Decorah bald eagle family expands

A closely observed Decorah family of bald eagles is rapidly expanding.

The eagles, whose every move can be seen and heard on the Raptor Resource Project Web site, have at least two eggs in their nest at the Decorah Hatchery, with more coming soon.

The first egg arrived about 6 p.m. Thursday, and the second likely arrived Sunday morning. The egg was visible Sunday afternoon, according to Bob Anderson of Bluffton, the project's founder and director.

With a 2 1/2 day interval between eggs, the third and probably last egg should arrive by Wednesday morning, Anderson said.

“Now that incubation has begun, there will be at least one eagle in the nest almost all the time,” he said.

March weather in Iowa is too cold for the eggs to be left untended for more than a minute or two, Anderson said.

Incubation, which is shared equally by the male and female, takes about 35 days, and the eggs will hatch within a few days of each other in the first week of April, he said.

At any given time, about 350 people are watching the eagles via a Webcam mounted above the nest.

“It's been so popular that viewers are automatically removed from the site after 15 minutes to keep the site from bogging down,” Anderson said.

After accessing the site, click on “NestViewer/Bird Cams” in the screen's top center, and then click on the eagle.