When An Eagle Nest Fails
Guest Blogger, Diane Cook: NJ Eagle Project Volunteer & Duke Farms nest monitor
Nature can be awe inspiring and beautiful. Watching a powerful bald eagle gently offer food to a newly hatched chick is amazing. Cheering awkward chicks walking on wobbly legs, and holding your breath when they take that first flight are the events live cam viewers look forward to year after year.
We are reminded of the harsh realities of nature too. Nest fails can and do happen. Many things can go wrong: storms, predators in the nest, or conflicts with other eagles and territorial disputes. Watching it happen live, can be heartbreaking. Every event is a learning experience for us all.
There is a sad ending this year at the Duke Farms nest. It was hard to see the adult pair defending their nest from younger interlopers again. Harder still was actually witnessing the failure of both eggs. Hatching is a complicated business. We’ve been fortunate to have many years of success. As watchers, we must take the good with the bad. This is nature after all.
So what do we do now? My love of nature and the bald eagle will have me seeking out other live cams, but missing my local wild family. I will remember the successes of past years. I will stare in amazement as I look up into the sky to watch a bald eagle soaring overhead.
Life will go on. The cycle will continue, if not in “my” nest, in another. Nature will find its balance. Thank you to Duke Farms and Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ for bringing us the live cam. Thank you to the state biologists who work every day to preserve and protect the wildlife in our state.
See you next year for a new eagle nesting season.
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You and all who make that nest cam possible are absolutely heroic. Everyone is so grateful for the significant drama of the nest each year. It’s hard to say, but we must, “no matter the outcome.” Does this scenario actually mean that we have too many eagles in parts of New Jersey? Can I really be asking this, having been alive in NJ when there was only that one unproductive nest in Bear Swamp, Delaware Bayshore? Thank you for writing this, to help all of us with this loss. May your nest success be healthy, even invincible, in years to come. Gratefully, Carolyn Foote Edelmann NJWILDBEAUTY Nature blog
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