Emoyeni is brooding. We just have a little while left before darkness sets in!

a big hunk of meat must have been brought into the nest. Emoyeni is chowing down on it! None for the baby this time!

Emoyeni watches as two little black birds land near the nest.

This was posted Saturday morning, June 4, on Facebook...

Black Eagle Project Roodekrans

The second egg hatched today, thank goodness one egg hatched otherwise we would have had egg on our faces. Excuse the pun! Yip you can break open that bottle of wine! Prey was bought to the nest around 11 and the young chick has had its first feed. Well done eMoyeni you have done it again.
Yesterday at 10:24am

Now I'm really confused. Beans video showed one chicklet, so are they saying that is the only chicklet in the nest so far, or did the other suddenly hatch and there are 2? Sounds like there is still only one in the nest, but how in the world do they know it came from the second egg? Are they numbered?

I'm happy with only one chicklet. If there's only one then we don't have to worry about Cainism and watching the older chicklet doing the younger one in.

It would be sort of nice if the chicks came color-coded, wouldn't it, nightowl!

I'm guessing they think it's from the second egg because the eggs were laid April 17 and April 21 (and no, I don't know how they know that), and June 4 would be day 48 for the first egg and day 44 for the second. According to their website, the eggs usually hatch in 44-45 days, which would make June 4 the normal hatch time for #2, and 3-4 days later than usual for #1. I would expect the adults would begin incubating full-time immediately after the first egg was laid, because that would give the first chick a significant size advantage - which is important if the chicks hatch with a deeply rooted instinct to destroy all other chicks. If the chicks were the same size, it's more likely that both would be seriously injured, which wouldn't help the species survive.

I haven't actually done the research to know if that's the case - but it does make sense, and seems to fit with the statistics from previous years.

And I'm also quite happy at the thought that there will probably only be one chick again this year.

Thanks Judy!

So basically, they're going on the dates the eggs were laid to determine which egg hatched. That makes sense now. Is it safe to assume the first egg most likely is not viable? I've never applauded the failure of an egg, but in the case of the Black Eagle, I am!

ETA...

Yes, color coding would be a nice touch!

MONDAY, JUNE 6, 2011

I can't get the cam to work this morning. It plays for 7-9 seconds before the ad comes on, then it's frozen.

Jean, if you have time to be here, maybe you'll have better luck...I've tried 3 times...and I think I'm out of patience for it today. By the time I have a chance to try later, it'll be dark there.