Research Update #4 - July

New nest sites continue to emerge from the social web that has been cast.  Three more nesting sites added to my database in the last week.  A fortnight ago was the first of what will become regular whirlwind checks of the Durban nests – three days and a dozen of phone calls can pretty much sort most of them out.  I hope to get estimated egg laying dates, which are then followed up by more accurate hatch dates.  The next round is underway tomorrow.


From the historical records of nest sites observed by many of the interested residents and guardians of these eagles, I am beginning to develop a timeline for there breeding cycle.  In these seasonal latitudes of Natal, the birds appear to be quite synchronous in their egg laying time - and from a couple of anecdotal examples, it seems that when they are delayed or re-layed for whatever reason, young are too small and seldom survive when the summer rain and heat strikes.


So, July is a busy time of renovations, and the pairs that are preparing to breed this spring are flying in leafy twigs to their nests and creating a deep nest cup.  Good nests have high walls that conceal the incubating female from all but very elevated observation points.

elevated viewpoints are very valuable assets - a tiny gap in the canopy is enough

fresh leafy eucalypt sticks piling up on the nest

some seem to know they're being photographed and strike a 'model's pose'

an enormous high walled nest dwarfs the eagle sitting low and watchful

The nest sites are many a varied, the scale of the blue gums, both in number of available sites, and the sheer size of some of these trees, make for great solid nesting opportunities. 


Here are a few examples of where these urban eagles might chose to build a nest site … can you see them?

make the first one easy to find

exposed - you think the first one was exposed?!

getting cryptic, but still easy enough

umm, some zoom please - this nest is just 90 meters from an industrial site

good luck finding this one