Female missing in eagle nest. New one appears. And it's time to lay eggs.
SOUTH BEND — A pair of American bald eagles are tending the rebuilt nest at St. Patrick’s County Park — in that late February time when eggs could be laid on any day — but the resident female of the past few years is missing.
Viewers of the University of Notre Dame’s live “eagle cam” video say they last saw her on Feb. 15. It’s not clear what happened to her. Viewers, commenting in the video chat on YouTube, say they didn’t witness any fight or struggle with the new female, which would have been reminiscent of last spring’s fight between females in downtown South Bend’s peregrine falcon nest.
The new female arrived soon afterwards. She is a younger bird, as bird watchers can tell from her plumage. And she has been cuddling and bonding with the male in the nest.
Lindsay Grossmann, of the South Bend-Elkhart Audubon Society, suggested that the original female could possibly be injured from a fight or other incident. If seen, she said, you could report it to a wildlife rehabilitation expert, such as Humane Indiana Wildlife (219-299-8027), which last year nursed a young eagle who’d fallen from the same nest and returned it.
Still, nest watchers haven’t noticed wounds on the new female that might suggest a fight.
On egg watch
There may still be a chance that the new female could lay eggs, though it may take a while, said Brett Peters, who has been operating the eagle cam since Notre Dame installed it in 2017. Peters is assistant director of Notre Dame’s Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility at the park.
He said the latest that an eagle pair have laid eggs at the St. Patrick’s nest was March 5 in 2020. The earliest egg laid there was Feb. 18 in 2021, according to Notre Dame records.
The eagles have laid and hatched eggs and raised eaglets there each year since 2015 after taking over a red-tailed hawk nest. Last fall, the eagles rebuilt the nest after it totally collapsed during the summer.
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“We were on egg watch,” Grossmann said of recent weeks, since the original female had been mating with the male. “According to others on camera (chat), it will most likely take the pair a while to get in synch and lay. She is also estimated to be around 4 years old, based on plumage. Females don't always lay on their first attempt. So we expect a late season, if we get one at all. There is also still a chance the original female could return, which would likely mean a fight.”
Federal protection for eagles
Egg laying and incubating marks a particularly sensitive time in and around the nest — a critical time for park visitors to keep their distance.
Visitors must stay at least 300 feet from the nest through the spring. They can visit Notre Dame's viewing platform to look at the nest through binoculars but can't go any further beyond the ropes there, Leslie Witkowski, deputy director of St. Joseph County Parks, said. The pavilion can be reached via the grassy trail that extends east of the park gate along Laurel Road. But, she said, visitors shouldn't venture east from Laurel Road anywhere south of there.
“There are signs, but some people think they can disregard those," Grossman added. "They shouldn't. The last thing anyone wants to do is further disturb the nest as they (the eagles) could abandon it altogether. There are federal laws protecting the eagles for a reason.”
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This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Bald eagle female missing in St. Patrick's park nest on Notre Dame cam
