The situation of Electra at the Cowlitz PUD Nest has had individuals concerned since her last chick died. Concerned and wondering about her behaviour. Today Electra has been on and off the nest food calling to her mate, Wattsworth. Her two dead chicks remain on the nest, face down.
I posted a question about Electra’s behaviour to help me understand and in turn, I wanted to help you. Tiger Mozone came back with an example of EJ incubating an egg shell after all her eggs had been broken at Loch Garten in 2015. Here is a link to Chloe B and Tiger’s website with the details of that instance if you missed it:
A virtual friend from Brazil, Etj Andre, also posted a response to my query. He remembers when Thunder returns to nest with Akecheta, the West End Bald Eagle Nest, to find the eggs all broken. It was 11 March 2021. The video from the streaming cam decidedly shows that deep urge to continue incubating eggs even if they do not exist. Have a look.
I hope that by finding many examples it will lead us to understand the behaviour of our beloved birds more. But there will always be, as Nan Shepherd, knew – the mystery of it all that we will not be able to comprehend.
Take care all.
Thank you Etj Andre and thanks again, Tiger! And thank you to the Institute of Wildlife Studies and Explore.org for their streaming cam where I grabbed my screen image.