The Decorah Eagles

Most bird lovers know about the Decorah eagles and the eagle cam that is on their nest which allows viewers to watch a pair of eagles raise their babies year after year. I began watching them four years ago in 2011.

Mom and Dad, as they are called, have been together seven or eight years. Dad is older, around 14 or 15, and Mom a couple of years younger. They are considered to be a very successful pair as the Raptor Resource Project (RRP) has documented 20 eaglets from the pair. (The first camera was installed in 2009.) The babies are labeled with a prefix of "D" for Decorah and then a number in hatching order. This year's nestlings were D18, D19, and D20.

It has been a tough year for the eagle parents, and began with one of the harshest winters on record.

I took this screen shot in February - it was -20 degrees Farenheit and Mom was incubating eggs!

Three eaglets hatched and were raised to fledgling state, and that's when things went awry. Due to heavy gnats and biting flies this year, the babies left the nest early, probably before they were really ready. Almost immediately, the trouble began.

Reports began coming in that a baby eagle was in the middle of a road in the Decorah area. Area authorities stopped traffic and contacted the RRP and Bob Anderson, the head of the eagle project and lead researcher. He rescued D19, a female, from the road and took her home overnight, fed her some fish, and then released her. She has since taken to living on a mulch pile in the Decorah recycling yard and is doing well. 

Mom and Dad found her and are bringing her food.

(Photo taken by George Barrer.)

There was no sign of the other two babies, so Bob and some volunteers fanned out to look for them. Soon they found D20 in a creek.

That's Bob Anderson in the white hat, rescuing him.

The man with him is a volunteer from SOAR, an organization in Minnesota that rehabilitates injured birds and releases them into the wild.

They carried D20 to safety and, upon examination, discovered that he had a broken wing. He's been taken to SOAR's facility in Minnesota and had surgery to pin the pieces together. It is hoped that the eagle will be able to return to the wild in a year or so.

And then there is D18, the oldest. Bob was able to capture him briefly and fit him with a transmitter as part of the research project, and that has enabled us to know just what happened. Sadly, D20 encountered a high voltage power line and was electrocuted a week or so after fledging.

I didn't cry until RRP posted this picture of him as a hatchling with his mother.

A life cut short due to a terrible accident. 

D18 on the mulch pile. 

(Photo from RRP/Decorah Eagles Facebook archives.)

D18 is the third known eaglet from this pair of parents to have been electrocuted - D12 and D14 also died in a similar manner.

To sum up:

D18 - male, electrocuted/dead

D19 - female, found on road, living on mulch pile, doing well

D20 - male, broken wing, rescued in creek, surgery and recuperating at SOAR

One of their offspring is doing well, and with luck, a second one will make it and be released into the wild. 

Life in the wild is tough.