UPDATE: Mother Eagle is now nomming her fish, and as she stood up to eat I got a good screenshot of the eggs:
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Over at EagleCam, the female has laid egg number two! (Thanks to reader TrineBM for alerting me.) The poor girl looks exhausted, and dad seems to have brought her a postpartum fish. You can see what looks like one on the left side of the nest, but she’s too worn out to nom it!
The website will undoubtedly post a video of this event, and I’ll put it up when it appears.
This pair has, I believe, laid three eggs each of the last two years, and fledged all six chicks successfully.
Apparently it took her quite a lot longer to lay this one. Or that was at least my impression from following the comments in the moderated discussion. The female really does look exhausted. The male was there while the egg was laid, but flew off right after.
Amazing experience to see an eagleegg being laid.
“But, honey, you love fish!”
“Uggh. I can’t even look at it.”
“You need to keep your strength up.”
“This is all your fault. Don’t you have something to do?”
I was lucky to see a couple of Bald Eagles on a nest here in Calgary a couple of years back. At first I thought it was an Osprey nest (very common here) but closer inspection revealed a lot of duck parts (wings etc.) near the base of the tree. Very cool stuff…
I wouldn’t want their college bills!
Eagles have beaks. Duck have bills.
She looks pooped!
She’s eating the fish! Very delicately, I might add.
The eggs look especially big. How long are they? Compared to a “large egg”, say, how large are they?
Eric, they’re a bit smaller than a regular baseball (hardball) and roughly the size of a tennis ball. You can see those direct comparisons at this site.
That is terrific! There are apparently eagles (Golden I think) that nest at a nearby dam here in Denver and I hope to get some pictures this year! This inspired me to make sure I get out there even if from afar. I caught a great picture of a Cooper’s Hawk earlier this fall but not nesting- just hunting!
One of the coolest bird experiences I’ve had in Colorado was seeing bunches of bald eagles hunting for fish in Pueblo Reservoir. A friend and I had a 2-person ocean-going kayak that we’d strap to the top of his Volkswagen bug, and one day we brought some lunch and a few beers to Pueblo. We got into the water and started exploring the nooks and crannies of the place. They just loved hanging out on the dead (submerged) trees there. It was really wild silently paddling between the gray trees with the eagles staring down at us not more than 20-30 feet away. Apparently this weekend was “Eagle Day 2011” in Pueblo.
You get the same thing here (Washington state) along the Skagit river. Eagles in every tree, for miles.
I had no idea that Pueblo had anything that interesting going on!