One Lucky Eaglet!

[Donna]

On Friday May 13th the eagle banding team met to visit two eagle nests in Cumberland County. The first nest visit went smoothly, two healthy chicks were banded, blood samples and measurements were taken.  The second nest was located on an island out in the salt marsh. As we approached the island we could see that the nest looked somewhat small and it looked like some nesting material had fallen out of the tree.  As we got closer to the nest tree both of the adult eagles appeared and were making their alarm calls (which is normal) when we go out to band an active nest. As Mick Valent, Principal Zoologist with the Endangered and Nongame Species Program, prepared to climb the tree we started to look for prey items which we collect at each nest. One of the eagle project volunteers made a sad discovery, the remains of a 4-5 week old eagle chick.

http://www.conservewildlifenj.or/blog/?p=1723

Rest of story and pics here. Sad but happy ending

[valhalla]