The eagles have nested

I’m trying to convince myself that watching an eagle’s nest for long stretches of time is not a waste of time.

I’m sure the 150,000 or so other people who join me at any given time of the day -- or night -- are trying to convince themselves of the same thing.

There’s a lot on the web that’s a total waste of time.

But I think that watching two bald eagles and their three eaglets in a nest 80 feet off the ground in northern Iowa is not one of them.

It might be that fact that the subject here is the bald eagle, our national symbol, once threatened with extinction.

Or it might be the fact that I just love raptors (I plan to come back in my next life as a red-tailed hawk.)

Or it might be the steely resolve these parents have in watching over their children. My happiest moments -- even as an aging, empty-nesting Baby Boomer --come from being a parent.

The live video stream of these eagle parents is courtesy of the Raptor Resource Project.

They placed and camouflaged a high resolution web cam in a cottonwood tree where the eagles live in a nest that is six feet wide and about six feet deep, about 1.5 tons of nest, if you can believe it.

It’s unique on a couple of levels. The bird’s eye view of the camera is such that it puts you right there, high above the banks of Trout Run, a stream that runs through Decorah.

Turn up the volume and you can hear the wind, which seems constant, and the occasional chirping of birds.

And there’s the occasional rustling of the eagles themselves as they shift position over the three little ones.

It is fascinating to see the pair exchange parenting duties.

I can’t tell the male from the female, but the other morning one parent was nesting, the other arrived. After a couple of minutes they touched beaks -- as if to say “OK, your turn” and they traded places, one taking the position over the brood the other flying off.

It's an intimate a scene as you’ll ever see.

And it’s interesting to see their diet. Over the course of several days I’ve seen dead rabbit, muskrat, crow and fish in the nest, picked apart and fed in little pieces to the hungry eaglets.

But mostly I’m impressed by the commitment to duty.

Steely eyed determination when it comes to my kids --it’s what me and the eagles have in common.

That and we both like fish (the rabbit, muskrat and crow, not so much).

Live video by Ustream