Eaglets returned to SWFL Eagle Cam nest

E17 & E18, the two eaglets from Southwest Florida’s famous eagle cam, were returned to their nest on Friday morning.

In a Facebook post, the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, Inc. said the 2-week-old eaglets were given a third round of antibiotics and a “hefty meal” to make the trip from the clinic on Sanibel to the nest in North Fort Myers.

They were re-nested at around 9:30 a.m. and waited for a few hours until one of their parents returned.

Many people who watched the return from the ground were relieved to see the eaglets be accepted by Harriet, the eagle mama, who returned to the nest at around 2:45 p.m.

The eaglets were removed on Jan. 29 after experts noticed crust in their eyes. They were removed to test the crust and have been given antibiotics to address the infection.

On Friday, veterinarians checked the eaglets’ eyes and found no signs of infection, signaling they were ready for a return home.

“We’ve had them on antibiotics for the past seven days and it turned out it was not avian pox, which is wonderful and it was a bacterial infection that we treated,” said Alison Hussey, executive director at CROW.

One of the issues of removing the eaglets is that their parents, Harriet and M15, might not accept them.

“As with all our wildlife, we try to get them back as soon as possible and healthy. So when we determine that they were healthy and ready to go back into the nest then as you can see we got them in there first thing this morning,” Hussey said.