Webcam Eagle Chicks Fail To Survive Nor'Easter

[matcom]

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HANCOCK COUNTY — The nor’easter that battered the East Coast this week has claimed the lives of two eagle chicks that hatched just days before the storm hit.

Researchers at the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham believe that two chicks had hatched in the nest last week. On Thursday, they confirmed that the chicks apparently did not survive the storm.

The area around the nest site — an undisclosed location in coastal Hancock County — looks like a war zone, according to Wing Goodale, a research biologist at the institute and the eagle cam project director. High winds had knocked down trees in the area and broken limbs from the nesting tree and the tree that holds the camera, he said.

"The nest is exposed to the northeast, so it was not protected at all from this storm," Goodale said Friday. "They just got hammered."

The storm came at the worst possible time for the young chicks, during the first week of their lives, he said. With just light downy feathers and no way to keep themselves warm, they likely got wet and cold and died of hypothermia, he said.

The adult eagles did everything they could to protect the chicks, Goodale said.

"They stayed with them through the storm," he said. "They did nest switches and didn’t leave the chicks for a moment. They hung right in there. It was just too much all together"

Rain and high winds along the coast also hindered the ability of the adult eagles to hunt for food, although viewers of the eagle cam also observed several feedings during the storm.

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