Good Evening, Fellow Eggpippleologists!
What a day on the nest! As a severe late winter storm rumbled through the nest area we witnessed Mom just trying to protect her eggs. She took the nest about 7pm last night and refused to relinquish her seat throughout the night and day. Dad tried to relieve her a couple of times but she stubbornly denied him. In all, she was on the eggs almost 23 hours straight. The peeps in the SS and chat were worried there might be something amiss but Mom showed us all she is made of very stern stuff indeed. Late afternoon saw Dad bring a carp to the nest and Mom fell for his trick to get her off the eggs. As we watched with breath held and eyes wide we got a glimpse of the eggs. Alas, no pip could be confirmed but several chatters thought we had one. The mods went into consultation and decided that we could not confirm a pip due to no zoom and the quality of the screencaps we could get. There was a dark area on egg #1 that looked promising but we decided to wait as we will have better quality pics in the morning. Who knows, we may be greeted by our first eaglet as the sun rises!
On to the vids and pics! Mich989Razzle put together a very nice vid on Dads eye and all the things it can do. It shows the nictitating membrane and the movement of both outer eyelids. Very interesting stuff!
MNBound Eagle Eye
Not a lot happened during the storm and Mom hardly moved off the eggs. Late afternoon Dad brought her a juicy carp to gorge on.
MNBound Mom Grabs Big Gift Fish
Mom returned to the nest about 7:20 pm and nudged Dad off the eggs again and settled in for the evening.
MNBound Eagles Mom Switches with Dad for the Night
Mom then watched as the storm eased some more and gave us a couple of quick glimpses of the eggs and again we were denied a good opportunity to confirm a pip. Some dark spots were seen on the eggs but not well enough defined to confirm. The vote in the mod lounge was split and in the end it was decided not to confirm the pip.
MNBound Eagles Mom Tucks Eggs in for the Night
A couple of closeups from the vids.
Looked at magnified to pixel level by myself, Razzle, and several other mods the pics leave a lot to the imagination.
We would rather not confirm and be surprised than to get everybody’s hopes up and be wrong. No harm in not confirming except to those that are sure and will not admit they can be fooled by a spot of dirt. We will know positively in the morning!
Thanks to all the new chatters and old friends for making this an enjoyable day on the nest in spite of the weather. And a big thanks to all the mods for their dedication and hard work in keeping things orderly and informative in both Chat and the Social Stream. You guys ROCK!
Hope you had a great day on the nest and we will see you there tomorrow!
TalonStrike
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below or in the chat room. Also, we'll be updating our official MN Bound LIVE Eagles Facebook Page regularly so you can follow along, like, or share with your friends. We have several site moderators this year to help give optimal information to all that want to learn more about these magnificent birds.