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Berry eagles getting
ready to nest again
Posted: Monday, September 12, 2016 9:00 am
After what appeared
to be a brief flirtation with another adult female eagle, Berry College’s Cage
Center male bald eagle has reconnected with his original mate and both are back
at the nest in time for the breeding season.
Click here for a link to
the Berry College Eagle Cam website.
The adult male
showed up with a different adult female at the end of August. His original
partner returned Sept. 3, and the pair has been seen on the Berry nest cams
virtually every day since. There has been no indication the female interloper
has been back to the nest since that time.
The original female
is easily distinguished by her left talon, which is noticeably twisted. The
male is much smaller and has a black spot on his tail feathers that helps
identify him.
Eddie Elsberry,
director of environmental compliance and sustainability at Berry, said the
eagles have been remarkably consistent with respect to the timing of their
return to the nest each year. Each of the past three years students monitoring
activity on the nest cameras have reported first seeing both adults on the nest
together during the third week of September.
Nichole Bednar,
Montague, New Jersey, said she watches the Berry eagle cam about three hours a
day now. She expects her viewing time to go up as the daily activity increase.
She is one of the
administrators of the B3 Branch Buddies Facebook page. B3 was the name given to
the lone eaglet hatched in 2014.
“I watch for
details. It’s truly the only way to learn,” Bednar said.
Picking up on the
black spot on the back of the adult male was one of the things that convinced
her it was the original adult male with the stranger in the nest for about a
week.
“The nest had had
multiple juvenile, sub-adult and adult eagles visit,” said Elsberry. He said
the numerous photographers who document activity at the nest believe as many as
eight eagles have visited the site since this year’s young left the nest in the
late spring.
“That’s exciting as
it indicates the eagle population is on the increase in Northwest Georgia and
Northeast Alabama,” Elsberry said. “We hope to continue to see and hear of more
eagle nesting sites in our area each year.”
Jerri Mowry,
Hartford City, Indiana, a member of B3 Branch Buddies, said she was not overly
concerned about seeing the familiar adult male on the nest with the stranger
for several days in a row.
“There is always the
danger of a mate not returning and he would have accepted her as his mate. Its
nature’s ways of securing the continuation of the species," Mowry said.
Since the spring of
2012, the pair has produced seven young eaglets, two in 2013, one in 2014 and
two each of the past two years.
Eggs are typically
laid anywhere from late December through mid January.
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