Oklahoma Bald Eagle Nest Cameras Show Nature At Work

Cameras set up on two bald eagle nests in Oklahoma showed Mother Nature at her harshest and most wondrous this week.  

People around the world had been watching three eaglets growing in a nest in the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge near Vian, thanks to cameras installed and operated by the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville.

Hatched in late January, all three appeared to be doing well.  The two older chicks had already starting growing their first real feathers and were almost as big as the adults.  Then tragedy struck.

The youngest chick still had its down when a cold front brought rain and gusty north winds to the nest on the night of March 7-8.  The chick, which some commenters had taken to calling Little Bit, died on the morning of March 8.

According to the Sutton Center experts, the chick was too big to be warmed by an adult, but still had its down.

"Down provides warmth to the chicks especially during calm, dry weather, but unless it is covered with the dark brown body feathers seen on the older chicks (similar to a waterproof shell over a down jacket), this insulation provides little thermal protection when it becomes soaked. In this case, no longer brooded by the adults and unable to shed the cold and blowing rain, this chick has likely died of hypothermia. We all know how much colder we quickly become when subjected to both rain and high winds when without a shell (or adult feathers in the case of this eaglet)," wrote the Sutton Center.

On Friday, March 9, 2012, the Center turned on a camera at a nest at Sooner Lake near Stillwater.  For years a pair of eagles had been using a nest built on a steel tower erected specifically for the purpose, but this year chose to use another site called the Dead Tree Nest.  

View NewsOn6.com's Bald Eagle Nest Camera page.

The female adult laid three eggs on that nest and is incubating them.  The Center constantly reminds anyone who watches the cameras that they're seeing nature up close and sometimes it's not a pretty picture.

Just last week the Center had to use a crane to clean off the lenses at the Vian nest, because the eagles had been a little careless in relieving themselves.

3/2/2012:  Related Story:  Messy Bald Eagles 'Obscure' Cameras At Oklahoma Nest