Hays bald eagles welcome first eaglet of 2019

Tom Davidson | Saturday, March 23, 2019 2:07 p.m.

Submitted

The Hays bald eagles welcomed an eaglet Saturday afternoon, March 23, 2019. The Hays bald eagles welcomed an eaglet Saturday afternoon, March 23, 2019.

The Hays bald eagles welcomed their first eaglet of the season Saturday afternoon.

The eaglet emerged from its egg at 1:14 p.m., four hours after a pip (small crack) was observed on the egg.

It is the ninth eaglet the Hays couple have hatched in their years there.

Two eggs remain in the nest, according to the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, which sponsors a webcam of the nest in cooperation with CSE in a special arrangement with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Bald eagle eggs generally incubate for about 35 days. The eaglet hatched 39 days since the first egg was laid, 36 days since the second and 33 days since the third.

The nest is five miles from Downtown Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River near the former Carnegie Steel Homestead Works.

The Hays eagles pair started nesting in 2013, according to the Audubon Societ. They successfully hatched one eaglet. Then on June 6, 2013, a storm blew the nest down. The birds successfully fledged the eaglet on the ground.

The following year, the Hays eagle pair built a new nest where it is today. A camera was installed on the new nest.

It has been three decades since the reintroduction of bald eagles in Pennsylvania, according to the Audubon Society.

There are now more than 250 nests in the Keystone state.