HANOVER, Pa. — With the Hanover Eagle Nest's second egg landing on Tuesday, some avid birdwatchers are still eager to know whether the first egg is viable.
Viewers shared screengrabs of the first egg from the 24/7 live stream of the nest provided by HDonTap and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, citing some concerns and confusion.
“There’s too much disruption at the nest right now,” said Karen Lippy, an avid birdwatcher and visitor to the nest since it was first spotted in Codorus State Park in 2003.
Lippy said there have been an extended amount of times that Duke and Duchess -- the names given to this year's nesting pair by Eagle Cam viewers -- have spent away from the nest, leaving the egg exposed to the cold.
“The male is so busy chasing this other male that he doesn’t have time to come in and help the female and she can’t do it herself,” said Lippy. She added, “He has to help to provide food here and has to help incubate the eggs.”
Lippy said the female incubates 70 percent of the time, and the male does 30 percent, she needs that 30 percent to go out and hunt for herself and get off the nest and stretch her wings, and without him helping she can’t do any of that.
Many have cited that the lack of caring and incubating the egg has shown the pair's inexperience. FOX43 reached out to the PA Game Commission for an answer to why the pair seems to struggling with their first egg and if it’s still viable.
“Even a new pair has to pair bond and even during that pair bonding their hormonal cycles will sync up to be more efficient when it comes to fertilizing that egg,” said Sean Murphy, Ornithologist at the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
“Even at those very early stages of a pair, if things are still just not synced up yet, as a male and female they might just produce an infertile egg, and then you have an egg in the nest that might not hatch.”
So is the first egg viable?
Will it hatch along with the second?
Will there be any development issues?
Both Lippy and Murphy say that viewers will have to wait and see.
However, instances where eagles destroy the egg are rare, but not zero according to Murphy.
He explained there are cases where different species will continue to incubate well after they should’ve hatched due to the drive to reproduce in that nesting season.
“There are cases that birds will get rid of eggs when they don’t appear to be viable but I will say more times than not they will continue to incubate that egg because they made that energetic investment that egg,” said Murphy.
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