Back to the nature

On 21 May 2005 the artificially hatched, two and a half weeks old eaglet was placed into a natural eagle nest. It was a nest of a pair breeding in the lowlands. 2005 is the fourth year in a row that the pair has layed infertile eggs, this year they had two of them. When the eaglet was placed to the nest, one of the infertile eggs was removed, while the other one was left so as to attach the adults to the nest even after the disturbance.

Excited and with some fear we were waiting for the reactions of the adults. For hours the eagles would just circle high above the nest site. A 1:30 p.m. the female landed on the top of the nesting tree and watched the nest with great attention. After a few minutes it took off again. It repeated the same action later in the afternoon, this time it was much more relaxed, even preened a little. At 5 p.m. the female landed on the nest at last. After standing a few minutes on the nest the eagle settled on the remaining egg with the "newborn" eaglet in front of her.

The nesting tree - an older artificial nest was occupied by the eagle pair.

The replaced chick in the nest.