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Administrator
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Thanks, Maria-Rosa! We visited the nest at about 9:35 AM and found Phil there. He had visited twice since 8:30 and saw no adults. We watched for 20 minutes and also did not see any adults on nest or any of the visible roosting perches.
I am now very pessimistic about not seeing them feeding any eaglets. The calculated hatch date was approximately January 17, based upon December 13 onset of incubation. We have photographic evidence of one being fed on January 19. Then on January 23 I saw two adults flying out together very early on a cold morning, 1 1/2 miles away from the nest. This struck me as very unusual, as the eaglets cannot regulate their temperature and the adults instinctively cover them (or on hot days shield them) so they do not chill or overheat. Pride and Joy always took turns foraging during the early weeks after their eaglets hatched. Often both would be at the nest. Of course Jewel may not follow exactly the same pattern, and she is also less experienced.
If there were additional eggs they would have hatched within 3-6 days of the first, but even if the first eaglet failed to survive we would now expect to see feeding at fairly frequent intervals. There has been no photo to confirm that any eaglets have been fed for the past 7 days. I fear there may have been a nesting failure.
If infertile eggs are still in the nest we might expect the adults to continue incubating them for several days at least before giving up.
We need eyes on the nest in hopes of seeing evidence that one or more eaglets survived!
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