Expecting the possibility that an egg might come sometime around Valentine’s Day, Weller and another eagle expert have been keeping an eye on the pair.
This morning they noticed Willa was in the nest and just “stayed there and stayed there and stayed there,” Weller said. “We were very suspicious.”
Later in the afternoon, Orv flew in, Willa took off, and the male bald eagle nestled down into the nest.
“That’s what we watch for,” Weller said. “Whenever the male comes flying in and squats down in the same location where the female was — down low in the nest — we know he’s incubating.”
This will be the fourth season Orv and Willa have nested in a sycamore tree above Wright Hall inside the park.
Last year, their offspring, Prop and Rudder, hatched in the park. The year before the pair had Aero and Prairie and in 2018 the first eaglets, Flyer and Soar, hatched.
Weller expects Willa will lay one or two more eggs in the coming days. The first egg is expected to hatch around March 23.
Bald eagles have made a dramatic comeback in Ohio. Last year, a nest census indicated the state had 712 active eagle nests, a 153% increase from the previous census completed in 2012, when 281 nests were recorded, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
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