Subject: [Tweeters] Bald Eagle Chicks
Date: Mar 3 16:41:51 2010
From: Martin Muller - martinmuller at msn.com


Dea,

Those would be extremely early Bald Eagle chicks for our area.
Back in the days when Bald Eagles were a novelty in Seattle (late-80s through the 90s), I kept copious notes on numerous nests and incubation would not start until early-March, in our urban eagles. Hatching about 5 weeks later and fledging around early-July (10 - 12 weeks after hatching).

Having said that, it does happen sometimes that one pair of a species is early one year (we've seen this with one pair of (banded = positively identified) peregrines one year being five or more weeks earlier than everybody else, and then back to a more "normal" schedule the year after that).

During my eagle observations I have seen both adult eagles work on "weaving" sticks into their nest. It appeared that the female was usually the one who made the final decision on which stick was placed where. The male would arrive with a stick and place it with great attention to detail, only to have the female displace him and do it all over again. Especially since you did not see the birds arrive with prey (or sticks), and you mention you were not using a scope, might you have seen nest building activity, rather than feeding? What you describe could be either feeding or the aforementioned nest building. Do you have access to a scope? That should allow you to observe closely enough to determine which one is the (larger) female. I usually found that the female's bill was much heavier and allowed "easy" identification, even if the two birds were not sitting side-by-side.

I guess I would suggest some more observations to see if indeed food is being brought to the nest at this time. It would be one for the record books for this area (assuming you're in the Seattle area).

Martin Muller, Seattle, WA
martinmuller at msn.com