Hays eagle lays first egg
The Hays eagles, which can be viewed on a livestream online, will be parents once again.
The female eagle has laid the first egg in the Hays nest, which is outside of Pittsburgh, the Audubon Society has confirmed.
The Audubon livestream recorded the birds’ blessed event at about 5:25 p.m. Friday.
The egg, which will likely be joined by one or two more in the coming days, marks the 11th year the Hays eagles have nested and produced offspring at the Hays nest.
In a news release, Audubon experts said the parents will take turns sitting on the egg constantly to keep it warm, never leaving it unattended.
The parents will occasionally stand and roll the egg to keep it at a constant temperature during incubation.
Typically, there is a two- to four-day span between laying eggs.
Last year, the Hays female laid three eggs. All three hatched and the birds eventually fledged the nest.
To watch the incubation, hatching, feeding and fledging process visit the Butler Eagle webpage or aswp.org/pages/hays-nest.
A complete list of Hays nest facts is available at http://aswp.org/pages/nest-info-by-year.
The Hays webcam is a collaborative project between PixCams and Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, and is available through a state Game Commission permit.