Like babies taking their first steps, the bald eagle nestlings of Hays have completed their first flights. The first to fledge stepped off a branch June 11. The second’s awkward initial flight occurred June 16.
A third egg laid in February cracked and failed to hatch.
Rachel Handel, spokeswoman for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, said both Hays fledges were considered successful. A live-streaming camera operated by CSE and Audubon shows the nest occasionally empty for the first time since the eggs were laid.
“The eaglets will continue to return to the nest, and have been seen back in the nest, until they leave for good to find their own new territories,” said Ms. Handel.
The resourceful parents have nested on the same steep hillside overlooking the Monongahela River in Hays since 2013. In that time they’ve rebuilt their nest three times, once when its tree collapsed in a windstorm. They’ve had just one unsuccessful nesting season and have fledged 10 eaglets. The birds hang around near the nest for a few weeks before going off on their own.
“Once the birds leave the nest, we don’t know where they go,” said Ms. Handel. “The first year of life is the most challenging. If bald eagles make it past that first year, statistically they are likely to reach 15-plus years of age.”
In five years they establish their own territories, choose a mate and build their first nest.
“They’re mature and ready to breed when the feathers on their head have turned completely white,” she said. “The immature eagles will not return to the nests where they were born -- this territory belongs to their parents and [they] will actively drive the younger eagles away, even if they happened to be their own offspring.”
This year at another Allegheny County bald eagle nest site in Harmar, the parents built a new nest in a tree on the same cliff face but beyond the view of Audubon’s live-streaming camera. Audubon staff and volunteers have monitored the nest from the ground.
“The Harmar nest has two successful hatches this year,” said Ms. Handel. “The birds are branching and preparing for their first flights.”
No camera is mounted over an eagle pair that nested for the first time in North Park this year. Ground observation indicated they didn’t hatch an egg. Bald eagle pairs in Crescent and Glassport are not monitored by eagle experts.
John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: June 17, 2019, 7:45 p.m.