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Tag Archives: Eggs

When will the eagles start laying eggs?

January 21, 2020 RaptorResource

Tik-tok egg clock! When can we expect our eagles to begin laying eggs? If they follow their usual schedules: The Xcel Fort St. Vrain eagles should begin laying eggs in mid-February. Look for laying to start between February 12 and February 21. The Decorah eagles should begin laying eggs in mid-to-late February. Look for laying to start between February 17 and February 23. The Decorah North eagles should begin laying eggs in mid-to-late February. We only have one year of

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 17 days!

March 20, 2019 RaptorResource

This blog was first published on March 23, 2017. We reposted it to give everyone a peek inside the eggs. As of this writing, there are two eagle eggs in Decorah. We’re not sure whether the oldest or second oldest egg cracked, but we do know that the youngest is about 17.5 days old. 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

Can mice destroy bald eagle eggs?

March 14, 2019 RaptorResource

Eeeek – mice! We’re getting asked whether mice could or did destroy eggs in our eagle nests. Our answer? A guarded “No”. In North America, researchers have found limited predation by mice in the nests of smaller birds, and none in the nests of birds of prey or larger birds. Researchers have been looking at nest predation for a long time. How do nest location, weather, landscape, habitat fragmentation, and predator-prey/predator-predator relationships impact predation rates? Can nest predation be reduced?

Eggs and cold weather

February 20, 2019 RaptorResource

This blog was first published on Wednesday, February 26, 2014. It has been updated to reflect Mom’s new mate and includes some information about the Fort St. Vrain eagles as well. Everyone was worried about the eggs in Decorah back in 2014. Iowa was facing a polar vortex while Mom was laying and incubating eggs. While there have been other cold years, 2014 was one for the record books, with windchills of -50F when Mom laid egg #2. Given that 2019

Do bald eagles delay incubation?

February 15, 2019 RaptorResource

This blog was first published on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. It has been updated to reflect new knowledge and events. Do bald eagles delay incubation? It wasn’t an a question we’ve thought about much, since bald eagles in Iowa usually lay eggs in temperatures under – sometimes well under – freezing! However, 2016 was quite a bit warmer, and the eagles in Decorah and Fort St. Vrain seemed to spend more time off the first two eggs than we are used

Nest chronology: Egg timing!

January 25, 2019 RaptorResource

This blog discusses the correlation between new mates, temperature, humidity, and egg-timing. We’ve been getting questions about egg timing. Why did Mom and Dad lay eggs later in 2018? Overall, avian egg-timing in the temperate zone is heavily regulated by the light cycle. As the days begin to lengthen, birds’ gonads swell and produce sex hormones. Around the end of January, our bald eagle pairs switch from infrequent copulation to frequent, highly enthusiastic copulation, putting us on notice for egg

When will our eagles lay eggs? Bald eagle breeding in Iowa and Florida

January 22, 2019 RaptorResource

When will the Decorah and Decorah North eagles begin laying eggs? While nest timing can very from region to region (Florida, for example, is quite different from Iowa), mark your calendars as follows! In the nests we watch in Iowa and Colorado, bonding and copulating behaviors become more pronounced and frequent after the winter solstice. Female eagles begin laying eggs 5-10 days after productive copulation begins. This usually happens in mid-February at the Decorah and Fort St. Vrain nests. In

Will Mom Lay Eggs? When Will Mom Lay Eggs? Your Questions, Answered!

December 12, 2018 RaptorResource

We’re getting a lot of questions about Mom Decorah and eggs. When will she lay eggs? Will she lay three eggs again? We don’t want to count Mom’s eggs before she lays them, but we have some answers (and some speculation) to your questions! Will a new mate equal later eggs? Let’s start by taking a look at Mom’s egg laying history… As the table above shows, Mom’s first egg (that we have a date for, since she laid eggs