Coastal Journal: Lesson in avian love nest saga

The eagle pair at Norfolk Botanical Garden, made famous by WVEC's Eagle Cam, is reunited after a three-week saga worthy of a soap opera.

After mating and laying two eggs in the beginning of February, the eagle female was settled on the nest, and male had settled into his role of bringing home the bacon - the Eagle Cam rolling all the while.

Then came Valentine's Day, which proved to be the couple's undoing. Domestic bliss was disrupted when a young female eagle home wrecker arrived on the scene.

The sweet young thing harassed the sitting female several times, finally chasing her off the nest. The newcomer put her talons into the male, so to speak, and he was smitten.

The intruding eagle was barely of age to mate, only 4 and young enough to be his daughter. The May-December couple did get together, however, and it appeared that a new family was under way.

In the meantime, biologists decided to remove the two baseball-sized eggs from the nest after the original female stayed away from the eggs so long that they would have gotten too cold to hatch.

Now the eggs are being tested at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to learn how far the embryos had developed and if there was any environmental containment.

After a short few days' dalliance, the fickle young female disappeared from the scene. The original female came back after a five-day absence to her errant man and their nest.

By the end of February the pair were billing and cooing. They mated once again and biologists have hopes she will lay more eggs and there will be a successful nest after all.

As it has for three years, the WVEC Eagle Cam recorded the whole scenario. Reese Lukei, a research associate with the College of William and Mary's Center for Conservation Biology, and garden grounds manager Joe Foreman are the two locals who try to keep a watchful eye on the pair both from in front of their computer screens and in front of the nest in the garden.

The two along with two other scientists are affectionately called "zoomers" because they have the ability to zoom in on the nest or pan the garden from their home computers to monitor the birds.

Thanks to the Web cam, a joint project of the garden, WVEC and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the birds are the Brad and Angelina of th e eagle world. The WVEC site had 3 million hits last year and was named one of the top 10 best Web cam sites in the world by EarthCam, a network of live cams and search engine for Internet cameras.

To follow the story yourself, visit the eagle cam at www.norfolkbotanicalgarden.org. Click on Eagle Cam. At times when the nest is empty, you can see that the zoomers are panning the garden trying to pick up the eagles elsewhere.

Under "More about Eagles" on the right hand side of the eagle cam, click on "Extras" and you can get desktop wall paper of a magnificent shot of the eagle carrying nesting material in its talons taken by Foreman or you can send an e-card of that photo to a friend.

You also can click on the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries eagle blog, which gives a running commentary on the couple.

Diehard Internet users can follow a public eagle blog: www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/index.php?mforum=tdbc. They also can visit YouTube, where eagle videos have shown up.

Will the eagle pair's domestic bliss continue, or will the young hussy return? Visit the Eagle Cam to find out.