White-bellied Sea-eagle - Sydney / Australia

[Alison]

Welcome to the world, SE21! What a beautiful little eaglet!

 

 

http://www.sea-eaglecam.org/video.html

[Alison]

Another year, and another breeding season.

Lady and Dad have been incubating two eggs, and tonight I watched their first eaglet, SE21, during hatching.



SE21 is almost completely out of the shell now, but not quite:

 

[Alison]

The tiny eaglet called and called for Mom and Dad, but neither Lady nor Dad returned to the nest until the following day. By that time their beautiful little eaglet, only three days old, had died. Neither parent paid the slight attention to the nest, the eaglet or the remaining egg, until later yesterday, when Lady began to brood her lost chick and incubate the egg (which is no longer viable).

Today Lady and Dad are taking turns on the nest.

It was thought that one of the parents had been injured, but both are fine. The intruder was the one who was injured and taken into care, and sadly she has since died of her injuries. She was a young female, and very beautiful.

Two very sad losses. 

[Alison]

No wonder the parents were edgy yesterday. There was an intruder in the area, another white-bellied sea eagle, who attacked the nest. Dad defended, they fought, and they went down from the nest fighting.

Neither parent returned to the nest, and the tiny eaglet SE19 has been alone in the nest ever since. He is much too young to be able to thermoregulate.

It is now 1:47 a.m. in Sydney and extremely dark in the reserve. At some point earlier, a team went out and found an injured adult sea eagle, identity not confirmed. He or she has been taken for treatment.

They also saw, but were not able to reach, another injured sea eagle.

Dawn at the reserve comes around 6 a.m., so perhaps then more will be known.

I can only hope for the best for this beautiful sea eagle family. 

[Alison]

Lady and her mate have their first eaglet, SE19. The second egg has not hatched at this point, and it begins to look as if it may not hatch.

 

 

Today Lady and Dad have seemed somewhat edgy, and both left the nest for an hour. It is unusual to leave a tiny eaglet and an egg alone for that length of time, so I hope everything is okay. One parent has now returned and is on the nest.

http://www.sea-eaglecam.org/video.html