Iowa Bald Eagles ready to hatch their eggs. LIVE!

[hpmsrm]

Two Eagles....in the nest.....with eggs just about to hatch.  I believe it is a live video.  I noticed that there are an awful lot of folks watching.  This is in NE Iowa near the town of Decorah.  NE Iowa is pretty much dairy country....hilly and lots of forest and woods with cliffs and rock formations.  Not too far from the Mississippi River.   Have a look while it is is still daylight.

I rushed to get this posted for all our wildlife lovers. Hope I'm correct on my facts.

[skeeterintexas]

THANKS!  I saw the babies until they settled down for the night.

[Uniblurb3]

Nice Phil. I saw the story on the national news tonight of this nest and they showed the live feed. Guess they had 11 million hits before and now that it's national news there's bound to be more. Here's a news story on the nest but it isn't the particular one I saw earlier tonight.

It has to be dark there now and I'm seeing one of the adult eagles sitting there and looks like it's trying to go to sleep. I hope to heck they don't have a spotlight on this nest all night just so people can see them! Believe it would not be natural at all and would disrupt the eagles natural behavior.

[SomeJoe7777]

Infrared camera.  No visible light. 

[Uniblurb3]

Good point and don't know why I didn't think of that.

[hpmsrm]

When I took my first look....both adults were in the nest.  I don't know how one tells which was male and which was female.  I thought one was a little bit larger than the other.

I wonder where #2 is tonight.  Perhaps sitting on a branch keeping an eye out for problems?  You can see the feathers blowing in the breeze.

[Uniblurb3]

Phil, with all eagles, hawks and owls the female is always larger than the male.

This info/FAQ's is under the feed picture:

"Which is the male and which is the female? It is hard to tell the difference unless they are both on the nest. The female is larger than the male. This female has a ridge above her eyes that goes further back than on the male, and her eyes are surrounded by a greyish shadow; the male has a line around his eyes that makes them look “beadier.” Some think that the male’s head is “sleeker” than the female’s."

I think both birds are in the nest and you can see the tail/wing of one on the bottom left. Believe the one facing the camera is the female and I saw her push an egg under the front of her earlier. And just now I saw one of the eaglets pop out from under the front of her and tried take a screen shot.

Bummer, Max file size limit is 333K and screen shot is 357K. Can't really see the chick that well anyhow. Would try to reduce the screen shot size but it looks like it takes the whole feed frame in instead of just a part of the picture. You'll have to give it a try Mr. Edit.

I hope watching this live feed isn't like streaming in a Netflix movie and uses up all my 250Kb allotment per month.  

edit: tried to reduce photo size and really hard to see the light chick at the base of mom under her chest. Also blurry because it was moving.

[spd2demun]

I appreciate the photo, since I missed the event.

[skeeterintexas]

I watched Momma wake up this morning.  The sleepy look in her eyes was one I've had myself a time or two when my "chicks" were babies!

[spd2demun]

Is that mom in the nest now?  AMAZING!!!!

ABC13 just showed the live feed.

[skeeterintexas]

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spd2demun wrote:

Is that mom in the nest now?  AMAZING!!!!

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I'm assuming since she was there all night (not normal for Dad...at least at MY house!).  When she woke up, she moved over to the prey and got a bite to eat but one of the babies was trying to move towards her so she sat on top of them again.

As a mother of two myself, I could hear her now:

"I'm going to get a bite to eat before they wake up.  Oh darn, they're awake.  What?  Get back in that nest....Oh geez, I'm coming...   Where is your father?  I sent him out for breakfast.  He better hurry up.  I'm hungry and I can't leave these two alone."

[skeeterintexas]

Thanks Phil.  I'm officially obsessed with these birds now!

The feathers at the bottom left of the screen is the prey one of them brought back to the nest. 

Dinner's ready!

[hpmsrm]

I presume you all have checked out some of the other video feeds that are listed on this site.  Some are live cams...some are recorded.  Interesting.  One is a camera focused on a bunch of pheasant eggs.  Some have hatched and the babies are moving around.  It's a grade school class project.

I also was wondering how much of this Decorah Eagle feed I can watch without exceeding my allocated 250gb.

The wonders of the Internet!

And to think......as a kid I felt lucky to have a radio to listen to.....and I was enthralled by my crystal set. Now?  Well you get the idea.

[Uniblurb3]

Phil, as soon as you posted this thread I thought back to OUfan's "Bald Eagle Web Cams" thread he started some time ago. Wow, if you click on the link to the Vian, Oklahoma, site in his post you can see 2 large juvenile eagles sitting in the nest. Glad they made it through all the harsh snow/record cold and looks like they are just waiting for their next meal.

[hpmsrm]

I took a look, Uni.  Kind of looks like right now they are huddled together taking a nap.  I don't know what the temperature is down there right now.

I imagine it's pretty chilly up in Decorah, Iowa.  That cold front that moved through has dropped our temperatures here in Missouri by 40 degrees.  48.3 deg. right now.  Yesterday it was around 88 deg.  Sure glad I don't have to huddle out there on a tree limb trying to keep warm.

Edit: I was just watching mom peeling pieces of meat off what appears to be new food. It looks like it has 4 legs.  Pop must have gone hunting and brought it back to the nest for her.  Amazing to watch her settle over the little ones again and then feed them.  I wonder if she just drops pieces of the meat into their open mouths or does she regurgitate it.  I got a brief glimpse of one little light gray baby with black beak and eyes.