MARCH 5: Male eagle on nest

[NewMexiKen]

Al saw both eagles on the nest yesterday (MAR 4) and said one of them settled down rather deep in the nest. Others have noted their presence at the nest several times since the apparent loss of the eaglet and any eggs a few days after the storm on January 17 caused a branch to fall on the nest. This morning Mary Lou and I visited briefly from about 7:55 and watched for about 25 minutes before heading to lead the South Florida Audubon wetlands walk at the library.







When we arrived there was an adult towards the left rear and  rather deep in the nest, quite certainly the male (Pride, judging by the low forehead and gape which extended only about 1/2 way under his eye). He was tearing at prey and seemed to be eating, but there was no evidence that he was feeding any eaglets. He was not sitting as deep as would be expected during incubation.

A second brood is said to be highly unlikely and one parent is not capable of incubating alone. The optimum time for raising young has passed-- by now the eaglets in south Florida are ready for flight.

During the unsuccessful breeding season last year, Pride also continued to spend a lot of time on the nest, leading us to think that maybe Jewel had dumped some eggs late in the season. Of course both eaglets would normally be very active finding food for their hungry brood this time of year, and perhaps he is simply following the instinct to continue to guard the nest and bring in food.

This interesting behavior bears careful watching and reporting, if anyone gets a chance during the next several days. How persistent is an adult's presence on the nest? How long will both adults continue to visit?  

[NewMexiKen]

I have received some more information on the subject of the incidence of second broods in Florida's Bald Eagles. Bald Eagles rarely breed twice in a season, but this generalization may not apply to some Florida eagles.

Reinier Munguia, the new Florida Audubon EagleWatch Coordinator, wrote on Facebook (March 11):

This season we are experiencing a high rate of nesting failure. Many birds arrived early, laid eggs that later fail near the end of the incubation period. Others have very skinny eaglets and some have even jumped out of the nest early.

These may be the result of "El Niño" related weather patterns which for us in Florida included lots of rain, windy conditions and drastic temperature changes in short periods of time. As result water levels are higher than normal which can cause a decline of the food accessible to the adults which in turn may increase the chick mortality due to competition, or simply due to lack of food.

On the good side, many eagles are coming back this late to breed. In Polk County I have seen two nesting pairs going back to re-nest this week, which it may sound late but not really. In fact, our last eaglet last year fledged on the last week of June. That same pair failed in december and went back to incubate in April. Please keep on watching your nest, you may be surprised and don't forget to enter your data at auduboncitizenscience.org This information is key for us to make wise decisions on the future protection of the birds, or when dealing with issues that may affect our nesting eagles.

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Billi Wagner, of Indian River County, wrote (MAR 16):

Sorry you have 2 years in a row of not producing fledglings. If you're wondering why he is still incubating, one nest here a few years ago had a male incubating for 2 months! I went back over and over and could not figure it out. I think Linda (was head of Eaglewatch in those days) explained to me that the original egg(s) were not viable, but the male can and will sit there even though they will never hatch. He does not give up easily. In subsequent years they have raised young, but failed to even lay eggs this season.

I don't know about any other counties, but we are having a bad year in Indian River County
The pair above and 2 other pairs didn't lay eggs, another nest's eaglet perished in the nest beginning of March (the parents didn't seem to feed it, but they raised THREE last season), and in another nest the eaglet(s) was/were predated (Great Horned probably). I found one half erupted black flight feather and some white down on the ground under the nest, and sent them in to the lab for ID.