out N2B, but HD doesn’t

What Makes Bald Eagles Incubate?

March 2, 2023 RaptorResource

We wrote this blog a year ago. I wanted to revisit it given the events at the North nest this year. Mr. North and DNF have been dealing with intruders for a couple of weeks. Instead of perching near the nest, packing in food, and developing the reserves she needs to lay eggs, DNF is guarding her nest, egg, and mate from potential rivals. After egg number one, her testosterone and progesterone should rapidly decrease, while prolactin, a hormone that