The Harrison Bay Eagle Cam project has been a source of great joy and of sadness. Last year we lost our original female Eloise (Remembering Eloise) leaving the nest empty for a while. Throughout the spring three females tried to claim the nest and the handsome and dashing Elliott as their own, but it was not until our new female came along that a new HBEC queen could be crowned.
Our new queen of the nest has been named Athena and has taken over right where Eloise left off. She has many of the same traits or characteristics that made us all fall in love with Eloise such as having a prominent brow which gives her a fierce look, to keeping airspace near the nest clear of any other females trying to stake their claim on her nest or her "man", to making sure Elliott knows exactly where the nesting material goes, no matter where he thinks it should.
On Tuesday afternoon 1/22/19 a little after 4:00 PM Athena laid her first egg at the Harrison Bay nest. As with any eagle in the wild it is virtually impossible to know if this is her first egg every laid but she did struggle a bit which lead our expert moderators to speculate that it was.
Here is a video from our moderator Suzie-O which shows the laying process of egg #1
On Friday afternoon Athena laid her second egg which seemed to be a little easier on her. Both her and Elliott have, and will, take turns caring for the eggs as they keep them warm and turn the eggs periodically to keep the embryo from sticking to the insides of the egg. It is delicate process that makes many of use worry but we have to trust that the eagles know exactly what they are doing.
Well much to our surprise on Monday evening we were graced with a third egg from Athena. Three eggs in a single nest is not completely uncommon but is rare and since the nest was constructed in the fall of 2010 Eloise had only ever laid two eggs at a single time. We are very thrilled and excited about the opportunity to witness three eaglets being raised but it will also increase the need for food, shelter from the elements, and the inevitable sibling rivalries and bonking which will make all viewers uneasy and is the leading cause to hatchling death in a multiple egg nest.
As always we welcome everyone to join us in viewing the Harrison Bay Eagle Cam project at
We are still buttoning up some technical issues which will make the experience even better throughout the year.
We would like to thank our great moderators who operate the site and the cameras and keep all the chatters informed and in line.
We would also like to thank Golf Course Industry magazine, Aquatrols, and Syngenta US for their sponsorship of the project this year. Without financial support from our friends this view into the life of a bald eagle nest would not be possible.
Yes, it has been quite a while since our last blogpost update and for that I apologize. 2018 was a great year at Harrison Bay with some of the best course conditions our Agronomy Staff has produced in quite some time. Irregardless of the 83 inches of rainfall we received in 2018 (normal amount is 57") our small crew of dedicated team members continued to provide quality, championship conditions while continuing to make course improvements and advances.
One of the improvements we have been working on this winter is to repair and cleanup the bridges which span our wetland areas on holes 13 and 14. We have removed and replaced any rotting or weak boards from the decking, have begun the process of pressure washing the bridge, and have installed a woven rubber liner in the center of the bridge to make it safer for our walking guests to travel across the bridge.
The walkway material is from PEM Surface and is an excellent product providing a porous, nonslip surface which is easily secured to the decking with silicone glue and decking screws. We have already had several of our regular walking golfers comment and thank us for this project. We will finish the project up this month and seal the bridge to help keep this clean, fresh look.
With the cold temperatures heading into the south this week we pulled the covers over the greens today to help protect them. We do not cover as much as others, and that is perfectly fine. No two golf courses are the same and no two golf course superintendents do the exact same processes. We have 15 years of experience with what our greens can handle and our microclimate on the lake gives us a little advantage of staying warmer than other areas in town.
I was asked today "How do the covers actually help protect the greens?". The illustration to the right does a very good job of describing how the greens covers work but in a nutshell the covers are designed to allow radiant heat from the sun to pass through the cover but not back out easily. The sunlight warms the leaf tissue and the soil and "traps" the heat against the surface compared to uncovered greens in which the collected heat of the day is easily lost and the surface and soil temperature of the green is allowed to fall to levels detrimental to the health of the plant, and in turn the longterm health of the green.
I hope this helps explain why there are times, like today, when we have to pull the covers during the day when the sun is out and it is all nice and warm and you would love to be out playing golf. In our experience if we wait too late and pull the covers at the end of the day we are losing a complete day of heat generation and capture and undermining the benefit of the covers.
It is our plan to remove the covers at the end of the week and have the course ready for play for the weekend. We will update as we get closer to the weekend.
