http://www.eagles4kids.com/two-cams-with-chat/

Welcome to Season 7. Hopefully, "7" is going to be the lucky number. I always learn so much about Bald Eagle behavior at this site.

They're baaaack....

early nesting.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Blair and her NewMale (NM until eggs are laid and the e4kids name him) have been bringing sticks to the nest daily for about a week now. It's looking pretty nestie. I'm looking forward to a successful year.

November 8th 2016 will be voting day for the kids at E4Kids classroom. The students will be voting on a name for the NewMale. They have brought their choices down to three. Those choices are.... Buster, Thunder, or Storm. This is one election I'm looking forward to.

Theresultsare in.

NM has been named

THUNDER

Each day Blair and Thunder have stopped by to the nest. They've been adding pine branches and the ever popular corn stalks and husks. Their bonding looks strong. Mr Thunder has politely asked MsBlair for some mating. Her hormones say 'no' but he doesn't look like he's giving up on her. They look like a tight pair so far. looking for the pencil.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Here is a picture of Blair as she waits out the snow event.

snowday blair.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

There's been some fun at the e4k nest lately. It seems the eagles have found a stash of plastic somewhere. The farmer uses this plastic wrap to keep the field hay bales dry during the winter. This was brought to the nest today, only to be situated to look like an eagle on the nest. This could be pretty smart as any intruder flying over might see that the nest is already occupied, then move on.?? Or it could look like an inflatable eagle that one might put on the boat dock to keep the gulls or geese away. In the case of e4k, this might keep Lucky the squirrel from stealing nesting material. What is it.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Mr Keith, a e4k moderator, put this video together of a bonding gone wonky. https://youtu.be/j30INR9rFWg There's still so much to learn about wildlife.

Blair and Thunder have been doing everything that bonding eagles do before the egg laying time arrives. They have paired up and added a lot of sticks, corn husks, and grasses to the nest. This nest hasn't looked this purposeful in a few years. Thunder has been practicing his incubation duties and making a nice place for the eggs Blair will hopefully lay. SOON. There are a few videos of them 'mating' on Youtube. You know me, I'm too shy to post those. I did grab a few screen snippies though.

Thunder on the nest.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Good looking nest.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

I'm pretty confident this year will be the year for little eaglets on this nest.

Well yes, I was very confident there were going to be baby eagles at the e4k nest. So confident that I put my guess in the hat that the first egg would be laid on March 11. Something happened, nobody knows what. There are way more questions than there are answers. Hope has been quashed this last week because Thunder has not been seen for the last 2 weeks. Typically, he was never too far behind Blair since he destroyed the frozen eggs last year. He was more like a shadow. Blair visits the nest every day or so, but only to perch on one of the branches while she preens.
Back to the confusion couch with a bag full of cheetos. We'll see what happens next season.

https://youtu.be/OVQZU-vMXXE

I think this is what's going to happen this season. The tree is gone... now on to watching to see if, where, and when the bald eagles build a new nest close by. I'm keeping tabs with a group for any further activities.