Incubation Dec. 5 ,2013 07:45

[Al Griffin]

Mark the calendar, found the female low in the nest , with just her head visible. After thirty minutes the male flew in and there was much chatter, and a exchange of the guard. Phil arrived and there was agreement the activity in the nest was in keeping with incubations. The female flew out and back twice, and there some chatter. As I took my leave , the male was low in the nest.

[NewMexiKen]

Great news, Al--

We stopped by twice between errands around 10 AM and also found the female sitting quite low in the nest. The male was not around. In the past she would be so low when incubating that sometimes she was out of sight. This time her head and part of neck were readily visible, facing to the left. Maybe the nest cup is not as deep as in previous years. Last year the left rim was built up quite high and often obscured the incubating adult.

Once laid we can expect them to be covered nearly continuously. The female will be on the eggs most of the time, but the male may incubate about 1/4 of the time. Both develop bare brood patches on their breasts to keep the eggs warm.

If she or the male consistently are sitting low from this point on we can start counting out the 35 days until the the first chick hatches. If today is day zero, look for the chick around Friday, January 10th.

Here's where a nest camera would have really helped. As we must depend upon ground observations, please keep watch and report their behavior to see if we have pinpointed the day.

[Liza]

I was there between 1-3pm ,. One of them was in the nest then decided to step out on the edge,. stood there for about 45min then the partner arrived with an amount of twigs . The one that was in the nest at first flew away the other one stayed on the edge as well then finally settled inside the nest after an hour hanging out . I will post photos later tonight, I think the male was the one that came in with the twigs , so hard for me to identify them !

[NewMexiKen]

Oh oh, maybe we are rushing things. I'm surprised that so many sticks are still coming in. Usually they concentrate on soft grasses for the nest lining before laying the eggs.

On the eagle cams I have noticed the female sitting for rather long intervals on the days before laying the egg. Need to research this to see if it is common.

I just would not expect the female to be leaving the egg untended, especially continuing nest building activity if the first egg had been deposited. We'll need to keep a sharp eye on them and try to bracket the laying of the first egg,  

[MyEagle13]

Ok you're correct on that i watch live nest all day long and female does take  around 30 min on the nest even days before laying the eggs, just were there at 4:30pm and i really can't tell if was pride or joy who was at the nest but who ever were there was just watching never lay down i did pass there yesterday and sometime they were laying but today i stay around 45min and she/he were fixing the nest but never lay down only saw one of them hope this can help i will came back tomorrow early wanna see what happen early in the morning.

[Liza]

These were taken Yesterday ,.

[Liza]

And these were taken today , ...

[Liza]

2nd Eagle approaching nest with string twig as I call it  ,. It's obvious something is going on as the nest throughout the day was NOT unattended . They were either on the edge, propped up in the middle or deep inside .




Exchanging shifts I suppose ,.

Then left behind for duty ,.

Position that was taken before I left for the day

[NewMexiKen]

They are bringing in soft material to line the nest in preparation for egg-laying. They will continue to add this kind of material to cover up the nasty stuff that accumulates in the nest after the eaglets are hatched.

[tomsease]

I was there yesterday afternoon (12/6, from about 3:30-4pm) & saw one of the eagles down very low in the nest:

 

 

 

 

 

From: [hidden email]

Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 1:49 PM

To: [hidden email]

Subject: Re: Incubation Dec. 5 ,2013 07:45

 

They are bringing in soft material to line the nest in preparation for egg-laying. They will continue to add this kind of material to cover up the nasty stuff that accumulates in the nest after the eaglets are hatched.

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