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http://www.newson6.com/category/163029/sutton-eagle-camera (http://www.newson6.com/category/163029/sutton-eagle-camera) Cam

VIAN, Oklahoma - Bird watchers around the world are being treated to an unusual sight in an eagle nest in eastern Oklahoma.
A great horned owl has begun incubating an abandoned bald eagle egg in a nest that has a camera installed on it.

The Sutton Center has used the cameras on nests near Vian and Stillwater for years to study bald eagles raising their young and to share the live pictures with a worldwide audience.

This year has illustrated the challenges the researchers face when studying nature.

A tree holding a nest and a camera in the Stillwater area collapsed in a wind storm near the end of 2012. Luckily no eagles had laid eggs in it.

A pair of eagles laid two eggs in the nest near Vian, but researchers say other adult eagles invaded the nesting pair's territory causing the pair to spend too much time off the nest and killing the eggs.

One of the eggs disappeared, but then a great horned owl showed up during the week of February 3, 2013, and began incubating the other one.

The researchers say it's an interesting phenomena, but not surprising.

"Female birds (and some males) are stimulated to incubate eggs, when influenced by hormones, and often may incubate almost any eggs in the vicinity when in that hormonal condition," according to the researchers.

They say the owl either lost her own clutch of eggs, but is still in the incubation phase of reproductive condition, or has come into "reproductive readiness" but has not bred.

They say she might be stimulated by the sight of the egg to incubate. They believe the "incubating drive" will likely wear off in a few days or could possibly continue for longer, even until the dead eagle egg explodes.

In the meantime, her presence offers a rare chance to see a great horned owl up close and in a completely natural state.

Nature teaches us every day! We need only look.  :yes:

I just read that the GHO laid its own egg today!

 :thumbsup:

I know it won't but imagine if the bald eagle egg hatched!!!! Would it be an Eagle Owl??  :whistle:

I just said that to Bill!  What if that egg does hatch!?

Mother Nature!  :heart:

That pic is really funny! 

The GHO laid its second egg today and the Eagle egg is still there!

Nice, thanks!!

Many decades ago, as a kid, I had a couple dozen chickens - mostly Bantams, Araucanas, and an old nasty Plymouth Rock hen.  I also had three big white Pekin ducks - two shes and a drake.  The ducks were prolific egg layers but wouldn't set.  The Banty hens would set for two or three hatches a year.  One year, when my best Banty setter decided she was ready for a new brood, I gave her four duck eggs.  She passed the 21 day chicken incubation period and stayed with the duck eggs through their 28 day incubation.  Three of the four hatched.  She was the best mom, leading them around the yard, protecting them from the other chickens and ducks, and scratching up seeds and grubs for the ducklings when their little webbed feet couldn't.  We didn't have a stream or pond - just an old half-drum sunk into the ground to make a small pool.  The mama Banty was beside herself watching her "kids" paddle around all day.  Sad part, though, was when she thought the ducklings were old enough to roost in the evening, she'd fly up into a tree in the yard and repeatedly call to them to join her.  They cried just as loudly to let her know it wasn't going to happen.  She'd eventually give in and join them for the night in their nest box.       

What a wonderful story!  Thanks for sharing it with us!

 :good post:  Neat little tale!  :clap:

Ahh, that was so cute Paul. Thanks for sharing! (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e105/CommentCrazyGirl/Smiley%20Animals/Birds%20Bugs/connie_duckywalk.gif)

Lovely story about the Banty hen and her ducklings! Proof of imprinting if ever there was one.

Another unusual development in the bald eagle nest taken over by a pair of great horned owls near Vian.
After laying two eggs in mid-December, the eagle pair started spending more and more time off the nest, so much so that the experts at the Sutton Avian Research Center believed the eggs died. The experts say the nesting pair was scared away by other adult bald eagles that had intruded into its territory.

One of the eagle eggs disappeared, but during the week of February 3, 2013, then a great horned owl started incubating the other one.

The female owl has since laid two eggs of her own, a common clutch for owls. But on the night of February 13, 2013, the bald eagle egg and one of the owl eggs disappeared. It's possible a predator got to the eggs, or they were accidentally broken by the owl.

It's also possible the rotten eagle egg broke, causing a sticky mess and allowing the missing owl egg to adhere to the owl's feather, who then may have unintentionally carried it off when leaving the nest.   :(

The center's cameras showed that same thing happening to a bald eagle several years ago.