May 5, 2009 06:46 PM
By Leasa Conze

She's a supermom, defying the odds.

Bald eagles typically raise their young together, with parents taking turns foraging for food and protecting the next.

But, this female is raising her offspring all on her own.

The male disappeared a few days after the nestling hatched.

Volunteers watching over the nest saw what was happening.

Arizona Game and Fish put out extra food but she hardly touched it,  instead relying more on the trout stocked in the Salt River over the winter.

"We've been keeping a close eye on this nest and we're excited that all of our management efforts are paying off," says Kenneth Jacobson, bald eagle management coordinator for Game and Fish.

"We have never documented a single adult bald eagle successfully raise their young from such an early age. This female is deserving of the title "Supermom."

Read the rest of the story here:
 

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=10309845&nav=14RT

David Hancock has added yet another piece to the growing biology reference section of our main site.

This new piece, Sibling Rivalry - the Great Survivial Technique, goes into what happens when there are multiple eggs, and eventually eaglets, in the nest and food is scarce.

Check it and the rest of the biology reference section out.

Just about the same time as the tragic failure of the Delta O.W.L. nest eagles' eggs to hatch this year, we discovered that the Delta-1 nest which was badly damaged in the Winter storms this year has eggs in it!

We've moved our streams to this nest as of today (they're still showing as Delta-OWL - but it is really Delta-1) and Ken reports he's seen 2 eggs.

We know that one egg rolled out of the nest last week - so this nest also started with 3 eggs it seems. Triplets are looking like they're becoming the norm in our urban eagle nests. We know of another nest (downtown Vancouver on the waterfront) that has 3 eggs in it this year too - and we may have a camera there next year (you heard it here first).

So... welcome back to Delta-1 - the smallest and closest to the ground we've seen a nest. We'll all watch anxiously to make sure nobody else falls out (O.W.L. is aware and ready to take on the challenge if they do, even before hatching - they're just around the corner)

The two cameras consist of a fixed-focus - Close-up and a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) that we'll keep in fairly close for now but will use to watch around the tree as the kids hatch and thrive.

If you recall last year, this is the famous "Teddy-bear" nest. The adults brought a teddy bear into the nest thinking it was something good for the eaglets. Who knows what they'll bring in this year. Join us and watch.

NATURE: The London area has become a "hot spot" for endangered bald eagles
This is where eagles dare

With a couple of nests within London city limits and others on the outskirts, this area has become "a hot spot" for bald eagles, a conservationist says.

That's good news considering the bald eagle is still on the endangered species list in southern Ontario.

London also is home to about four osprey nests.

"We're probably the Ontario capital (of the two species)," said Peter Read of the McIlwraith Field Naturalists.

"I think it's pretty unique for Ontario, that's for sure."

He is cautious about disclosing the location of the eagle nests because of their endangered designation. One is in the north end of the city and the other is in the northwest.

"The Ministry of Natural Resources is protecting the nests, of course. That's why they don't want it well-known where it is."

Read said people started noticing the activity of eagles in the northwest area within the past year.

Read the rest of the story here:   http://www.lfpress.ca/perl-bin/publish.cgi?x=articles&p=258480&s=pets_nature