March 29 2024, 6:45 pm - This is the longer version of video • Premature Egg Lost at ... , showing more of the labor and of Mom Brit eating the remains of the egg, and is being uploaded for research as this is an unusual occurrence, based on my 18 years of watching eagle cams.
Description: the eagles at our Surrey Reserve bald eagle cam nest in BC laid their first egg of the season at about 1:53 pm on March 27, and we were expecting to see a second egg March 30, probably in the early afternoon. Unfortunately, some internal timing was off, and it looks as if Mom Brit went into labor the evening of March 29 (about 2 days, 5 hours after the first egg), and the egg came out before it was ready. It appeared to collapse shortly after she rolled it into the nest cup, and she ate the remains of the egg. That sounds a bit odd - but makes a lot of sense because it lets her take back the nutrients that went into making the egg, so there is a chance that she may lay a fully formed egg in another 3-4 days. The first 14 minutes shows the view from the overhead/North cam, showing Mom Brit arriving at the nest and taking over incubation from Dad Rey, the labor, a closer look at the original egg (which is intact though there's nest material on it) and the new egg, and then Brit eating the collapsed eggshell and contents. It then switches briefly to the South/side view cam to show the arrival of the egg and Brit rolling it into the nest. The video ends with a look at the remaining egg a little later, showing that it appears to still be intact. You can watch the cams live at [url]hancockwildlife.org/surrey-re...[/url] and read more about the eagles on our forum here - [url]forum.hancockwildlife.org/vie...[/url]. ~JudyB