Given our daily morning visits to Duke Farm’s LIVE EAGLE CAM, the grade ones have been keeping a daily journal of the events at the nest. I’m starting to get nervous. As soft white-grey down gradually is replaced by dark grey feathers, and soon black feathers, I get concerned that something might happen to one of the juveniles. In fact, I suppose we’ve been fortunate so far that nothing bad has happened due to a predator’s attack or such as that. The little guys are starting to beetle around their nest and I have no idea how the adults keep catastrophe from happening in the form of a nose dive to a sad ending.
The students and I have shared a bit about this sort of thing. I think I said, “Boys and girls, what will happen if something bad happens at the nest?” One boy responded, “Miss Moors, I’ve seen a couple of rabbits squashed by cars. I’ll be OK.”
“So what do you think could happen that would be sad on our live cam?”
“Maybe a predator will attack.”
“Maybe a baby will fall out.”
“Maybe something will happen to the Mom or the Dad.”
Smart kids!
Regardless of their promised resilience…I am soon going to end our project and morning viewing. So far, we’ve seen live fish dropped into the nest…two breakfasts of turtles (the turtle shells still lying vacant in the soft grass of the nest…and today my students noticed a frog’s leg sticking out of one of the eaglet’s beak. The children have learned that eagles have lots of whitewash in their poop and it very regularly shoots out…the scientists keeping records for the Live Cam call it ‘shot’, not poop. Good thing to learn!
I considered making a slide show of the following images taken from their journals, but really, they are so very sweet, you may want to pause and read. Through the eyes and hearts of wee ones!
A recent log from the Duke’s Farm Live Eagle Cam…
Update 4/15/2014
For viewers, please note that as the chicks mature and become more independent in the nest the adult will not be inside the nest bowl as much as they where a week ago (most activity from the adults will either be feeding or sheltering chicks from rain). The adults still stay close to the nest in neighboring trees to keep an eye of the chicks and potential threats.
