Eagle Parents Repair Nest Just in Time

By Robert Boswell and Rebecca Carro

Just imagine what a shock it would be to be preparing your home for the arrival of new babies, then have your house hit by a big wind storm, causing it to sink a few feet.

That’s what happened to the two bald eagles that became stars, seen by thousands, on the eagle cam at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge last summer. The Refuge includes more than 14,000 acres of beach, dunes, marsh and maritime forest located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Barry Brookshire holds a section of a limb from a Loblolly pine that was damaged in tropical storm Ernesto
After returning to their nest, high in the Loblolly pines on the Wildlife Loop, in early December, the pair began touching up the nest in time for new eggs to be laid in late January. But soon the nest needed more than a touchup.

The high winds that blew so hard across the Eastern Shore on December 31 knocked the nest off its supporting branches, causing it to drop several feet. Barry Brookshire, a roving park ranger, said he went to check on the nest by looking at it on the TV screen in the refuge information center and noticed it didn’t look right. “I said, Ho, what happened here?”

Checking with another staff member, he learned the nest had indeed been damaged. “Some staff members were afraid we would lose the whole nest,” said Michael Dixon, refuge visitor services manager. “We were happy the camera was still in focus. We could not have sent a tree climber back up because it would have disturbed the eagles.”

But if the eagles were surprised or upset, they didn’t show it. They went right back to work. By Monday, four days after the wind damage, you could see where the eagles had brought in two large foundation sticks, and then placed additional foundation on the existing nest, said Mr. Dixon. “It was rebuilt within a week, faster than we expected,” he said. But the work continues.

On Saturday, December 10, the eagles were still adding sticks, twigs and pine needles to their nest. The eagles took their time, but worked steadily, carefully placing each piece of material. It was all being done in clear sight of visitors to the information center, thanks to the technology of the camera, powered by a solar panel. Mr. Dixon said he hopes people will come to see this reconstruction going on this week and become interested enough to follow along as the eggs are laid, sat on and then hatched. The Refuge itself is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the visitor center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The eagles last year laid three eggs, the first on January 25, followed by a second two days later and the third January 31. The parents took turns sitting on the nest and then on March 2, the first eaglet used his “egg tooth,” a point at the top, to break through the shell. The eggs hatched in the same order they were laid, the third by March 11. As each event occurred, word would spread around the Michael Dickson information center and staff members and visitors would gather to watch.
The third eaglet to hatch was quite weak and only lived a couple of days. Of the other two, the first born was much stronger. A bad storm most likely got the second one. Because parents tend to eat their dead young ones, the camera was turned off for a few days. The surviving eaglet left in early summer. The adults leave soon after until they return for the next mating season.

The nest when rebuilt could be as large as 6 to 8 feet across, 12 feet deep and weigh over 1,000 pounds. The eggs appear to be laid on top, but are actually in a small cavity.

“With the camera on the nest, the public can witness the drama that occurs,” said Mr. Dixon. Visitors can see the struggle for life, one larger, one smaller both trying to get fed. You can clearly see that.”

The TV screen is located right next to a replica of a massive eagle’s nest which is part of an entire exhibit dedicated to the bald eagle, the national symbol. This is one of only two or three eagle nests on the Chincoteague refuge. There have been eagles seen flying in and out of the pines on Woodland Trail. A study in 2001 found 20 active nests on the Eastern ShoreVisitors who travel the Wildlife Loop, which opens to vehicles daily at 3 p.m., can possibly see the eagles, from a distance, flying in and out of the nest area. “Eagles are territorial,” explained Mr. Brookshire. “They will drive away other eagles and I saw one chasing an osprey.” The loop is open to hikers and bike riders during all the hours the Refuge is open.

There isn’t much about the eagles that Mr. Brookshire doesn’t know. A native of Texas, he came to Assateague 18 months ago after teaching world geography and earth science at the Navaho Indian Reservation in northern Arizona. “I was tired of teaching and I saw an ad for a park ranger at the Chincoteague Refuge. It was something I always wanted to do and I remembered Chincoteague from reading ‘Misty’ to my daughter years ago.”

But Mr. Brookshire has not escaped teaching all together. He just has a large, outdoor classroom now. As a roving ranger he gets to answer questions, spending most of his time on the Wildlife Loop and the Woodland Trail. “In September,” he said, “I saw two eagles eating an egret.” As people stopped to look, he was also able to show them a Peregrine falcon nearby, then a Caspian tern and a variety of other birds, all in one little area.”

Mr. Dixon has his own font of knowledge about eagles and, it seems, everything else on the Refuge. Originally from Louisiana, he came here from the Eastern Massachusetts National Wildlife Refuge Complex where he was also visitor services manager.

Mr. Brookshire said 30 percent of all the eagles in North American live in Alaska. Mr. Dixon said, “I have seen 300 eagles at a time, but only when they are feeding,” he said. This was in the Midwest, along the Mississippi River.

Mr. Brookshire described the two Assateague TV stars as resident eagles. “They don’t migrate. As long as they have plenty of food, they will stay here.” There is plenty of food on the Refuge. The eagles here mainly eat fish they catch in the marsh behind the beach, near Toms Cove. But they also eat egrets, ducks, rodents and snakes. They will also drive other predators away from a kill and take over that meal.

Mr. Dixon said when the young leave the nest, the parents do also. “They stay in their territory, but abandon the nest until next mating season, when they will start work on the nest again.”

Mr. Brookshire said when they do migrate, they catch a thermal, a vertical wind caused by temperature change, and don’t have to flap their wings much to soar to great distances. He said eagles mate for life but if one dies the one living will find another mate. In the wild an eagle can live for 30 years. They get their white tail feathers in their 4th or 5th year when they mature. Mr. Brookshire said once a pair of eagles moves into a nest they come back year after year. Whether the eaglet survivor from last year will come back is unknown. “It could come back, but some don’t,” said Mr. Brookshire.
Another nest was damaged in 2001 by hurricane Ernesto, also knocking out the camera. That camera is still attached to a section of a branch and kept at the information center.

By 1963 pesticides had taken their toll. A U.S. population of 100,000 had dropped to about 850 eagles. After President John F. Kennedy wrote to the Audubon Society, the eagle was placed on the Endangered Species list in 1978. The Chincoteague Refuge was selected as one of the recovery sites. In 1994 the status was changed from endangered to threatened.

Visitors to the Refuge should report to the Herbert H. Bateman Educational Center for directions on seeing the eagles, both on the live camera and perhaps the eagles flying in and out of the actual nest.
The writers are publishers of www.wildponytales.info, an online magazine covering the wildlife, ponies and people of Chincoteague and Assateague, Virginia.

‘You Could Tell, Love was in the Air’

There was good reason why the pair of eagles on the live camera at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge was working to repair their nest following the December 31 wind storm. It was time to expand their family.

The repairs were made just in time. The first egg appeared in the nest January 18, then another three days later.

Barry Brookshire, a roving ranger for the refuge, said it isn’t hard to tell when mating season arrives. He said he had seen the eagles flying around together. “So you know love is in the air.”

In one of the two, possibly three, nests on the refuge, the eagles hatched three eggs last year but only one survived. This year the eagles had begun work patching up the nest in early December but the heavy wind that blew limbs and trash cans all over the place the last day of December also damaged the live cam nest, causing it to drop about a foot and a half from its perch high in the Loblolly pines just off the Wildlife Loop.

It took patience to get photos of the eggs this past weekend. The female sat on the eggs for a long time, changing her position, once in a while. Suddenly the male flew in and they both sat alongside the eggs long enough for this photo to be taken. Visitors to the center, some who came after reading about the rebuilding eagles in the Chincoteague Beacon and Eastern Shore News, tried to take their own photographs.

Onlookers could tell the latest construction from the green color of pine needles that had just been added. Due to circumstances this nest is fairly small but they can be built 6 to 8 feet across, 12 feet deep and weigh over 1,000 pounds. The eggs appear to be laid on top, but are usually in a small cavity.

After spending some time together the female eagle flew off, no doubt going to get something to eat. The remaining eagle then took over sitting duties.

Brookshire described the two Assateague TV stars as resident eagles. “They don’t migrate. As long as they have plenty of food, they will stay here.” There is plenty of food on the refuge. The eagles here mainly eat fish they get in the marsh behind the beach, near Toms Cove. But they also eat egrets, ducks, rodents, and snakes. They will also drive other predators away from a kill and take over that meal.

Eaglets Break Through Shells for First Feeding

By Leslie Adkins

Early morning visitors to the Bateman Educational Center at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge got to see a rare sight Saturday.

Looking down at the eagle’s nest shown on a live camera mounted high in the tall pines off the Wildlife Loop, they could see a newly hatched eaglets hold up their beaks, as their mom tends to the feeding while waiting for her third egg to hatch tiny eaglet emerge from his shell and soon after take his first meal from the beak of one of his parents. The new eagle’s brother, or perhaps sister, had broken out of his shell just two days earlier and both of them, no longer than the third egg in the nest due to hatch any day now, pointed their beaks upward, competing for a serving of regurgitated fish, or was it duck?

It is unlikely all three eaglets will survive. It is just as unlikely they have made it this far.

The parents returned to the nest in early December to make the usual repairs in time for the latest additions to their family. Building and maintaining a nest, according to the eagle experts at the refuge, is an on-going task for “resident” adults who return to the same nest year after year. But then came the high winds of December 31, that blew everything around on the Eastern Shore. The nest dropped about a foot and a half from its perch in the branches of the Loblolly pine. It did not drop any further, the camera remained in focus, and the first egg was laid January 18.

As this writer was setting up her tripod Saturday, one eagle was sitting on the nest, no eggs or eaglets showing. He sat boldly, warming his young despite the blowing winds, carefully observing its surroundings. He picked at one branch that apparently had gotten in the way, moving it over a little. After a few moments, its mate swooped in to the view of the camera. At this point, the male eagle who had been watching the nest, swooped out of sight, no doubt off on a short hunting trip.
Then, along with visitors who had stopped by, we could see these eagle chicks getting one of their first meals. The female took the meat and ripped it off into small pieces, chewed, then regurgitating, carefully feeding both of its young. Some viewers grew concerned because it seemed only the first hatched was getting fed. This private moment of the eagle’s got murmurs from the watching visitors, everyone appreciating the technology of the live camera that was fed by a cable running a half mile down the pine and across the woodland. The camera gets its power from a solar panel.

While they were being fed, you could see both of the small chicks, both moving, their little heads bobbing, their eyes still closed, as they went beak to beak with their mom.

After their feeding, which lasted for about 10 minutes, the mother sat on the chicks again. She carefully nudged them under her belly to keep them warm, all the while keeping a sharp eye on her surroundings.” There is plenty of food on the refuge. The eagles here mainly eat fish they get in the marsh behind the beach, near Toms Cove. But they also eat egrets, ducks, rodents, and snakes. They will also drive other predators away from a kill and take over that meal, according to ranger Barry Brookshire.
The camera is located in the Bateman Educational Center, just beyond the entrance gate. The viewing area around the camera is filled with eagle information and includes an actual nest about 12 feet across. There is also a notebook filled with some brief eagle facts, and photos. “We want to encourage eagle watchers to peruse the information while observing eagle activity,” said Michael Dixon, visitor services manager. “We’ve even provided a community journal for those who like to blog the old fashioned way. In this journal, visitors may write or draw about their own eagle watching experience; or read about the feelings and expressions of others,” said Dixon
Editor’s note: The second eagle hatchling was found dead in the nest Monday morning. Wildlife officials were doubtful the third egg would hatch.

The camera is located in the Bateman educational center. The refuge itself is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The visitor center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Telephone: 757 336-6122

The writer is co-editor of a website about Chincoteague and Assateague, www.wildponytales.info.