Today (March 6), another very cold & wind-chill day, Pat & I checked the eagle
nest at Wolfville’s Anglican Church, and again the adult female was up there but
difficult to see. Whether she has eggs yet is of course unknown.
Cheers from Jim in Wolfville.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford(a)eastlink.ca>
Subject: [Naturens] more on bald eagles & nesting cycle etc.
Date: March 4, 2021 at 7:20:30 PM AST
To: naturens <naturens(a)chebucto.ns.ca>ca>, Lisa & Dale Eye
<dleye(a)hotmail.ca>ca>, Gina Newcombe <gina(a)cheshire-grin.ca>ca>, Sylvia Holmes
<sylviaholmes27(a)gmail.com>om>, Pat and Martha Barry <patmarthabarry(a)hotmail.com>
Cc: Jim Wolford <jimwolford(a)eastlink.ca>ca>, Howard Williams
<gruncle.howard(a)gmail.com>
Today (March 4) in early afternoon I checked on the eagle nest at the Anglican Church on
Wolfville’s east Main St., and there was a definite white head in the nest but it was
difficult to see. Later I drove around on this sunny but very cold day and checked on ten
more local eagle nest-sites, mostly from Greenwich to Hortonville and Avonport. Of the 11
nests checked, only 2 had sitting adult eagles (including Lisa Eye’s), 2 others had 1-2
eagles on the nest-rims, and the rest had no visible eagles. It’s still very early in
their nesting cycle, and I will be checking on them regularly.
I also saw a female n. harrier in the Grand Pre area.
Cheers from Jim in Wolfville.
Yesterday I wrote:
Today (March 3) Lisa Eye reports an adult bald eagle is sitting on the nest on Lower
Church St., northeast of Port Williams. I just drove by the Blomidon Inn, which is
adjacent to the eagle nest at the Anglican Church in Wolfville. An adult male eagle was
perched at the Inn, and a cursory look at the nest showed nothing; but an eagle sitting
down in the cup would be difficult to see. At this time of year adults are known to
“pseudo-incubate†without any eggs under them.
This is an interesting time of year for the eagles. Now the paired adults should be on
their territories, showing ownership of the area around the nest, adding sticks and
redecorating, cementing their pair-bonds in various ways, and indulging in courtship and
perhaps mating behaviours.
I’ve been messing around with approximating dates for egg-laying (up to 3 eggs, takes a
week), growth of eaglets to fledging (requires 12 weeks or 84 days, until early July or
end of June), etc.
Back-dating from early July results in approximately March 10-15 for egg-laying and April
15-20 for hatching of eaglets, which then don’t become visible in the nests until early
to mid-May.
These are just vague guesses from someone who spends a lot of time monitoring local nests
from his car in eastern King’s County.
Now think about how tough these birds are, i.e., no matter what the weather, the female
gets to sit on the eggs for very long periods of the day and night, for 35+ days, and then
brood and guard the growing youngsters for weeks.
Here are a few more stats on bald eagles, from my memory:
Both sexes show white heads and tails at maturity, which takes about five years, and
females are much larger than males after fledging, averaging about a kilogram or two
pounds different. The size differences are very noticeable even when the immatures are
growing in the nest. The large adult females make very good nest defenders, whereas the
smaller males are more versatile hunters. It is the males that provide most of the food
for the female and eaglets until the latter are a couple of months old.
Regarding food, eagles are opportunistic predators on various kinds of animals from fish
to birds and mammals. They are also scavengers and are attracted unfortunately to
road-kills and baits in traps.
Bald eagles are quite long-lived, up to nearly 30 years in the wild, versus up to almost
50 years in captivity.
Some say that bald eagles mate for life. I have heard that there is a small
divorce-rate, based partly on how well two eagles have been reproducing. This is very
difficult to study, without having individually marked birds.
The largest bald eagle we weighed and measured at Acadia University was about 12
kilograms (I need to check this) and had 87 inches of wingspan (7 feet 3 inches).
Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
_______________________________________________
Naturens mailing list -- naturens(a)chebucto.ns.ca
To unsubscribe send an email to naturens-leave(a)chebucto.ns.ca