Black Eagle Africa
from fb Black Eagle Project Roodekrans
Dear Black Eagle Watchas
All photos by Ernest Porter
On 9th January 2016, Ruimsig and the greater West Rand vicinity was lashed by a mega electric thunder / hail storm, that destroyed a large portion of the Key West Shopping Mall roof that collapsed under the sheer weight of the hail. This storm was also the cause of extensive damage to the Black Eagle nest that nestles against the sheer cliff adjacent to the Witpoortjie waterfall within the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden. Reduced to half of its original size, the estimated 75-year-old nest still stands, albeit cut back to the size it was during the 1980’s.
I was a tad perturbed when Black Eagle Project Roodekrans member and photographer, Ernest Porter, phoned me to say that both eagles were frantically refurbishing the nest and I immediately thought that the dreaded El Nino drought causing global warming was right in our midst wreaking havoc and wondering if the entire breeding season has been advanced by two months! Fortunately and much to our mutual relief, Ernest told me a day or two later that half of the nest was destroyed and the eagles used part of their holiday period to do some urgent repairs – the eagles certainly know how to scare the wits out of us!
Not such a bad blow (pun intended) that Mother Nature dealt them because if it were mid-winter, there would certainly have been fatalities in that either the female or the eaglet or both may have succumbed to such destruction. Usually the female would protect the youngster during adverse weather conditions, but such an onslaught would most certainly have taken lives prematurely, and most fortunately we were all spared from such a catastrophe.
Keeping in mind however, it was a good gesture that nature dealt to naturally reduce the scale of the nest considering that there is nothing that secures the nest to the cliff face. Up until recently, this nest was one of the larger and taller Black Eagle nests in southern Africa and having the nest balancing precariously is a disaster looking for a place to happen, hence my belief that it is better that it was reduced from growing too high and toppling losing the nest in its entirety.
Also noted during the last breeding season was the nest outgrowing the available cliff-space in that the logistics of having Africam’s camera always focussing into the nest, it would have been a matter of time when there is no more rock to secure the camera onto. As far as I’m aware, Africam is in the process of shifting their equipment as this is the only time of year that such major adjustments can be executed without eagle presence and possible interference, getting everything ready again for a new breeding season…something we are all looking forward to.
All the best,
Boudewijn van der Lecq
Black Eagle Project Roodekrans
the nest before and after the big storm
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