Tweets, Diann & Kelly,

Sorry for the delay, I'm on Digest mode. Makes it real easy to skip messages
with subject lines indicate something less interesting....

But I did check the Bald eagle nesting message from Diann and response from
Kelly.

Here in Seattle, young pairs typically start incubation (after laying the
first egg) mid-March. As the birds get older and more experienced the date
is moved back to about the first week of March. The earliest date I have is
4-5 March. This can be up to a month earlier than non-urban areas around
here. So early February would be pretty astounding.

Is it true incubation due to a mild winter or are you (Diann) watching a
young pair that's going through pseudo-incubation? Pseudo-incubation is when
the birds go through all the right moves as if there are eggs there
(extremely convincing), yet there are non. Young birds are more likely to do
that then older birds and they can keep that behavior up for up to six
weeks. To determine what's going on you have to to either find a vantage
point to look into the nest (if you are lucky enough and such a vantage
point exists) and see the eggs (rarely possible), or wait till the eggs
hatch and count back 35-40 days to determine the real start of incubation.

For those unfamiliar with how to determine when the eggs hatch when you
can't look into the nest: you just wait for the adults to bring food to the
nest, tear off tiny morsels and present it down into the nest.

So, Diann, looks like you're going to have a long nesting season.....
Please let me/us know when the eggs hatch. My money is on pseudo-incubation.
Is there any way to determine whether one or both birds have been replaced?
Brown markings? Change in individual behavior?

Sincerely,
Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com