Thanks to a webcam set up in Decorah, Iowa, you can watch Bald Eagle babies hatch live. Two of the three eggs have hatched, so while you wait for the last one to make its debut, you can entertain yourself by watching the fuzzy gray baby birds. You never know what you're going to get, though - the other day, the eagles brought a dead rabbit back to the nest and ate it.
At about six feet across and deep, the nest weighs about 1.5 tons. It's in a cottonwood tree about 80 feet off the ground and was first built there by the eagles in 2007 after the first one fell in a storm.
Link via KCCI
I wanted to do it last year when merlins nested in my neighbor's yard, but couldn't. I hope they come back and I can do it this year.
That weight seemed really high until I looked up the specific gravity of various wood. One Cubic Feet of Dry Oak weighs 44 pounds - so I guess the 1.5 tons isn't that far off. Who knew?