The bald eagles surprised many when they began building a nest in the crown of a eucalyptus tree inside the Ramona Grassland Preserve.
Bald eagles have been spotted there before, but a pair has never nested in this region. There is one other known bald eagle nest near Lake Henshaw.
As recently as Saturday, the pair of breeding age birds had exhibited mating behavior. On Sunday, the female was hunkered down in the nest and appeared to be incubating an egg.
"They often can lay one or two eggs most of the time, sometimes three. As of now, the view we have, we just can't tell how many eggs are in the nest." said Chris Meador, the Assistant Director of the Wildlife Research Institute in Ramona.
Once an egg is produced it takes about 43 days for it to hatch, and Meador said a chick could emerge in early April. Eagles typically return to a nest if it is a successful place to raise a chick.
