This is wonderful news!! Keeping my fingers crossed that things work out for them this year!!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Good morning, everyone! Dad has taken a turn incubating the egg, and Mom is back on the nest now.

Here's a link to today's posts on the Maine Window-on-Wildlife forum, where there's a lot more details and some s'caps - http://www.window-on-wildlife.com/index ... 5#msg36035

It's so wonderful to see an egg here - and I must admit I'm going to be holding my breath a little for the next week or so, hoping that they do get into a good nesting rhythm as it has been a while for them.


9:37 pm
Dad just arrived on the side of the nest. It's possible that the juvie who visited the nest a couple of days ago is still around, so I'm glad that he's staying close.

Mom's up for a stretch - she does look a little stiff - and I know I would be if I'd spent the night in a swaying tree sitting on a big lump of egg!

Hmm - she's leaning down - I wonder if she's inviting him to mate. He's moved over beside her - but then jumped off to the front perch branch. And now it looks as if she may have food, and he may be standing guard while she eats.

9:40 am
And he's off.

This is the best news for this nest and all who follow here. Maybe egg 2 in another day or so.

10:29 am
Dad lands on the side of the nest.
Mom is getting up.
Both standing side by side.



10:30 am
I was distracted for a moment, but it looks as if Dad is moving in to incubate while Mom keeps watch to make sure he does it right.

10:32 am
Mom away to the left.
Dad looks after her as if to say "wait a minute...."
Now he's nestling in, brood patch down, tail end up.

12:25pm

Both on nest.


Dad starts doing some stick arranging while Mom supervises. Egg getting a sunbath.

Dad moves to the front branch and flies off

BET - are you recording?

There was a major fight on the nest around 2:35 pm eastern. I think both adults and an intruder, but I'm not sure. Everyone had white heads, but I'm not sure how many of them I saw as they were all moving so fast. And the cam was also freezing for me, which didn't help. As far as I could tell, the action was on top of the nest, so there's a chance the egg survived.

I'm thinking this is Dad on the nest - he just got up, but I can't tell if he's rolling an egg. Hope so. I'm also hoping the second adult shows up - it looked like a very fierce battle.

No Judy, I wasn't home and didn't leave the recorder on Maine. Had it running on Decorah. So I missed the action. From what I just read I missed a confrontation at Norfolk also.

Oh well Life happens and we have a major storm moving in this afternoon and there were things I needed to get done - eagles or not.

6:15pm

Male flew in and is perched on Y branch.

At about 5:00 pm eastern time, the adult on the nest (who had been up and calling on and off for 10-15 minutes) flew off. An adult arrived a couple of minutes later, stood on the back of the nest for a minute or so, then settled in.

I think this was a switch from Dad to Mom - though I'm not positive. I haven't noticed Mom(?) roll the egg since she took over, but I may have missed it (and they don't need to do that more than every few hours).

6:09 pm
An adult - hopefully Dad - just arrived on the Y branch at the back of the nest. Mom is looking his way and doesn't seem concerned, so I'm guessing it is Dad.

And I'm hoping this doesn't mean that the intruder is back in the area.

Added -
Thanks, BET! Figured I'd check. Now that I'm pretty sure I'm seeing both adults - and they seem to still have something to incubate - I'm beginning to relax, just a little.