First off I'd like to give a huge thank you to Debs for starting this thread in 2016. Most of the text below is all due to her hard work in putting this together. Thank you Debs!

Welcome to the observation thread devoted to a Fulton Trio of eagles ... yes three adult bald eagles, one female and two males that share a nest at Fulton, Illinois.
Apparently this trio have been together since 2013 although the Trio's activity has not been documented via live cam until 2016. Please see the Past Nest History for more details. These birds are not banded or wing blinged.

We look forward to your contributions and extend our warmest thanks to the members and viewers that contribute to our journal here ... its your observations, captures and videos that enhances the learning process, which makes our experience here much more enjoyable ... so warmest thanks to you all! There is a copyright requirement when sharing screen captures, video or any images so please read the posting guidelines below.

The nest is located on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in Fulton, IL

Cam and Important Links

Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge with Cam Link

http://stewardsumrr.org/

Direct Link to the Trio Eagle Cam

http://stewardsumrr.org/webcams/bald-ea ... -cam-live/

Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge - Facebook Link

https://www.facebook.com/stewardsoftheu ... CH&fref=nf


PAST HISTORY OF THE TRIO NEST

• 2004 – The nest and eggs were destroyed by high winds.
• 2005 – The nest and eggs were destroyed by high winds.
• 2006 – One mate died after flying into an electrical power line. The other mate abandoned the nest and eggs.
• 2007 – Two young fledged.
• 2008 – Three young fledged.
• 2009 – One chick fledged, but flew into an electrical power line and died.
• 2010 – Three chicks fledged.
• 2011 – The nest was relocated and webcam installed. Wooden supports were added to the old nest for stability.
• 2011 – Eggs were laid, but parents abandoned nest. The tree collapsed in June, due to wind.
• 2012 – Nest was rebuilt in old location, near Lock and Dam 13. Two eggs were laid and eventually hatched. Behavior of male (Valor) indicated that he was young and didn’t know exactly what to do. He had limited interest in incubation and feeding. Both eggs hatched, but each eaglet at 3 days old perished.
• 2013 – New nest location. Three adults were around nest. Behavior indicated that Valor I was replaced with Valor II. The pair successfully raised 2 eaglets.
• Working on moving camera to new location. We need to raise some money to purchase electrical wire.
• Camera was placed in mid November, 2013 at nest location. However, there are several new nests being built. We are waiting to see where they settle before proceeding with camera setup.
• 2014 – unable to see nest due to vegetation, saw three adults eagles around the nest.
• 2015 – Eagles worked on two different nest locations. Nest that was used in 2013 was the site they used at the last minute. Unable to get camera hooked up due to disturbance. 3 eaglets were fledged. Three adult eagle were seen around the nest site.
• 2016 – Trio of eagles (two males, one female) successfully fledged 3 young. Finally documented that indeed all three are sharing in all aspects of nesting. Video was taken of all three copulating, building the nest and raising the young.
Note: The cams went down in April of 2016 and unfortunately we missed quite a bit of the 2016 nesting season.

2017- Two eaglets hatched and one egg remained for the duration of the season. On March 24, 2017 Mom Hope went into battle with intruders. An extensive search was conducted the by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for her. She was never found. Both Dad’s stepped up and did an amazing job of successfully raising the 2 eaglets to fledge.

Link to the thread for the previous nesting season

Meet the two males of the nest. This is Valor 1! We have Cheryl and Sandy to thank for doing a wonderful job on the identification photo's for both males.



This is Valor 2.


Both of the males.

We have another wonderful ID photo done for us by Sandy. Thank you Sandy! This will help all of us and new viewers.

Posting Guidelines

We welcome all observations and discussions about eagles here and we ask all members to treat each other with mutual respect.

For continuity feel free to use this video symbol to introduce your video Video Camera

Please keep bold and color text to a minimum.

Stewards invites anyone to share photo screen captures and video screen captures provided by this high definition cam. Since these photos can be copied and duplicated over and over, we request that when you post these up to Facebook, IG, Websites, Blogs, or another social media location, the following information be included at the end of your photo/video caption:
© 2017 StewardsUMRR, JCWiFi. We cannot allow the embedding of the live feed on third party websites. We appreciate your cooperation!

Please do not use animated or altered screen captures here.

Smilies are okay please limit them; smilies are not recommended during the body of eagle observations.

Please limit the pictures in each post to no more than a total of 150,000 bytes (150KB) and to avoid horizontal scrolling pictures or scaps (screen captures) may not exceed
500 pixels wide - though it's fine to post a 500-pixel-wide thumbnail that clicks to a much larger picture. Three captures per post is recommended.

From time to time we will deleting posts that are not directly related to maintaining an accurate journal here.


Please note the following with regards to sharing screen captures or videos ... this is copied from the Stewards of the Upper Mississippi web site. Stewards invites anyone to share photo screen captures and video screen captures provided by this high definition cam. Since these photos can be copied and duplicated over and over, we request that when you post these up to Facebook, IG, Websites, Blogs, or another social media location, the following information be included at the end of your photo/video caption:
© 2017 StewardsUMRR, JCWiFi. We cannot allow the embedding of the live feed on third party websites. We appreciate your cooperation!

Reserved for

Summary of the 2018 Nesting Season

Eggs Laid:
#1 Saturday February 10, 2018 at 3:44 pm,
#2 Tuesday February 13, 2018 at 6:10 pm.

Hatched:

Branching:

Fledged:

In Memory of Mom Hope

Thought long and hard about adding this today. She deserves this special section. She lost her life protecting her babies, defending the nest from intruders. Mom Hope may you fly free and soar high. Please watch over the Dads and the babies.

Mom Hope feeding her little Trio in 2016.


Mom is standing. She was one truly beautiful eagle.


Mom feeding Stormy and Sunny in 2017.


Added note from Cheryl:

At the Trio nest, the loss of Hope was a blow to us all, it caused a lot of tears, anguish and emotion. We watched with pride as both of the fathers raised their two eaglets and continued to hope that somehow, she had just gone somewhere to recover and it took a long time. We held faith with that, even when the season ended. For many of us, the hope she would return did not die.

We now know however that this is not the case, a new female has been wooed and is currently with the two Valors. As eagles mate for life, it is confirmation that Hope was unable to recover from her wounds. We share in the grief and sadness this knowledge causes. Hope was a wonderful mother and a truly beautiful Eagle.

For the 2018 season that is now upon us, we must move forward. Hope lives on in our minds and memories, but we must not let that take away the joy of the start of the new life that Valor one and Valor two, plus their new lady will bring. Let us celebrate and move forward with the new nest, new lady, new season. Our focus remains now entirely on the present.

Reserved

Reserved