News 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 13, 2024: News and NestFlix from Decorah North, Trempealeau, and the Geese!

March 13, 2024: I want to reach in and remove this! Mr. North and DNF are undergoing some body molt right now, and the feathers end up EVERYWHERE!

Happy Hump Day, everyone! Before we get into the NestFlix, a quick calendar round-up: Thanks so much for all you do: for watching, sharing, learning, and especially for caring! Among many other things, we’re busy trying to document nesting peregrine falcons right now, so if you get a band number, give me an email: [email protected] Decorah North Nest March 12, 2024: Days end beauty – https://youtu.be/v80-BsYduuc?si=xLCvtuYk-LI_lKWG. A lovely video with great views of Mr. North, the eggs (2:27), the nest

Coyotes and Coyote Vocalizations: A guest blog by Janet Kessler of Coyote Yipps!

Two coyote siblings hang out together. Photo by Janet Kessler.

Followers were so fascinated by the coyotes singing near the North Nest that I invited Janet Kessler, a coyote expert from San Francisco, to do a guest blog on them. You can learn more about her here and subscribe to her blog, Coyote Yipps, here: https://coyoteyipps.com/. Thanks for taking the time to do this, Janet – I learned a lot! Thank you so much for sharing your live-cam video with me with the amazing coyote howls off-camera in the background!

March 11, 2024: Two Canada Goose eggs in N1!

March 11, 2024: A second egg for the geese!

We have a twist! Two geese – presumably the same pair that HM has been trying to evict! – laid an egg in N1 on Saturday night, followed up by a second late this afternoon. We don’t know whether we’ll get another goose couple in N2B, whether these geese previously nested in N2B, or whether HM will keep paying attention to N1, especially since she is most likely incubating her own eggs at this point. It will take about a

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 24 days!

Development of an avian embryo

As of this writing, there are two eagle eggs at Decorah North. The youngest is just over 22 days old and the oldest is just over 25 days old. We anticipate that the oldest egg will hatch on or around the morning of March 23. . 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

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 8, 2024: News and NestFlix from around our nests!

March 6, 2024: Mr. North appears to be shedding a tear, but it isn't a tear or extra-renal salt removal (which is pretty cool, TBH). It's a remarkably well-placed raindrop!

Congratulations to the Fort St. Vrain Eagles on their third egg! We haven’t passed the solstice yet, but spring has sprung: almost all of the birds we watch are busy laying eggs, tending eggs, protecting territory, courting, and/or copulating right now! We’ve been working hard and hope to have a few cool surprises for everyone in the weeks to come, but in the meantime, kick up your feet, grab a beverage, and soar into the weekend with our NestFlix raptor

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,

« Older Entries