The Decorah Eagles have produced three eggs this Spring. The Decorah Eagle Cam located at the nest site of an American Bald Eagle pair high in a Cottonwood tree in Decorah, Iowa is the most-watched live stream ever with over 250 million views.
The hatch watch for the first egg began Sunday, March 25. Once the hatchling pips (makes a hole in the shell and begins to rotate), the full hatch can 24-48 hours.
Caution: Watching the Decorah Eagle Cam is highly addictive. The problem is so pervasive that the condition now has its own special terminology:
Eagleholics - (Eagle-holics) people that are avidly watching them daily.
E-ddicts – those who watch eaglets and stay in pajamas all day
Fortunately, there's treatment available for the condition:
Eagleholics Anonymous – 12 step recovery program for eagle addiction.
Credit goes to The Raptor Resource Project for the hard work that created these magical windows into the lives of this American Bald Eagle pair and over 40 additional nests and nest sites that they manage.
Thank you, RRP, for inviting all of us to connect with these magnificent raptors.
Update 1 - We have pip! Official announcement here. At 12:27 PM CDT. When a hatchling pips, that's when it has created the first small hole and begins to rotate and enlarge the hole until it's fully hatched. This can last for 24-48 hours.
Update 2 - We have hatch! The first Eaglet hatchling has been officially confirmed as of Tuesday, March 27 at 1:16 PM CDT. Check at about 1:47 into this video.
Live USTREAM audio/video below the Great Orange Eagle Poop Art.
The pair of Eagles at the Decorah, Iowa nest site have produced 11 successful fledglings since 2008 including three in 2011. In their 2011 banding report (pdf), the Decorah site activities are outlined:
This year [2011], we worked with Ustream and Xcel Energy to provide the Decorah eagles site. It surpassed every expectation we had for it: as of this writing, over 210 million people from 184 countries have watched the Decorah eagles build a nest, lay eggs, struggle with bad weather and other animals, and care for their young, who grew from downy babies to juvenile predators on the wing. We captured some interesting footage at the nest this year, including egg laying and hatching, young feeding and exploring the nest, a near mishap with one of the babies, and first flight. It was an incredible year. One of the cams took 'damage' from the young eagles shooting poop. When we replaced the cam in early October, we took care to put it higher - hopefully, out of poop range!
The eagle laid her first egg on February 23. The first eaglet hatched on April 2nd.
This describes some of the events that turned me into a full-fledged [heh] Eagleholic with brief episodes of Eaglemania. We set up an old laptop permanently connected to the Decorah Eagle Cam for the duration.
The 2012 Egg Laying Record:
First egg arrived Feb 17th at 7:47 PM CST. Video here.
Second egg arrived Feb 20th at 9:06 PM CST. Video here.
Third egg arrived Feb 24th at 8:05 PM CST. Video here.
Live Video streaming by Ustream
The Raptor Resource Project Blog provides a wealth of information about the Decorah Eagle nest site, other major sites that RRP manages, and much, much more.
You can follow the Raptor Resource Project on Facebook.
In September of 2011 a female juvenile Bald Eagle was "dining" on a roadkilled racoon and was struck by a car. The driver didn't stop, but others stopped and kept the bird out of danger while they called for help. Fortunately, the rescuers were aware of the Raptor Resource Project and contacted their president, Bob Anderson, who immediately responded at the scene and, with the others' help, he was able to capture the injured Eagle and transported her to his home where he placed her in a dark and quite room which allowed her to be calmed somewhat. Her initial exam indicated that one foot was injured, but she had vomited the roadkill she had eaten which meant that she might have internal injuries. The next day, an excellent raptor rehab facility was contacted and they agreed to help. Dozens of concerned citizens and volunteers generously donated funds for the poor injured youngster. The rehab center is Saving Our Avian Resources (SOAR) located in Dedham, in Western Iowa. Their site shows us that there are far more raptors that are injured than most folks realize. The rehab facility takes in many raptors that have been hit by cars or found with gunshot injuries, caught in illegally set traps, harmed by predators and household pets, etc. A significant number are found with symptoms of severe lead poisoning. Others are found dead from eating prey that has been poisoned by humans (rat and mice poison, for example).
The good news for this particular juvenile Eagle rescued near Decorah was that she wasn't severely injured and she healed and recovered fully a month later. So she was released by one of the directors of SOAR near where she was found. A lot of joyful Eagle-lovers attended the release event. A video of her release is here. The injured juvenile was not one of the three from the Decorah brood of 2011 but may have been from the 2010 brood. She may be from a more distant nest, too. She had no identifying bands or markings.
New this year is a migration path map recording the travels of one Eagle equipped with a GPS transmitter in late 2011. The signal is picked up and relayed by a satellite which provides the data needed to plot the bird's locations as she flies throughout her territory.