Holtwood Eagles - PPL Holtwood

The eagle nest at PPL's Holtwood Environmental Preserve has been active for the past eight years. Jim Smith, a consulting naturalist for PPL, provides regular updates while the nests are active.

05/07/2008
Sad news
Again, for the second year, the news is not good. It appears the Holtwood nest has again failed.

There was what appeared to be feeding activity on April 2. Since then, as seen in the last report, the eagle has been on the nest. Later we have been observing an empty nest. This picture is one of the latest, taken by M.E. Rice, showing the empty nest on April 29.

I led a birding walk for the Lancaster County Bird Club on May 3, when we saw an adult eagle fly into the nest, grasp a talon full of sticks, and then fly upriver, to who knows where. An exact repetition of the behavior seen after last year's frozen egg removal. Others have reported to me since then that the nest appears to be empty. Viewing from Face Rock overlook on Wednesday (5/7), I witnessed an empty nest.

I feel it's likely the chick, or chicks, which appeared to have been being fed the beginning of April, died. Sadly, this nest is officially unoccupied and must be considered failed.
 

04/25/2008
Letting nature take its course
I know it's been some time since the last report, when we had evidence of the feeding of newly hatched chick(s). It appears that there may be something wrong again with this nest.

All the observations so far show only an adult eagle lying in the nest, as shown in this photo by Tom Raub, a colleague in the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project.

If a chick were being fed on April 2, it would now no longer have to be brooded, and there should be very obvious, visible activity in the nest. A 3-week-old eaglet would be moving about in the nest, raising its wings and beginning to feed from cached food in the nest on its own. Parents would be nearby, but not brooding. This shot shows the adult eagle in the same position as in many previous observations, not as low as incubation, but definitely not, at this stage, on a live chick.

After last year's nest failure, we will not try to interfere, but let nature take its course. Who knows what lies beneath this female American bald eagle? I surely do not!
 
04/01/2008
No April Fools' Joke
This shot was taken on a very warm April Fools' Day, and you can see that the adult in the nest is panting with her beak open and tongue out. Also note that she is lying with her back a little higher than in previous reports.

Since Easter I've been checking every day for signs of hatching and becoming a little concerned as to whether there would be any eaglets. I left the area still not convinced there was a hatching, vowing to return every day until I could confirm something, one way or the other. As of April 2, I can confirm that she probably had at least one hatchling based on an observation. I'm sorry I have no pictures to show the following actions, but things happened so fast that I couldn't get my scope and camera set up in time, especially because it was toward evening and lighting was pretty bad. Fortunately my wife was with me and relayed what I was missing while setting up my gear. We approached by car and saw nothing in the nest. My heart sank. Then suddenly, the female got up from low in the nest, raised her head and chittered. She got up, moved to the edge and started eating from some food cached in the nest. She suddenly took off toward the river, just as the male came into the tower with a good-sized fish.

He fed on some of the fish on the tower for a few moments. Then, grasping the fish remains in his talons, circled the tower a few times and came into the nest. He proceeded to tear off a tiny piece from the fish, turned his head toward the center of the nest, lowered it, then raised it again, showing an empty beak. If that wasn't chick-feeding behavior, then nothing is. (The above is true and not an April Fools' joke.)
 

03/24/2008
Still incubating
This Good Friday afternoon I climbed the Mason-Dixon Trail to the overlook under the power lines to see if my earlier prediction of hatch date would be correct. It seems it was premature, since I found the female still in incubation mode.

I waited a long time with my scope on the nest, hoping to see some evidence of brooding a recent hatchling, but observed none. The only activity seen was infrequent lowering of her head to tear off a bit of food cached in the nest just beside her. It was probably fresh food, since I observed the mate circling the tower as I arrived in my car. I believe I just missed a food drop-off.

This picture is not much different than the last one, except she is lying in a different position. Hatching must occur very shortly, within the next few days. My hope is that observers, over the long holiday weekend, did not stop too close to the tower and did not make a lot of noise, since this is a very critical time for the eagle pair. I also hope that our next eagle watch, on April 12, will be able to present a proud pair tending to one or more chicks.
 
03/03/2008
Eagle watch
Our first eagle watch for the season was held March 1. Twenty participants were able to witness the female eagle incubating an unknown number of eggs in the Holtwood Dam tower nest. As in the last report, only infrequent glimpses of the top of her head and sometimes her beak were able to be made.

On March 3, as I approached the nest from the road, nothing was visible — as if the nest were empty! But I knew she was in there, so I climbed the short distance on the Mason-Dixon trail to the rock outcrop under the power line, which, until we have hatching and some chick growth, will be the only place from which to get a good view of the nest. As I approached the observation point, I saw the male eagle chasing a red-tailed hawk who happened to come a little too close to the nest tower. Dad then perched briefly on the top of the nest tower, then flew off, probably to hunt for supper for his mate and himself.

Sure enough, Mom was there in incubation mode, very alert and attentive to her duty. While I was there, she moved only her head to take in any changes in her surroundings with her vision six times as acute as ours. The picture I am posting, which is one of many I took, shows her lemon-yellow iris pointing directly at me. I'm sure she was taking my picture just as I took hers.
 

02/21/2008
Trying to capture a moment
I am so sorry that I have to send this non-descript photo for my second report. As I was setting up my scope and camera at 2:40 p.m., the male eagle flew into the nest with some food for his mate.  He was observed actually feeding her bill-to-bill. He then flew to the top of the adjacent tower as she continued to feed.  Unfortunately, I was not able to catch that moment on camera. I have to offer a picture showing only the very tip-top of her head in the center of the nest as she was finishing the food her mate brought in.

This nest is definitely under incubation. Somewhere around Good Friday to Easter we can expect to see the first hatchling, provided "mom" has learned her lesson from last year and does not leave her eggs under adverse conditions.
 

02/08/2008
Eagles have landed
The nest at Holtwood Dam is occupied once again. This is the nest that last year failed because of the freezing of the single egg laid by a very young, new mother.

This same bird, now shown in the picture standing on the left, is supervising her mate busily trying to break off a protruding stick. You can see his beak around the stick and the freshly peeled bark, indicating he has been working on this project for awhile. As I said, this is the same female from last year, as she still has an incompletely molted brown feather in her tail. The feather in her tail is what identified her last year as a new mate to the old man. Activity started as early as Jan. 22, when the pair was first observed bringing sticks to the nest. The pair was observed mating just before they returned to the nest to begin working on it again on the morning of Feb. 6.

Let's hope that reports can continue for the 10th year of nesting in this tower with the fledging of the 23rd (and hopefully more) eaglet from this nest.