February 1: Incubation established; Estimated hatch date of March 8

[NewMexiKen]

Both members of the pair were actively engaged in nest construction on January 28, although the female (Jewel) tended to stay on the nest and seemed to reject a large stick brought in by the male (Pride). As reported, Pride gathered grass clippings along the shoulder of Pines Boulevard, also reported by other observers around that time.

Jewel sometimes settled into the nest, but not for any prolonged period of time until January 31 and February 1, when she remained deep in the nest.  She was barely visible, as demonstrated by this photo on February 1:



This is a close crop of the above photo, showing the head of the female eagle through the structure of the nest rim:



Subsequently several instances of incubation exchange between the pair were seen. Generally we have noted that the female tended to incubate overnight but cannot be sure that this is happening now. However, at 7:25 AM (about 20 minutes after sunrise) on February 3, an adult which appears to be Jewel (deep gape and normal secondary feather pattern on left wing) flew over west Miramar, about 2 miles SE of the nest and flying away from the nest location, which is NW of this location.







She may have exchanged incubation duties with her mate, but there were no reported ground observations from the nest site at that time.

My best shot of Jewel incubating on February 4:



The cropped image shows only the top of her head:



A similar series of the nest and the barely visible adult incubating, on February 6:





If our assumption about the February 1 deposit of the first egg is correct, it should hatch in about 5 weeks (35 days), on or about March 8.