Greetings from Holtwood

I know it’s been some time since the last report, when we had evidence of the feeding of newly hatched chick(s). It appears that there may be something wrong again with this nest.

All the observations so far show only an adult eagle lying in the nest, as shown in this photo by Tom Raub, a colleague in the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project.

If a chick were being fed on April 2, it would now no longer have to be brooded, and there should be very obvious, visible activity in the nest. A 3-week-old eaglet would be moving about in the nest, raising its wings and beginning to feed from cached food in the nest on its own. Parents would be nearby, but not brooding. This shot shows the adult eagle in the same position as in many previous observations, not as low as incubation, but definitely not, at this stage, on a live chick.

After last year’s nest failure, we will not try to interfere, but let nature take its course. Who knows what lies beneath this female American bald eagle? I surely do not!