We are only about three weeks away (give or take a few days) from the beginning of the 2019-2020 Bald Eagle breeding season. As eagleholics already know, Florida eagles, as well as some elsewhere in North America, have been visiting their nests, adding sticks and fluff, courting, delivering and eating prey in the nest, and in a few cases (in Florida) copulating before our very eyes.
To help viewers predict when eggs might be laid at their favorite nests, I have updated my monthly Egg Calendars of eggs laid since 2006 to include last season’s activities. They are available here. They can be downloaded and printed out.
The calendars not only give the dates of all the eggs from 2006-2019, but also show whether the eggs hatched and nestlings fledged. I have included an empty column for 2019-2020, so anyone can add new information to their own copies of these documents as eggs are laid.
The arrival of eggs at a particular nest is remarkably consistent over the years, within a couple of weeks in most cases. But the timing can change significantly if one or both mates is replaced, the nest is lost or eagles choose to relocate, foul weather interrupts the normal schedule, or intruders challenge for a nest or territory.
I have also updated my list of all the Bald Eagle cams observed online or by reliable ground observers since 2006. This list includes codes that I use in the Egg Calendars. The codes are easy to understand: each begins with the abbreviation for the state or province (for example, GA = Georgia, BC = British Columbia), followed by a fairly predictable alphanumeric sequence to indicate the nest (such as shp = Shepherdstown, blf = Bluff City). In the Egg Calendars, a number follows the nest ID indicating which egg was laid on that date (1, 2, 3, etc.).
Over the next few days I will begin updating Nest Cam Links. Some of these have changed or will be changed, others are currently offline, others will no longer be broadcast, and some new cams might go online. I will do my best to keep up with changes as the season progresses, and I welcome help with this.
As always, if anyone notices errors or omissions, including broken links, in these (or any other) pages, please contact me either here or on Facebook.