Eagle-cam now triple the fun

Raptor Resource Project works for the preservation of falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks and owls by maintaining nest sites and doing training and education. Check its website at www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/index.html.

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

  It’s been almost a week since the first blessed event and Mom is still waiting for the third of her triplets to be born.

The second child made its entrance two days after the first, but, as of this writing, No. 3 is still holding back. That’s the way it goes in the bird world.

I’m talking about the eagle births in Decorah, Iowa, that have caused an international sensation. More than 150,000 people at a time have been watching a live web cam feed of a pair of eagles sitting on a nest 80 feet up in a cottonwood tree at a fish hatchery since the first eaglet hatched – no foolin’ – April 1.

No. 2 hatched on April 3, but we keep watching and waiting for the third egg to crack.

No. 1 and No. 2 have been living under their parents’ feathers, insulated from a persistent wind in the treetops. The older chick is highly aggressive, taking all of the bits of rabbit mother eagle is offering and knocking down the younger sibling, who is still having trouble balancing its oversized head. 


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At one point, little aggressor latches onto the facial feathers of the parent (you can’t really tell male from female unless they’re in the frame together and then you know the larger one is the female). He (or she) flings junior to the edge of the nest and gives it a good, long timeout, not allowing it back into the warmth underneath.

There are 100,000 viewers holding their breath in fear that the chick is going to tumble off the edge of the nest. In time, it is forgiven and allowed to crawl back in.

But still we wait.

Until now. So help me, as I’m writing this at 6:48 p.m. April 6, the eagle on duty stirs, stands up and reveals two halves of an egg with a fuzzy, little pink blob wiggling around between them.

The eaglet has landed.

The much more aggressive one falls over onto the new chick. Typical.

The mate reappears almost immediately to check on the family’s latest addition.

Facebook explodes.

Classrooms, office computers and bleary-eyed night owls are all glued to this common miracle of nature.

I have to cop to creating a major distraction by introducing it at my own office. If I hear a squeal coming from two rooms down, I know there’s been an eaglet sighting.

Facebook, YouTube and nature blogs are teaming with live play-by-play. The Facebook entries are laced with stories of people losing sleep, missing their favorite shows and getting wa-a-a-a-y too emotionally invested in the happenings inside this 6-foot-wide, 1.5-ton nest in Iowa.

The quality of the eagles’ parenting skills is a big topic. They do swap places regularly – one leaving to hunt and the other carefully settling in to cover their offspring. They’ve built up quite a food larder – first a rabbit, then a muskrat and now a fish perched on the outer rim of the nest.

According to the Raptor Resource Project, the nonprofit operating the camera, this eagle couple successfully fledged two eaglets in 2008, three in 2009 and three again last year. Mama laid the three eggs between Feb. 23 and March 3.

You’ve got to believe RRP is bringing in a fair amount of donations from the entranced masses glued to their website, as well as the advertising scrolling under and interrupting the feed now and again. (BP is a leading advertiser as it tries to win back any shred of environmental credibility.)

All of this attention – it could have been us.

About five years ago, a group set up a remote web cam to capture a live feed of a pair of eagles that had nested for three consecutive years in Appleton’s Telulah Park. For whatever reason, the eagles didn’t return for a fourth year. Telulah’s loss was Decorah’s gain.

Enjoy the nest cam, but remember to get outside, wander along the Fox River and look at some of the many eagles that bless us here in the Fox Cities.