ETSU’s Eagle Camera Project has decided on a name for the new male who joined the Johnson City nest last year.
“We just had a naming contest,” said Fred Alsop, who oversees the project. “We had about 850 submissions for names, some of them were duplicates. We narrowed that down to 10.”
The final vote was conducted through an online survey where over 1,300 unique responses were recorded. The winning name: Boone.
“Like Daniel Boone, who was in this area,” said Alsop. “So, it has a historical context, but it also has a geographical one because the nest is on Boone Lake.”
Boone is paired with Shima, who is part of the original pair of eagles in the Johnson City nest. Shima’s previous mate, Noshi, died in 2020.
“This new male showed up fairly soon after we lost Noshi last year and was in and around the nest, but not part of the nesting cycle,” continued Alsop.
Alsop, who retired from ETSU as a professor of biology in 2020, has overseen the project for its entirety.
“We have two different nests that we’ve been live streaming for six nesting seasons,” Alsop said. “One in Johnson City and one in Bluff City.”
On March 23, for the first time in the six years that the project has been active, a chick died after falling from the nest.
“Nationwide, up to 50% of the young that are hatched in the nest don’t make it out,” said Alsop. “We have been lucky.”
At this latitude, the birds lay their eggs in February. The eggs hatch around 35 days later. It then takes until June before they are fully grown and ready to start leaving the nest to exercise their wings.
“They don’t leave with white tails and heads,” said Alsop. “It takes about five years for them to become sexually mature.”
The live feed, as well as more information about the project, can be found at:
https://www.etsu.edu/cas/biology/eagle-cam/default.php
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