More than 1,000 computers were logged on around the world Saturday when two bald eagle chicks popped out of eggs in a nest high atop a tree secluded in the private Duke Farms preserve in northern Hillsborough.
The 2016 version of the avian Truman Show came to its birthing climax Saturday at the first of the chicks emerged. By 11 a.m. Monday the second chick had totally emerged to the world.
You can click on at http://dukefarms.org/eaglecam.
The chicks appear healthy and instinctively are feeding well on food — mostly fish, probably — brought to them in shifts by their parents, who alternate between tending the nest and hunting food.
“It was pretty amazing to watch the first day,” said Charles Barreca, manager of ecological resources at Duke Farms. “They were able to pick out food from the mouth of the mother from the start.”
The family lives safe in a nest 80 feet up in an American sycamore along the flood plain of the Raritan River, a plentiful source of food (mostly fish) for the eagles, along the preserved estate in northern Hillsborough.
The first egg of the season was laid the afternoon of Feb. 18. The second egg was laid around 4:35 this afternoon of Feb. 22.
Thanks to high-definition camera set up above the nest, the world can watch the spectacular and mundane life of the eagle family. The camera can be maneuvered remotely to pan, tilt and zoom.
At midday Monday, more than 700 computers were watching the new chicks, said Mr. Barreca.
From 2005 through 2015, 20 eagle chicks that have been raised and fledged from this nest.
Mr. Barreca said in May state wildlife biologists hope to climb up the tree and remove the fledgling chicks to take health measurements and band them. In about 10 weeks the chicks would begin to experiment with flight by walking out on branches and fluttering back to the nest, he said, and by June they should have fledged and perhaps flown off to their new lives.
