Harriet laid eggs on Nov. 20 and Nov. 23, putting them on schedule to hatch around Christmas-time. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST FLORIDA EAGLE CAM FACEBOOK PAGE

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Harriet, the area’s most famous avian celebrity, has been laying eggs for so long that people are beginning to wonder when the bald eagle will eventually stop laying them.

After all, she has been in the area and in the same tree for more than 15 years now, with the last 10 of those years being shown to the world on the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam, provided by Dick Pritchett Real Estate.

However, even though that day will eventually come, it will not be this year, as Harriett and M15 will be parents once again with a clutch of two more eggs, and during its regularly scheduled time of the year in the late afternoon.

The first egg was laid on Nov. 20 at 3:49 p.m., while the second was laid on Nov. 23 at 5:10 p.m., putting the eggs on schedule to hatch around Christmastime.

Ginnie Pritchett-McSpadden, co-founder of the eagle cam, said that after years of watching Harriet lay her eggs, they can pretty much pinpoint to the minute when the eggs arrive.

“We watched the nest and saw all the signs that we do when she is going to lay an egg and she jumped into the nest and had the egg in the quickest time we have seen. It usually takes a couple hours and this one took 30 minutes,” she said.

Harriet’s process is similar to labor for humans, Pritchett-McSpadden said. There is heavy breathing and she pauses as the egg is being laid, allowing them to know when there has been success.

Of course, viewers do not see it right away because Harriet and M15 want to make sure the eggs stay warm. For the next five weeks, both parents will incubate and turn the eggs so the entire egg stays warm and to prevent the embryo from sticking to the shell.

As for the late afternoon egg laying, Pritchett-McSpadden said she is not sure why that is.

“They tend to happen at 3 to 5 p.m. It could be temperature or comfort. I’m not sure of the science behind it, but I’m sure there is somewhere,” she said.

Last year, Harriett laid her eggs about a month late. Those eaglets hatched two hours apart, and although they had to spend a week at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel over concerns about their health, both were able to fledge.

The delay was a result of the double clutch she had the previous year after her first clutch saw one egg unviable and the second eaglet die.

A second clutch was laid in late February 2020. Those eggs hatched around April Fool’s Day.