PITTSBURGH (TNS) — The bald eagles Irvin and Stella welcomed their first egg at the U.S. Steel Irvin Plant site in West Mifflin Thursday afternoon, officially kicking off eagle season.
The steelmaker and PixCams of Murrysville offer a live webcam for the public to view the nest 24/7 and a chatroom with nest updates.
“We’re honored that Stella laid her first egg at our nest, surrounded by all the friends and family of U.S. Steel webcam watchers,” said Don German, manager of U.S. Steel Irvin Plant.
Throughout the Pittsburgh area, the national bird has been prepping for little eaglets.
Local birds have been busy catching fish for their mates as courtship gifts and making nestorations at their famously spacious, six-foot-wide aeries.
It’s breeding time — providing a different reason to say “Go eagles!”
The formerly endangered birds lay one to three eggs typically from mid-February through March in Pennsylvania. Eggs are laid and hatch consecutively within one to several days apart.
Both parents pull nest duty incubating the eggs around-the-clock, until hatching in 35 days, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Eagle couples in Harmar, Lower Burrell and Shaler have been spotted in and near established nests. The bald eagles continue to be spotted in North Park with, alas, no known nest.
Pairs have been spotted in barrel-roll courtship flights with interlocking talons and tumbles in mid-air, including above Sharpsburg in the last month.
No new pairs of nesting bald eagles have been reported yet in Allegheny County, said Andy Harvey, information and education supervisor and a game warden in the Pennsylvania Game Commission Southwest Region Office. That could change, however, as the dapper and easily identifiable birds are hard to miss with that sweeping wingspan of six to seven feet.
They can build a new nest within days, though hopes are fading for a rebuilt bald eagle nest in the Hays neighborhood.
For more than a decade, a dynamic pair dominated attention via a live webcam sponsored by PixCams of Murrysville and the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. That nest, the third on the same hillside, collapsed last year. Also, a new male replaced the long-time male known as Dad.
“For Hays we don’t believe there will be a nest this year,” said Bill Powers, owner of PixCams. “We have seen the female with a male. We can’t confirm if this is the same male from last year. We have seen mating activity and they have been roosting in the vicinity of the nest but no nesting activity.”
If there is any solace, Dad, who has a missing flight feather and other unique characteristics, was photographed and positively identified in the nest area.
Although the long-time female and her new mate still frequent popular roosting trees and their old nest site, they have not been seen building a new aerie.
“It’s a waiting game to see what will happen,” said Brian Shema, operations manager for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. “There is nothing special about that specific location. Any tree along that hillside in that vicinity would be just as successful,” he said.
Dogged photographers and eagle fans are still documenting the birds’ movements, still hoping for a nest this season.
It’s been a different story for the eagles that have made a home on property owned by the U.S. Steel Irvin Plant along the Monongahela, just five air miles upstream from the Hays site.
The U.S. Steel male eagle known as Irvin is in his sixth year of breeding in a nest on a steep hillside below the steel plant overlooking the Monongahela River.
A new female, Stella, showed up in September and displaced the eagle known as Claire, shocking longtime eagle watchers. Claire was spotted later in the year and watchers believe that she moved on.
This will be Stella’s first nesting season. And there have been lots of deliveries of branches and sticks at the steelmaker’s site.
In the last several months, Stella brought at least 19 fish and meat meals to her mate Irvin at their steel plant nest. Irv has reciprocated, somewhat, by bringing in 10 meals to his lady love, according to analytics from the U.S. Steel live eagle cam.
Males typically bring the fish gifts.
“I believe the female brought in the fish gifts in this case to court Irvin and win him over,” said Don German, Irvin Plant manager and a volunteer bald eagle educator at local schools and public gatherings.
Eagle moderators for the U.S. Steel’s live webcam meticulously record the nest fortifications.
From October to within the last month, the pair flew in 367 new sticks and placed them, rearranging some and squabbling over placement, as eagle couples are known to do.
Webcam watchers are on egg watch for Stella to lay a second egg by the end of the weekend.
