Eaglets hatch on Hilton Head! Take a look at the nest cam babies
The pair of bald eagles featured on a Hilton Head Island webcam welcomed two eaglets on Sunday and Monday.
The birds, given the names Harriet and Mitch, have been the stars of the Hilton Head Island eagle cam, a live camera set up next to their nest by the Hilton Head Island Land Trust, for the last two months.
“We’re like new parents. The eagles and eaglets are helping us to spread our mission of conservation and showing viewers that there’s more to Hilton Head Island than our beautiful beaches and golf courses,” said Robin Storey of the Hilton Head Island Land Trust.
Eagle cam observers have watched as Harriet and Mitch work together to feed their two eaglets and keep them warm. They will continue to care for their eaglets for the next 10 to 12 weeks until the eaglets have their flight feathers and are almost ready to leave the nest, known as the fledgling stage.
Harriet and Mitch were named last week. The Hilton Head Island Land Trust had a naming contest and received over 400 submissions from across the country. The executive committee chose to name them after historical South Carolina figures Harriet Tubman and Ormsby Mitchel.
Tubman, a former slave known as a conductor on the underground railroad, spent time in Beaufort County as a nurse and union spy. She co-led the Combahee River Raid and helped free over 750 enslaved people. She led 100 of them to the newly settled Mitchelville on Hilton Head.
Mitchelville was established in 1862 after Mitchel saw the living conditions of the formerly enslaved. Known as the first self-governed town for freedmen, it was built by and for the formerly enslaved.
At its height in 1863, Mitchelville reached 200 acres and was a fully functioning town with a mayor, councilmen, a treasurer and other officers that oversaw public disputes, according to the Mitchelville website. They also had police protection, a school and a Baptist church.
“This Island has a rich ecological habitat and an even richer history and culture, including Fort Howell, a Union fort built by the United States Colored Troops to protect Mitchelville,” Storey said.
The eagle cam started when Hilton Head resident Russell Patterson spotted an eagle’s nest. He contacted a company in California, HD on Tap, to acquire the cameras and worked with the Hilton Head Island Land Trust and Hargray Communications to set up the island’s first eagle cam in October. Since then, the cameras have accrued more than 140,000 views from all over the world.
On Nov. 19, about a month after the camera was set up, Harriet was spotted with her first egg. To protect the eagles, the location of the nest has remained private.
Because Harriet is larger than Mitch, she was the main caretaker of the eggs. Mitch occasionally helped. They worked together to keep the eggs warm and fight off intruders like crows and ravens.
Watch the eagles by going to www.hhilandtrust.org and clicking on the eagle cam button.
