HILLSBOROUGH: Baby bald eagle chicks emerge in Duke Farms nest

You can watch every move over the Internet

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   Thousands of eyes all around the world were watching and awaiting the birth this week of three bald eagle chicks in a nest 75 feet up in a sycamore tree on the Duke Farms estate in Hillsborough Township.
   On Wednesday, staff at Duke Farms reported that two hatched chicks were being sheltered by Momma Eagle.
   You can join the drama, thanks to a camera streaming the life of the eagles 24 hours a day on the Internet.
   Three eggs were expected to hatch this week. When they are fully seen, nature researcher Gene Huntington and the Duke Farms leadership expect to see viewer numbers jump from the 2,200 online Tuesday as cute little chicks emerge, fuzzy and disoriented, into the world.
   For days, there was only waiting. Momma Eagle lay comfortably on the eggs, occasionally picking at grasses or hay or gently rolling the eggs to warm their other side. She sat patiently, alert to the slightest movement as a possible threat, on a 7-foot-wide nest made of sticks that could be as round as a human arm. Occasionally Poppa Eagle flies in to take a turn atop the eggs.
   ”Nature has its own timeline and agenda,” said Holly Dunbar, spokeswoman for Duke Farms, on Tuesday. “We’re are simply observers at this point, like everyone else.”
   The camera, which is positioned on another sycamore 65 feet from the nest, is able to be directed from office computers to zoom, pan and tilt to allow people to watch as the parent birds preen, warm or swoop in with food. It will present the entire scene as the youngsters venture onto the edges of the nest and eventually take flight, probably sometime in July.
   This is the third year for the Duke Farms eaglecam. In 2009 and 2010, viewers watched three and two youngsters, respectively, peck out of the eggs’ shells — with geeky necks, fuzz blotches and squeaky voices — and flop around the nest. The same couple (bald eagles are monogamous) have returned for four or five years to the same nest in the abundant, sheltered environment of the 2,700-acre estate left by heiress Doris Duke, according to Mr. Huntington.
   This year, nest watchers first spied eggs on Feb. 28, followed by others on March 4 and 6. On a normal schedule, the first egg would have hatched Monday. The others were expected to hatch April 7 and 10, respectively.
   ”It’s very rare to have three eggs in the nest and have them all hatch,” said foundation executive director Timothy Taylor. It happened in 2009, the first year with the camera, and they were nicknamed the Three Amigos, said Mr. Taylor, but they have since abandoned the practice of naming the babies.
   The concept of a camera fits right in to Ms. Duke’s intended mission of the foundation in her name — to educate, to encourage people to be environmental stewards, and to prevent the endangerment of flora and fauna, said Mr. Taylor. Primarily the foundation accomplishes its mission by bolstering habitats for all kinds of animals and birds. There are about 30 threatened or endangered species, mostly grassland birds, at the farm, he said.
   The success of the eaglecam (go to dukefarms.org) has inspired plans to install cameras at dens or nest of owls, coyotes or foxes on the property, Mr. Taylor said.
   The life of the eaglets will also be used as a study tool, thanks to a partnership with Conserve Wildlife Foundation, which has crafted a curriculum for elementary schools. It gives people the chance to connect to the natural world and see animals’ existence without interpretation, said Mr. Taylor.
   ”It’s hard to do placed-based wildlife study because you can get too close,” said Mr. Taylor.
   Rooting for the bald eagle has to be almost patriotic. The bald eagle was designated the nation’s symbol by the Continental Congress before the U.S. became a nation on its own. The white head and talons are on our money and dominate the seal of the President of the United States.
   In the 20th century, the effect of the pesticide DDT weakened egg shells, leading to a reduced population and threatened extirpation, or extinction in a specific area. In 1985, only a single nesting pair was in New Jersey, according to Duke Farms. The numbers are on the rebound, said Mr. Huntington, with more than 70 nests in New Jersey today.
   Mr. Huntington said watchers will see some amazing things over the next months. In time, there’ll be the excitement of a parent swooping in with eels, ducks, fish and even occasional fresh road kill. Poppa Eagle has been known to bring the hind quarters of an adult deer, or dead newborn fawn, to the nest, Mr. Huntington said. That brought calls from viewers asking why the farm tenders were “feeding bunnies” to the eagles, he said.
   Close viewers might even see that the eagles occasionally pack leftover shells of musk turtles into the matrix of the ton-and-a-half nest; they are apparently remnants of “snacks” that eagles have swooped up from the engineered lagoons or Raritan River, which runs through the property.
   Color-coded bands on the eagles’ legs will allow Duke Farms eagles to be tracked all year. That’s all to come this spring. For now, the world is waiting for the little chicks to take center stage.