Eagles

It seems only appropriate for our National Bird to take my attention away from watching our National Pastime. It's rare for anything, or anyone for that matter, to distract me from Twins baseball, but the nesting pair of bald eagles in Decorah, IA seem to be succeeding.

I started monitoring them last night while the pair waited for their first egg to hatch. During breaks at work, I'd log on to see what was happening with the pair. Sure sometimes it was like watching paint dry, but then I would catch it at just the right moment when the sitting eagle would get up to rearrange things and the head nerd at the Raptor Resource Project would quickly pan in to the nest to see how the egg was progressing. One time, there was a clear view of a little beak poking through the tiny hole in the egg and I caught myself tearing up a little. Such a girl.

Reading up on the nesting pair, I learned "they have been together since the winter of 2007-2008. Her markings at that time indicated that she was about 4 years old. They successfully hatched and fledged 2 eaglets in 2008, then 3 in 2009, and 3 more in 2010." In further reading on wikipedia (so you know it's true) bald eagles tend to mate for life, but if their mate dies they will find a new one. Also interesting, if a pair has trouble breeding and not producing eggs they will "break up" and find new mates. No word on if there are eagle lawyers and if they split the nest 50/50.

Speaking of nests. Did you know that the Decorah nest is 80 feet up in the air and 5-6 feet across, about the same deep; it weighs about 1½ tons. 1½. Tons. Tons. as in the size of an elephant. "Say What?!", you say. Well look at the picture, I say. Those are grown men in the nest, they get bonus points for the carhartt hats...



Nature cinematographer Neil Rettig (left) of Prairie du Chien, Wis., and Dave Kester of Decorah, Iowa, remove old mounting hardware to make way for a new pan/tilt/zoom video camera at an eagle’s nest about 80 feet up a tree near the Decorah Fish Hatchery on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010, in south of Decorah. Rettig, Kester and Amy Ries, of North Branch, Minn., helped Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, install new equipment near the nest to better capture images of bald eagles in the nest for the popular Decorah Eagle Cam. (Jim Slosiarek/SourceMedia Group News)


Tuning back in, I just witnessed Baby being fed fresh rabbit. It was amazing.  For only being a day old, Baby has a good appetite. I called my dad and we both giddily laughed like nerds at the coolness of what we were witnessing. And by watching the viewer counter rise, I knew we weren't the only nerds doing it. Ahhh, solidarity.

It's amazing how the Internet has brought nature into our homes, and maybe this brush with nature produces more armchair naturalists and excites kids to learn more about environment, nature, science and these magnificent birds. If you are looking for a great learning field trip, head to Wabasha for the National Eagle Center.

Check out the eagles here: Decorah Eagles Live UStream

I'm looking forward to watching this pair raise their young this year, they've been doing well so far. In the past years, they successfully hatched and fledged 2 eaglets in 2008, then 3 in 2009, and 3 more in 2010 according to the RRP. Here's to another 3 in 2011!