Eagles Harriet and M15 taking parenthood on the fly
Southwest Florida’s most famous eagles, Harriet and M15, now have a brood of two to feed.
A pip was discovered from E19 last Sunday at around 10 a.m. It finally hatched last Monday around 12:43 p.m. putting Harriet, with still an egg to incubate, trying to find bits of food in the nest to feed the first hatchling.
A pip in the second egg, which is now E20, was discovered at 3:47 p.m. last Monday. It finally hatched at 5:54 p.m. last Tuesday.
“We thought the hatching would happen around Christmas Day, but we were all watching and the morning after, we saw the first crack,” said Virginia Pritchett-McSpadden, founder of the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam, which provides a live-feed above the nest on the Pritchett property off Bayshore Road 24/7 during nesting season. “It took a while for E19 to hatch, but E20 was right after that. We’re excited by what we’ll see of the next couple weeks.”
The eagle cam gave viewers spectacular views of the babies, especially E20, who was worse for wear after spending 24 hours trying to get out of its shell
Meanwhile, both eagles were busy feeding E19, who is roughly 30 hours older than its sibling.
After they hatch, the eaglets will do what they always do, look cute while jousting over food. Last year, both eaglets hatched only hours apart, but had to be taken out of the nest for treatment at the CROW facility in Sanibel after they appeared to have a serious illness.
Both recovered and were returned to the nest where the mating pair took them back in.
Pritchett-McSpadden said in recent years the eaglets have hatched fairly close together because they have learned how to slow down the development process of one egg so both hatch at roughly the same time.
“The first few years they were three days apart. Harriet and M15 are showing they know what they’re doing with delayed incubation,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “Their instincts tell them to slow down the process and increasing the eaglets’ odds for survival.”
The parents will take turns keeping the eaglets warm, as they are unable to regulate their body temperature for the first few weeks of life.
It has been an eventful incubation process, even if things have seemed routine. M15 has been routinely knocked off his perch by great horned owls, which have moved within 100 yards of the eagles and who are the eagles’ only natural predator.
Now, viewers are beginning to hear coyotes on the property across from the Eagle Landings Publix, a first for those who work the Eagle Cam, making things more difficult.
“Owls took over the nest the eagles were trying to build a few years ago. We think there’s another pair trying to take over their nest,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “When owls attack, their goal is to take over their nest because they are not nest builders, but nest stealers.”
Harriet laid her first egg this year on Nov. 20 at 3:48 p.m. and laid her second one on Nov. 23 at 5:10 p.m., keeping with the tradition of laying her eggs in the late afternoon.
The Southwest Florida Eagle Cam website provides viewers worldwide with an opportunity to watch real-time activity in and around the nest in North Fort Myers.
The site went live for the 2012-2013 season nesting season and it was an immediate hit — more than 16 million viewers tuned in to watch Harriet and then-mate Ozzie raise two eaglets — Hope and Honor — from birth to first flight.
The 24-7 livestream has continued each nesting season since and continues to draw millions of viewers each year.
The Southwest Florida eagle cam may be found online at https://www.swfleaglecam.com/.
To reach CHUCK?BALLARO; news@breezenewspapers.com, please email