I'm not a big bird person, but I keep getting addicted to these various bird cams around. A couple of years ago, it was Condor Cam at the San Diego zoo. This year, it's been an eagle cam.
It started out innocently enough. One of the guys I work with told me about the eagle cam at Berry College in Rome, GA. It wasn't too long after that when the eaglet was born. This nest didn't have the second egg hatch. There's a note next to the cam that it hadn't been viable. But watching this one little chick (known lovingly as B3) grow up has been so cool.
When he was first born, he was this little pale gray fuzzball. Then his down grew in a little darker and now, at 5 weeks old (I think), he (or she) is starting to get real feathers in.
It didn't take long before I was hearing about other eagle cams, including one in Minnesota run by the Department of Natural Resources that had three eaglets hatch at the end of March/beginning of April. (MN DNR Eagle Cam)
So of course, being Minnesota, it starts snowing on April third when the chicks are all still so little. Mama sat over her babies for 2 days, just enduring the wind, snow, and cold while she kept he eaglets warm.
They're adorable! I watched her feed all three who were centered in the only part of the next not covered with snow. The oval that mama kept warm with her body. I'm scared for the littlest of the eaglets. He's so tiny and his two siblings are bigger and grabbing the food. I'm also worried about his reaction to the cold. He was born just like a day or so before the snow started.
The thing, though, that touched me is how the mother just endured everything for her chicks. She probably would have been less cold if she could move around, but she didn't. She took care of her babies first.
