The situation with the eagles’ second egg
Roodepoort's beloved Verreaux's eagles (black eagles) have officially laid their first egg, but what is the story with the second?
Eagles Makatsa and Thulane have officially laid their first egg, but no one is quite sure about the second egg.
If you’re a nature lover and you’re familiar with the black eagles’ mating patterns, then you most definitely know that a second egg is laid shortly after the first.
But, if you read last week’s article in the Northsider, then you know that the first egg is confirmed to have been laid, yet there is no confirmation of the second.
According to Black Eagle Project Roodekrans (BEPR) chairperson, Gerald Draper, the second egg usually follows shortly after the first.
“The eagles usually lay the second four days after the first one,” Gerald said.
Also Read: Watch the Black Eagles live on webcam
However, despite being able to confirm the first, they are unable to definitely confirm the laying of the second.
This is in part due to the limited access they have to Makatsa and Thulane’s new nest after the old one washed away in a storm in March.
“Unfortunately we don’t have a webcam on the new nest as we did with the old one, so that makes monitoring the nest a lot more difficult,” Gerald admitted.
Gerald was however able to provide a date by which the first egg could hatch.
“We have calculated the hatch date to be about 16 June, and we will continue monitoring the nest for any activity indicating hatching.”
As they get closer to the estimated hatch date, they will intensify the monitoring of the nest by doubling their monitoring shifts so that they don’t miss a thing.
“When Makatsa and Thulane start bringing prey back to the nest, that usually means the egg has hatched. So we’ll be looking out for that,” Gerald explained.
When the first egg hatches, the eaglet will have a short period to develop before the second hatches, which the first usually kills (it’s all part of their development).
At the moment however, Gerald and his colleagues at BEPR can only presume that the second egg has been laid and hope that development goes as usual.
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