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By: Debs (offline) on Tuesday, August 23 2016 @ 01:30 PM EDT (Read 37887 times)
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Welcome to Belle and Smitty's 2017 Nesting Season.


This thread is a tribute to the NCTC resident pair; Belle, Smitty and their kids specifically to document their life events over the next year with particular
focus on the nesting season. Please note we call the resident male Smitty but he is also called Shep, Ben and even Spot on some other chat/observation forums.
Nest Location - NCTC Grounds - Shepherdstown, West Virgina
The eagle nest is located approximately 75 miles from Washington, D.C. on the campus of The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' National Conservation Training Center. The campus is in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, approximately 1/4 mile from the Potomac River.

Important Dates - 2017 Nesting Season
•Adults Return: This pair does not migrate they remain in the nest area all year long as there is food aplenty.
•Intrusions: March 30 2016 - Owl Lands at Nest; Mom protects the kids! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1o2G3YP4ys
Important Milestones - 2017 Nesting Season
Intrusions: Dec 23 2016 - Adult - Young - Likely 4.5 years old; visited the nest; mostly white head and tail feathers; some dark feathers blended in tail and head feathers but nearly all white.
Intrusions: Dec 24, 2016 - Immature Adult - Visited Nest - Likely around 3 years old
Intrusions: Feb 25, 2017 - Young Adult Eagle - Entered nest; Dad lunged at it and chased it out of the nest; two eggs appear unharmed.
Intrusions: Feb 26 2017 - Intruder Above the Nest - No visual
Jan 7 2017 - Belle spent her first night on the nest. She stayed 13 hours on the nest (556 pm to 7 am)
Dec 30 2016 - Bonding at the nest.
2017 Nesting Season
Eggs Laid: Two; Feb 17, Feb 20 2017
Hatched: Mar 26, Mar 28 2017
First chick died shortly after hatch.
Second chick started to show signs of stress in the early evening of Day 3; not interested in eating and appeared sluggish just before dark.
April 1 No sign of the chick; presumed it passed away during the night; Mom removed the body from the nest. Heartbreak for this pair!
Important Links
Note the cams are off line hopefully they will be back up and running soon - Live stream came back on line on Nov 22 2016
Link to the 2016 NCTC Nesting Season
forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=816353
Link to live bald eagle web pan tilt zoom cam view
http://outdoorchannel.com/eaglecam
Still Cam can be found here
http://www.fws.gov/nctc/cam/stillimage.html
Eagle Cam Updates from the NCTC & Outdoor Channel are shared here
http://outdoorchannel.com/content.aspx?id=3933
Friends of the National Conservation Training Center
http://www.friendsofnctc.org/index.htm
Here are some Face Book sites that support and provide information on Belle, Smitty.
Bald Eagles 101
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1690426617860075/
Outdoor Channel Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/LiveEagleCam ........... Live Eagle Cam
Hatch Timelines
Experience shows that the first egg often hatches around Day 38 and the second egg hatches a bit earlier often Day 36 or 37 as a result of the "cooling period"
of the first egg thereby promoting a closer hatch of the eggs. Once all the eggs are laid then the birds generally incubate the eggs continuously.
In 2014 Belle cooled the egg one night for 6 hours straight and we speculated it was because she had a third egg to lay, which turned out to be the case.
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 please use this video symbol to introduce your video 
Please keep bold and color text to a minimum.
Please do not use animated or altered screen captures here.
Smilies are okay please limit them; smilies are not allowed during the body of the 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.
We look forward to another great season ... growing along side Belle, Smitty and their kids
Recognition and Thanks
Our small team here at HWF would like to extend our warmest thanks to the members that contribute to our journal here ... its your observations, pictures, reports from the ground, screen captures and videos that supports this educational project so warmest thanks to you all!
May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Tuesday, August 23 2016 @ 01:57 PM EDT
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May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Tuesday, August 23 2016 @ 01:58 PM EDT
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Debs |
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May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Tuesday, August 23 2016 @ 04:05 PM EDT
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May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Tuesday, August 23 2016 @ 04:06 PM EDT
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Debs |
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May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Tuesday, August 23 2016 @ 04:07 PM EDT
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Projected Hatch Timelines - 2017 Nesting Season

May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Friday, September 30 2016 @ 05:32 PM EDT
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Sept 30 2016

The new 2017 Nest Observation/Discussion thread is open for business!
Doreen and friends
Cam Update
I sent a message to Steve Chase for an update and he is currently off the grid so he will give us an update on the cam maintenance when he returns.
Talons crossed we have the cams back on line soon!
May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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By: Debs (offline) on Friday, September 30 2016 @ 05:44 PM EDT
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A letter of thanks was extended to a small team that worked collectively together last season to report on the behavior of the NCTC eagle family so i thought i would share it here.
It was a pleasure to work with Doreen, Debi, Lois and Terri and everyone that helped on this science initiative.

Thanks to Lois Johnson-Mead, Intern, NCTC for the beautifully crafted letter ... it was our pleasure working with you and we cannot wait to see what 2017 brings :-)
May you enjoy all of the simple "pleasures or gifts" that surround you.
Let your spirit soar!
To light a Candle for a loved one or friend right click on the link that follows and copy to your browser
http://light-candle.com/collections/view/33353/success
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