The Gloucester Bald Eagle (#13-0238) at the Wildlife Center of Virginia seems to be recovering well. Its prognosis is good and hopefully we'll see it released back into the wild soon.
The Wildlife Center of Virginia also had a recent Bald Eagle release. They announced on 4/23 that they would be releasing Bald Eagle #13-0174 on 4/25 at the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This is the Bald Eagle from the Eastern Shore that survived lead poisoning and was found with four dead Bald Eagles. I was in Las Vegas, so I couldn't attend the release or shoot video of the release. Darn it! This article says that five Bald Eagles died in this incident and announces a $5000 reward for information about these poisonings.
Here's a neat little video. A guy saw a Bald Eagle feeding on a carcass, so he hid his Gopro Hero2 camera near it and left for an hour. This is the video that he got.
Yesterday was a sad day at the White Rock nest. A four year old Bald Eagle came into the nest and ate one of the eggs. We are in the hatch window for the first egg laid and it looked like the chick was pretty well formed. One of the adults arrived at the nest before the other egg could be damaged. I think. There was a little bit of hopping around by the juvenile when the resident came into the nest. But I don't think the other egg was damaged. The White Rock eagles haven't been the most attentive parents so far. I wonder if they are inexperienced parents. Maybe they will spend more time guarding their nest and eggs now... This is probably how they learn. I'm hoping that the other egg wasn't damaged and the chick will hatch soon. In any case, one chick is easier to take care of -- and this is especially true if these are inexperienced parents. Here's a link to the video posted by Hancock Wildlife. But don't watch this if you are sensitive. The resident did eat what was left. I've heard it explained that once the egg stops being "off-spring," for whatever reason, that it then becomes "food." When the eggs in the Norfolk nest were broken back in 2008, Mom Norfolk ate them. It gave her the calcium that she needed to make new eggs. At the time, they were more "egg" than "chick" so it was easier for us to understand. But the same principle applies here... Here are some stills if you don't want to watch the video:
The four year old in the nest:
Here you can see that the adult has come into the nest and is on top of the intruder. The feet in the nest are the intruder's, and hopefully not on the egg. The white is the resident's tail. They both fell out of the nest, toward the camera.
And this is the adult back in the nest, surveying the damage:
I think we are going to see more and more intruders such as this juvenile. The available land has a maximum capacity for a territorial species. I think most of the prime real estate is now taken. There are a lot of juveniles that are out exploring (and causing trouble) and there are also a lot of floater adults (adults that don't have nests). When these Bald Eagles come across an unguarded nest, they see food, not off-spring.
