It's one of the most uniquely Southwest Florida signs that Christmas is coming: When Harriet the bald eagle lays an egg, the holidays are a little more than a month away.
And so 2018's countdown has begun.
At 2:37 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, Harriet's first egg appeared in her North Fort Myers nest, as thousands of people watched the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam online. There are now four cameras running 24/7 and a recent upgrade offers a 360-degree view that can be moved by the watcher, said Ginnie Pritchett McSpadden.
Another egg appeared shortly after that.
"We're the first live nature cam in history to have this," said McSpadden. "It's exciting."
The eggs will be part of the celebrity mama's 20th (or so) clutch.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records show Harriet, who's probably at least 25, and her previous mate, Ozzie, may have started breeding in the 1990s.
The pair began nesting on the Pritchetts' land in 2006 and returned year after year to raise its broods in a slash pine tree in a horse pasture. In 2012, the family installed a camera to give fans around the world an intimate view of the eagles' family life — a life sometimes filled with drama.
In 2015, Ozzie was injured in a fight with a younger eagle, known as M15. Though he was treated at the Center for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel, when he was returned home, the two fought again. Ozzie died of his injuries and M15 is now Harriet's mate.
Eagles incubate their eggs for some 35 days (last year's babies hatched Dec. 26 and 27), with both parents pitching in. The young leave the nest about 11 weeks later.
COMMON NAME: Bald eagle
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Haliaeetus leucocephalus
DETAILS: Though they usually eat fish, they'll also eat ducks and other birds as well as carrion. Grown female bald eagles are larger than males, and mated pairs often return to the same site each year to nest. They add sticks and branches to the nests, which can become huge and weigh more than a ton. Young eagles are blotchy brown and don't grow the characteristic white head feathers until they're 4 or 5 years old.
WATCH: The live cam is at dickpritchettrealestate.com; the birds have a Facebook page as well. The nest is located on the north side of Bayshore Drive in North Fort Myers. Visitors park along the driveway to the Pritchett property or at the nearby North Fort Myers Church of the Nazarene.
— Chad Gillis contributed to this report.
