The Forum Has Moved!

Updated May 2017

Posts for the 2017 Nesting Season Begin Here





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. The female is called Hope and the males are called Valor I and Valor II. 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

Important Dates 2017 Nesting Season

Intrusions:

Eggs Laid: Jan 26; Jan 29 2017; Feb 1 2017

Hatch Dates: March 7 2017 4am (Stormy) March 9 2017 11.20am (Sunny)

Branching: (Staying on branch for at least half an hour): Stormy: May 18th Sunny: May 23rd.
First proper attempts: Sunny May 12th 2017. Stormy May 13th 2017.

Fledged: May 30th. First Stormy from big branch and then Sunny from left side of nest an hour and a half later.

Hope was in a fight on the evening of the March 24th 5.55pm. The fight lasted an hour and Hope left. She has not returned. Both Males have stepped up to care for the chicks.

Mini milestones: Stormy stood for nearly half a minute on April 15th.
April 16 evening they were alone in the nest, all night.
April 17th Stormy managed to hold down meat and self a few bites.
April 18th Sunny is consistently standing up as well.Both trying to self feed.


We have done up Id guides to Valor1 and Valor2, check the thread.


Fulton Trio History

• 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. 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 cam went off line on April 10 2016 so unfortunately we missed quite a bit of the 2016 Nesting Season

This history was provided from Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge website
http://stewardsumrr.org/webcams/bald-ea ... -cam-live/ © 2017 StewardsUMRR, JCWiFi

Meet the Trio

Testing the bowl!


Highlights of the 2016 Nesting Season


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!




Summary of the 2016 Nesting Season

•Adults Return: Not sure if these eagles migrate since they live in a area rich in resources; we will have to monitor and observe this.

•Intrusions: Great Horned Owls, Juvenile Eagle just prior to egg laying.

Eggs Laid: Feb 1, Feb 4 & Feb 7, 2016

•Hatched: - Three Chicks hatched; March 10; March 12; March 14, 2016

•Branching - Unknown Dates; Cam was off line by then.

•Fledged - All three chicks successfully fledged.

•Juveniles last seen: Unknown

The live cam went off line on April 10 2016 so we missed the remaining part of the season!

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

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 may deleting posts that are not directly related to maintaining an accurate journal here.

Great Horned Owls have been visiting the nest occasionally so there could be a territorial dispute here if the GHO do not leave the territory.

Here is a video and some captures i got of the GHO visiting and bonding at the eagle's nest on January 4 2016


Owl Visits - Lock and Dam 13 Eagle Nest - 2nd Owl Arrives - Bonding Occurs - Jan 4 2016

https://youtu.be/_MiZuRfM7ME

History of the Fulton Nesting Pairs & Trio

History Up to 2015

Camera restored December 11, 2015.
The trio have been seen building on the nest, which is located closer to the road. Tree that was used in 2015 in no longer in existence.
The trio of one female and two males have been working on building up the nest through out November and December. A pair of great horned owls have been there throughout the evening and possible looking to take over the nest. Great Horned Owls were seen pair bonding and copulating on Jan 3rd.

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 laid, adults 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.
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
2015 – 3 young fledged

Thanks to the Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge for the statistical information on these birds.

Here is a capture of the three views available at this nest.

A few more captures from this afternoon visit

WOW Debs! That nest does not have a very good history does it? So many sad things happening! I sure hope they do better this season!

Mary lots of heartbreak at many eagle nests and this one has had its fair share ... talons crossed for a great nesting season for this trio

Three Eagles Together - Lock 13 - Fulton, IL - January 9 2016 - Part One of Two Videos

https://youtu.be/JDndUBW97iY


Three Eagles Together - Lock 13 - Fulton, IL - January 9 2016 - Part Two

https://youtu.be/KtWEskNLW24

There was a solo visit before dark too ...

Time on captures



Looks like excitement is growing for the nesting season!


It was a short visit before dark then poof nest was MT again.

745 pm
Nest is still MT.