Those keeping their “eagle eyes” on the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s bald eagle cam spotted new chicks in the nest soon after daybreak on consecutive mornings Tuesday and Wednesday. For wildlife lovers everywhere, it was reason to celebrate; both eggs, which had been incubated since mid-February in the nest near Codorus State Park, York County, successfully hatched.
But for the growing number of eagle-cam viewers, there’s more good news. Things are just getting started. As long as the nestlings remain healthy, there will be increasing activity at the nest in the coming weeks and months. Things will start off slowly, with an adult at the nest almost all the time brooding the chicks to keep them warm and safe. But like most newborns, they’ll eat a lot, too.
The young birds will develop feathers in 3 to 4 weeks and be able to walk around the nest in 6 to 7 weeks, and in about 3 months, they’ll be ready for their first flights. Their growth is rapid and, if all goes well, is sure to captivate what has already been an enormous audience.
The chicks’ hatching created a surge in viewers that briefly strained the capacity of servers—nearly 129,000 devices connected to the stream Tuesday, many joining as word spread that the first chick had hatched. But capacity was added, and on Wednesday even more devices—155,000—were used to access the stream without issues.