Researchers place a band on the leg of one chick so the eagle may be identified if it is later captured or found dead. smc View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Cameras provide a real bird's-eye view of eaglets

College of William & Mary research helps biologists understand reasons behind eagles' comeback on the Chesapeake Bay.

By RUSTY DENNEN

Date published: 4/13/2003

IGHTY FEET ABOVE the ground in a crook of a swaying pine tree, Bryan Watts gingerly arched his hand over the rim of a 4-foot-wide nest, gently placing two downy, dull-gray bald eagle chicks into a cloth sack.

The 18-day-old birds chirped with alarm as their nervous parents circled high overhead. On one end of Watts' climbing rope hung the sack--a blue-and-white laundry bag from Target fashioned into a chick-tote.

"Here they come," Watts called down to biologist Bart Paxton and graduate student Catherine Markham, who were waiting at the base of the tree to receive the precious cargo.

Markham cradled the eaglets as Paxton measured their beaks, feet and wings with a caliper, jotting numbers in a spiral notebook. The measurements will help them determine the chicks' sex, which is not readily evident at this age.

The difference between the firstborn chick and its sibling was striking when it came time to weigh them on a portable scale. The larger of the two was a hefty 4.4 pounds--larger than your average roasting chicken--and the smaller, about half that.

Paxton banded the larger chick, then both birds were briefly admired by a gaggle of volunteers before being returned to the bag for the trip back up to the nest. Watts and his crew will return for another climb and more measurements in about three weeks.

The eagles have chosen some prime real estate: Their nest has a commanding view of a small marsh off the tidal Rappahannock above Tappahannock, in a grove of trees overlooking a small farmhouse and red hay barn.

Eagle parents are remarkably tolerant of the intrusion, Markham said. "They won't come down and hit the climber, but they will call and perch in a nearby tree." Having humans handling the chicks doesn't seem to bother them either, she said.

Real-time video chicks

The nest is one of about a dozen scattered around the Rappahannock, York and James rivers that are part of an innovative video-monitoring project by the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary. Its exact location was omitted from this story to protect the eagles.

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Date published: 4/13/2003