Rainfall puts a damperon eagles’ care for young

CALAIS – Think about the difficulties of raising kids in a home with holes in the roof.

Now think about rain, day in and day out for two weeks.

That is what it is like to be the mother eagle sitting in a nest high atop a utility poll at the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

In April, a pair of nesting eagles welcomed the birth of one, maybe two eaglets. Rain, which at times has been a real toad strangler, has kept the female glued to the nest to shelter the young. Refuge personnel haven’t been able to count how many chicks have hatched.

The National Weather Service reported Monday that the sun may shine through later in the week to provide some relief, with temperatures expected to rise to around 70 degrees.

“It would give the adults a break if there was some sunshine,” refuge biologist Maurry Mills said. “Let them get off [the nest] and rest a little bit.”

Although there hasn’t been a break in nursery care, Mills said he did not believe the wet weather would jeopardize the life of the chick or chicks. “I don’t think so, as long as the adults are pretty faithful [to the nest],” he said.

The nesting pair returned to the refuge in late February to begin spring housecleaning.

Last year, one eaglet hatched around May 5, but this year, the parents were spotted sitting on the nest in mid-March. It takes about 90 days from when the young hatch until they fledge. Mills said that, because of the earlier start, this year’s chick or chicks will be ready to fledge around the middle of July.

If only one hatched this year, it would be the 17th eaglet produced by the mom and pop eagle in the nest they have called home for 15 years.

The majestic pair of eagles returns each summer to the nest built in the refuge on a platform atop a utility pole near heavily traveled U.S. Route 1.

The pair winters in the Cobscook Bay area.