Eloise and Elliott are back.For the fourth straight year, the adult bald eagles are displaying their parenting skills for the entire world to see as they nest in the treetops above the golf course at Harrison Bay State Park near Chattanooga, Tenn.
Elliott and Eloise, a pair of adult bald eagles named by the daughter of The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay superintendent Paul Carter, CGCS, first showed up at the park in 2011. Each year since, Eloise has laid and hatched a pair of eggs. The latest additions to their family, HB5 and HB6, hatched March 15 and 16, respectively.
Their exploits can be viewed in real time on the Harrison Bay Eagle Cam in place above the nest, courtesy of the climbing exploits of park ranger Angelo Giasante.
The Eagle Cam project is a cooperative effort that includes support from The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay golf course, the USGA, private donors and the Friends of Harrison Bay State Park, a non-profit environmental group that raises funds to promote projects and awareness of the park and the activities that take place there.
A pair of eaglets that hatched in 2011 thrived before leaving the nest, as did the pair that was hatched last year. Neither eaglet that hatched in 2012 survived.
According to the American Bald Eagle Foundation, both the male and female eagles share time guarding and incubating the nest for an average of 35 days before the eggs hatch. Eaglets have a mortality rate of about 50 percent. Once an endangered species, bald eagles are on the rebound thanks to conservation efforts that have resulted in an estimated 7,000-plus pairs now nesting in every state except Hawaii.