“It’s a hard life” certainly describes the first few nesting days of the Hays bald eagle pair.
Above, on February 18 Mother Eagle waits out a snowstorm while incubating the egg she laid the day before.
Below, it’s -4 degrees at the nest on Friday morning, February 20. The sun is shining so it has already “warmed up” from a low of -7. (*temperatures are from the Allegheny County airport less than 3 miles away)
Later that day, at 4:40pm, she laid her second egg. It was 11oF at the time. Click here or on the picture for video of her second egg.
Then yesterday, Saturday February 21, it snowed several inches and …
… then turned into rain .. and then freezing drizzle. Below she sleeps in the icy nest before dawn this morning (February 22).
Our warm indoor lives are soft compared to this!
Click here to watch the real-time eaglecam.
(screenshots from the Hays bald eaglecam presented by Pix Controller and Audubon of Western PA)
Do mom and dad eagles take turns sitting on the eggs when mom is still laying? I expect she still has to leave to find food, but I imagine she’d also like to warm up her wings a bit…
Yes they do take turns. This morning at dawn she called to him. Perhaps she was telling him to hurry up and come give her a break. 😉
Thank you! FINALLY someone (and it would be you!) notices that poor Mom’s life isn’t all peaches and cream! The newsreaders are all about “Will the eggs hatch?” while Mom and Dad are freezing their tail feathers and feet trying to make it so. They did some housekeeping just now–I’m guessing to try to get relatively-drier straw around themselves and the eggs? Anne