Just to keep things interesting we have posted a new poll on the Alcoa Facebook page. Go to www.facebook.com/alcoa and you can vote on the date you think it is most likely one of the eaglets will fledge. There is nothing scientific about this and there are no prizes, just the satisfaction of know you may have picked the correct date. Have fun!

This week marks eight weeks since our eaglets hatched. Faith was first on March 19th, Hope joined us on March 21st and Spirit finally arrived on March 24th. It has been an awesone journey up to this point through cold, snow, rain, winds and lightning. It will be even more exciting as this trio begins to venture out of the nest. That could begin happening in the next week or two. Once it starts, we would expect to see them in and out of the nest now through much of July.

What a great Mother's Day this will be for Liberty and hopefully for all the mothers out there tuning-in. The oldest of the three eaglets will be eight weeks old tomorrow and the weather is absolutely beautiful.

The next week or two will be very exciting in the nest as Faith, Hope and Spirit get ready to fledge. Some have asked, but we only have this one camera view. That means once they all start flying, we will only see them as they leave the nest and when they come back in for a landing. If we are able to capture some images or grab some off-line video we will post it here on the site.

At one point this morning both parents were in the nest with all three eaglets. That was a crowd. We have also seen several times when one of the eaglets is really beginning to test his/her wings flapping until they just get a little space between their feet and the nest and then they settle back down. I think we can all expect to see a lot more of this over the next couple of weeks leading up to the actual fledging.

The three eaglets continue to eat and grow. We are still working on some technical issues, but the video stream has improved. As you all have noticed, the sound is out, but we hope to get that back today if possible.

Some have asked how we know it is the same parents using the nest each year. Research says when a pair builds a nest they will use it as long as they are successful or until it falls out of the tree (usually because it gets too heavy or a storm knocks it out). We also know from our local observations that Liberty and Justice stay here in the Quad Cities pretty much year-round. Even when they are not using the nest much in August and September we see them in other trees near the nest on a regular basis.

It looks like we will have a few days in a row with very nice "seasonal" weather with highs in the upper 60's to low 70's. We hope to get the video issue resolved today. We believe it is an issue with Mediacom and they are supposed to be out today to troubleshoot. and repair.

As others have mentioned, we do not do any work on the actual camera in the nest. All of this work is being done from the computer and in this case, from the Mediacom equipment connected to the computer.

Just so you all know, we are trying to diagnose why the video is jumpy on the internet. The original feed from the camera appears to be fine. We may be having an issue with the Mediacom modem uploading the feed to BitGravity. Hopefully we will be able to restore a smooth feed at some point today.

The video from the Alcoa EagleCam was a bit funky all weekend and the two lines of storms that came through overnight did not help. It appears the video has frozen even though the sound is still streaming. Hopefully we can get the video feed fixed and running a little later this morning.

The forecast for this week looks much drier after we get past tonight and tomorrow morning. The temperatures should be a little cooler too. I do not think our tech guys have gotten to the computer yet and it may be tomorrow before they do. Hopefully it will be a quick/easy fix. I cna tell you the camera is not loose in the tree. Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

I am seeing the same video issues several of you have mentioned today and a bit yesterday. I have left a message for our folks to check on it, but I'm not sure how soon they will get to it. It could be an issue with the computer or perhaps a Mediacom issue with our upload to the streaming service. I hope you can enjoy watching despite the issues until we can get it cleared up.

The weather is moving into a calmer pattern over the next week. We still have a chance for some rain the next couple of days, but the chances are going down and the temperatures are supposed to be doing the same thing. Everyone in the nest made it through the storms last night without any problems. The highest winds in the storm passed to the north. Our youngest eaglet, Spirit, turns six weeks old tomorrow.

The eaglets are getting much more active in working to see how their wings work. We will see more stretching and flapping in the next couple of weeks as they figure out how everything performs. Some of you have asked what happens after they fledge. Fledging is the first time they actually fly out of the nest. They will continue to come back to this nest with less and less frequency over the course of the summer. Liberty and Justice will continue to provide food in the nest as they learn to hunt on their own over the next couple of months until the young ones leave to head out on their own in late July or early August.

We are definately in an active weather pattern this week. All three eaglets seem to be doing fine this morning. They just made an appearance a few minutes ago on the KWQC-TV morning news here in the Quad Cities. Keep your fingers crossed we don't get any really severe weather here.

The local forecast is for a chance of rain every day this week. Hopefully we will not have any severe weather as part of this series of gloomy days. Very exciting this morning to say happy six-week birthday to Faith. She is already up this morning and working to feed herself by holding down part of a fish and tearing pieces off on her own.

To answer a question posted over the weekend, we currently plan to leave the camera on year-round. Liberty and Justice live in the QC all year. Even when they are not using the nest much in August & September, they still stop by once in a while to eat a fish.

It looks like we may be cloudy most of the day, but perhaps a little less windy. The week ahead has at least a chance for some rain through most of the week.

We have now passed the seven-million hit mark on this site for the year. Lots of people are watching and that is great. Lots of people are posting commnets on what they see and how it makes them feel. That is great too. This is not a moderated chat. Some of the regular posters have struck up conversations with each other and that is fine, but keep in mind you should never share personal information with people you do not really know online.

Have a great Sunday!