FORT MYERS, Fla. — As everyone welcomes the month of March, it seems the Southwest Florida eagle family is also welcoming the female visitor coming around more often these days – but an owl wasn't so friendly.
Ever since beloved mother eagle Harriet went missing at the beginning of February, papa bird M15 has been left alone to fend for his eaglets. But recently the nights haven't been so lonely with R23-3 constantly coming to visit.
Along with warming up to M15, the female visitor has also become closer with E21 and E22 – even sharing food and feeding them at times.
But recently, R23-3 ran into a problem when an aggressive owl knocked her off the tree late at night.
After being knocked off, the two birds chased after each other around the area before leaving the camera's view.
M15 could be heard vocalizing, maybe calling out in support of R23-3 who also vocalized some.
"R23-3 appeared OK by flight when last in cam view," a user named Androcat explained in the snippet of a video published to YouTube.
And this isn't the first time one of the birds was attacked by an aggressive owl – M15 had his own random attack where he was knocked back into the nest from a hit in the middle of the night.
A couple of hours later, R23-3 returned to the nest where M15 was resting. The two eventually took a trip over to the nearby pond and spent time together sipping on some water while the eaglets relaxed together.
After returning to the nest, the eaglets can be heard "squeeing" while the two adult eagles vocalize as well – such a talkative family!
With the eaglets now seven weeks old, it also seems as if M15 is letting them become more independent and do things by themselves. And the babies are definitely becoming more sassy and competitive as time goes by.
A snippet from the live stream caught the eaglets fighting over food M15 dropped off in the nest, taking turns stealing it from each other and eating.
They even originally stole it from their dad who was trying to help feed it to them.
"Both E's had a good meal and have full crop afterward!" a user named Lady Hawk explained in a video posted on YouTube.
For anyone wanting to watch highlights from the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam, you can find them here.
You can also check out the 24-hour live stream down below to keep an eye out for Harriet or the new female eagle and see how the eaglets are doing: