For five years now, a pair of eagles near Shepherdstown has starred in their own Internet reality show.
The eagles live at the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center near Shepherdstown.
The training center has a small camera (eagle cam) perched high in a sycamore tree looking down on the eagles’ nest.
“The eagle cam’s popular all year long but this is a really special time because the eagles are starting to hang out near the nest, and they’re spending some time in the nest and obviously they’re spending some time with one another as they’re thinking about nesting,” Jay Slack, Training Center Director, said.
Slack says the eagles could lay up to three eggs in the next couple of weeks.
If the eggs survive, Web site viewers can expect to see the adults taking turns sitting on the eggs for about a month.
If the eaglets hatch they will live in the nest for about 12 weeks and will begin flying sometime in late June.
This is the fifth year the eagle pair’s nest has been featured on the Web. Last year the training center added a video camera that streams live video.
“It helps because you can see more of the movement in there,” Slack said. “Instead of getting a snapshot it’s a live thing.”
The training center will soon offer teachers a Web-based curriculum on the role of eagles in nature that will include lesson plans, videos and other bald eagle resource materials:
“It’s a good way to bring a class into understanding about nature and give them the opportunity from a remote location to see something like this,” Slack said.
Slack says the fact that anyone can watch this pair of eagles successfully nest year after year is a testament to the success of the endangered species act:
“In 1963 there were basically less than 500 pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states,” Slack said. “Right now the endangered species act has helped get those birds off of the endangered species list and we’re looking at in excess of 10,000 pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48.”
The pair near Shepherdstown has helped contribute to the expanding eagle population. Since 2005 they’ve successfully hatched seven babies that survived and eventually left the nest.
The female has laid two eggs so far. The first was laid Saturday; the second came on Tuesday. If there is a third egg, it will show up on Friday. Eagles lay eggs every three days and only lay up to three.