Posted on 04/05/2025 11:10:16 AM PDT by NEMDF
We have watched the baby eagles at the Decorah (Iowa) North nest site for the past several years. This year, both eggs at Decorah North failed. One died during hatch; the other never cracked the egg.
The site there directs to another one, in Colorado, at Fort St. Vrain. There are 2 cameras, and the eagles pair have been watching over 4 eggs, 2 of which hatched in the past day or so. It is fun to watch the parents keep up on feeding, and the eaglets are cute as can be.
https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/xcel-energy-cams/
My wife took up eagle cam watching a few years ago.
When she told me I did a little research to confirm what I suspected to be the case.
I warned her that statics show only 60% of eaglets survive and she should be prepared for when they don’t.
Also, something I wasn’t even prepared for was eagles are indiscriminate with what they kill and bring to the nest....domestic animals are not off the menu and I’ll leave it at that.
I do have a question for you though......we notice when fish are brought to the nest they are always headless.....you have any idea why that is?
I’ve been watching the one at Big Bear Valley in California; unfortunately, they lost one of their 3 hatchlings in a big storm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE
I haven’t noticed about fish being headless; I think they had whole fish at the Decorah North nest in the past. Maybe the father eats the head when he brings it for the rest of the family? I don’t know. Good question.
Cool.
I have a hawk family nearby. Not sure what exactly. Not redtail but smaller. Momma just grabbed something out of the yard and flew off. Sparrow hawk maybe?
Good question.
I have seen osprey grab trout out of a river and they adjust their ‘cargo’ as to be ergonomical. They will fly with the fish head-first to reduce drag.
Cooper’s Hawk would be my guess. They liked to nab feeder birds.
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