Sunday, April 05, 2009

Ready to Hatch! Duke Farms Eagle Cam

I'm sure I'm not the first bird blogger to post this... NJ residents are excited about the Duke Farms Eagle Cam. The eggs are apparantly ready to hatch any moment. I've had the link sent to me by a few non-birders and have seen a bunch of people post about it on Facebook, so it's been great local PR for the birds. Duke Farms is Doris Duke's estate located about 12 miles from me in Hillsborough, NJ. Although the property is private, NJ Audubon runs birding and nature trips there throughout the year. In partnership with Rutgers, Duke Farms has put together a tremendous environmental stewardship program. The habitat, especially the grasslands, are phenomenal. In recent years, they have had breeding Henslow's Sparrow and Dickcissel! These are both very rare breeders in NJ.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

While I was watching this morning, the mate landed in the nest, bringing a squirrel. The nesting eagle moved and we could see the two eggs yet unhatched and the chick who was moving around!

It was really amazing. Unfortunately, the cam goes out from time to time, so it's often down.

lorraine
Milford, NJ

Brian Clough said...

Thanks for the plug, Patrick!

We are still working out technical issues with the cam system. We've actually had very few outages, and are hoping we'll work the kinks out soon!