Popular Hilton Head eagle cam shows arrival of the season’s first eaglet
The stars of the Hilton Head Island Land Trust’s popular eagle cam — Gracie and George — welcomed their first eaglet of the season.
The eaglet’s first “pip,” or break through the shell happened Friday morning. By Saturday evening, the new arrival had completely broken free its shell.
While the parents have been nesting at the undisclosed location for about 13 years, this is the first season they haveabout 30,000 webcam viewers. Fans were able to watch Gracie lay her two eggs in early Jan. Since then she’s worked with her mate George to incubate the eggs, which typically take 35 days to hatch.
Friday afternoon Gracie and George began to build a “food pantry” in preparation for their eaglet’s arrival. When Gracie brought a fish to the nest she saved part of it for the eaglet to eat shortly after it hatches. It will be about five weeks before the eaglet will be able to tear up it’s own food, so both parents will need to pull apart fish and other small animals until then, according to the land trust.
As the eaglet continued to hatch, Gracie and George could be seen rocking back and fourth on the egg to help it break open.
The second egg will likely hatch in the coming days.
Both eaglets will need a lot of food, enough that they grow half a pound every week until they’re about 2-months-old. The eaglets will need to compete for food their parents bring to the nest, and will likely engage in an activity called “bonking,” where they fight their sibling for food.
This story was originally published February 9, 2025 at 9:36 AM.
