Black Eagle Update: Awaiting signs of nest building
POORTVIEW – The Black Eagle Project Roodekrans predicts egg laying around April or May.
This year could see the new black eagle pair, Thulane and Makatsa, start their breeding cycle.
The end of last year saw the quietest period in the breeding cycle.
Normally, the black eagles would have had a juvenile eagle to keep an eye on from the end of November to December until it started fending for itself and left the area. The pair would have had a rest period of two to three months in which they are seldom seen, but do return to roost in the botanical gardens.
Even though the pair did not breed last year, the adult eagles followed the usual resting period pattern.
“The project also takes a break over this time and we usually start officially with our monitoring again at the end of February or beginning of March. Those monitors who do not go on leave over this period do however submit reports to us if they are in the garden vicinity and do happen to see the eagles,” said chairperson of the Black Eagle Project Roodekrans, Gerald Draper.
“We received a number of reports in December and January which showed us that the birds are still around and nothing unusual has been seen. We now expect them to start rebuilding the current nest, or maybe even start a new nest around mid to end of February.”
The team will keep their eyes peeled for indications of nest building in the next few weeks.
According to Draper, they start building with bigger sticks and as the nest takes shape, the black eagles progressively use smaller sticks and end it off by creating a lining of leaves in the inside of the nest cup. When this stage of nesting is reached, egg laying is imminent.
Draper explained that in the past few years the Roodepoort pair has laid eggs in April or May, although elsewhere in Africa other black eagles lay as late as June and in some instances the beginning of July.
“They [black eagles] are predominantly winter breeders as their nests are often on exposed ledges where young chicks would be at risk from our harsh summer sun if they had to breed in summer.”
Black eagle Update: Breeding pair not affected by storms
