Norfolk Botanical Garden eagle lays another egg

NORFOLK

The eagle couple that has captivated viewers of a camera mounted near their nest at Norfolk Botanical Garden may be new parents after all.

An entry posted by a Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist yesterday notes that the female eagle laid a new egg during the weekend.

Last week, two eggs in the nest were damaged and the female was spotted eating them. On Saturday, she laid another egg about 12:22 p.m., the entry says.

Biologists, garden officials and eager viewers were concerned that the end of the laying season might be too near for another egg to appear in the nest. But the couple was seen breeding last week and biologists hoped for the best.

“This egg represents what would have been the third egg of the second clutch,” the unidentified biologist wrote in the blog entry. “Whether or not the female has the physical reserves to produce another egg this week remains to be seen.’’

On Thursday, the female eagle was spotted eating the two eggs she laid after she and the male eagle were disrupted by another female eagle. Eagle-watchers’ hopes for another egg soared once again after the couple was seen breeding that evening.

The eagle probably ate the egg to “recapture the valuable calories and calcium that went into creation of the egg,” a biologist wrote on the blog last week. “Egg formation is an energetically demanding process.”

The nest has been anything but peaceful for the eagle couple this year.

Last month, the couple left the nest with two eggs after a young female eagle arrived. The eggs were retrieved so they could be studied. In late February, the couple appeared to have reunited.