Storm causes eagles' nest to fall
I heard an update on news radio today. One of the parents came to the new nest but the people watching said it seemed confused and unsure what to do.
They are going to have just one or two volunteers continue to feed the eaglets either till they can fly on their own, or until the parents take over. (Mooseheart is a community and school for kids in need-- from little ones through high school.)
This is from Wednesday (June 1):
Mooseheart’s eagle family has a new, man-made home.
On Monday night, security staff on the Mooseheart campus found the weekend’s strong winds had knocked the eagle’s nest out of a pine tree on the northwest corner of the grounds near Randall Road.
Wildlife experts rescued the two eaglets in the nest, which tumbled 85 feet to the base of the tree the eagles have called home since March of 2010.
Mooseheart officials contacted the Kane County Audubon Society, which asked the Flint Creek Rehabilitation Center in Barrington to fabricate a replacement nest.
“We always expect nests to fall in major storms, but this is the first eagle’s nest that we have ever dealt with,” said Dawn Keller, executive director and founder of the wildlife center.
“Even having an eagle’s nest in this area is still newsworthy. This is clearly a first for us,” Keller said.
For the better part of Tuesday afternoon, sporadic rain interrupted their work to secure the manmade nest and put some of the original nesting material inside. The wildlife rehabbers will be monitoring how receptive the family is to their new home.
The rehabbers, a climber from The Care of Trees of West Chicago and Mooseheart security engineered the framework for a 5-by-5-foot, sturdier nest designed to withstand the worst of Mother Nature. The nest is made of stainless steel conduit and predator-safe vinyl cloth.
Keller said that late Monday night, Mooseheart security escorted them to the site. Using flashlights, they located two eaglets in the nesting material that had fallen into tall grass beneath the pine tree.
“We estimate they are 5 to 6 weeks old,” Keller said.
“The fact it was dark worked to our advantage,” she said. “The parents flushed from the tree and were flying overhead calling; they knew something was amiss but because it was dark they couldn’t really come down and protect the babies as they could in daylight. We picked them up with very little circumstance.”
Keller said they secured the first one in a carrier and then retrieved the second one.
“We were worried about predators,” she said.
At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, two volunteers returned one of the eaglets to the area to assure the parents their babies were alive.
“We wanted to make sure mom and dad didn’t leave the area if they found no eaglets present this morning,” she said. “ … She was in a carrier with the top open so mom and dad could see her. Mom and dad have actually made a couple of passes with food, but they didn’t come down to see her.”
Keller said the eaglets were given a thorough physical exam to make sure they were healthy, uninjured and suitable to return to the fabricated nest.
“We were concerned about one eaglet because it had labor breathing this morning, but those issues are resolving quickly and she did pass the physical,” Keller said. “We think the 80- to 85-foot fall was traumatic, but she is looking really good.”
The wildlife expert and The Care of Trees climber took precautions on the next phase to install the nest. Keller wore protective gear while she relocated the eaglet out of harm’s way and the climber went up in a bucket truck to determine the best location for the nest.
The one adult eagle that had been keeping a close eye on her young one, fully aware of the crowd of people at work about a quarter-of-a-mile from the pine tree, began to fly around and squawk.
“We’re going to position the frame of the nest and fill it with the remaining greenery that was part of the original nest. We’ll get enough in to make a good nest for them,” Keller said.
Brian Ziegler, operations manager for The Care of Trees, said the fabricated nest would be installed in the tree about 65 feet up, secured with braided steel cable.
“If no one noticed the nest had fallen, the eaglets would have died,” Keller said. “They would have not survived on the ground that long because of predators, and a lot of times birds of prey won’t come to the ground to feed (their young),” Keller said.
Ron Dickenson of Batavia, an amateur photographer and Moose International member, has taken interest in the eaglets and has regularly photographed them.
“We have been out on windy days and seen the nest bob back and forth. Sunday’s wind and weight of the rain was too much for the nest and brought it down,” he said.
