Harriet and M15 have produced a new clutch. Photo courtesy of the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam may be viewed at swfleaglecam.com/

Southwest Florida’s most popular eagle pair is now counting down the days before they become parents once again.

Harriet now has two eggs, laying the first on last Wednesday at 4:58 p.m. and the second one Saturday at 4:45 p.m. Assuming a standard 35-day incubation period (and that there are no more eggs), the new brood of eaglets will hatch toward the later part of January and fledge sometime in April.

One thing that has been noticed in recent years is that the eggs tend to get laid late in the afternoon, just before sunset.

The moment was shown live on the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam, provided by Dick Pritchett Real Estate. The cam will show all the goings on in the nest and vicinity for the 10th consecutive year. The website has had nearly 156 million views since going online in 2011.

What started with one camera mounted over the nest has become four cameras, including ones 60 feet from the nest, to the north of the pond, and the Cam 360, which provides a 360 degree look into the eagles’ activities.

It was how fans of Harriet and mate M15 were able to see the eaglets fledge last year.

M15 and Harriet have been sharing the egg duties in the nest off Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers, though M15 has been doing a great job providing food to share. In the past several days he has delivered a possum and a rabbit to the nest. This will be a preview of things to come once the eggs hatch and the eaglets build an appetite as they grow.

Because of the circumstances of last year, Harriet laid her eggs about a month later than normal.

Last year, Harriet laid two eggs in November. One egg wasn’t viable, while the other egg was, but the eaglet died in January after apparently ingesting rat poison from a contaminated meal.

Harriet and M15 produced another clutch in late February which hatched in early April. Both eaglets survived and left the nest in late summer.

The Southwest Florida Eagle cam may be viewed at swfleaglecam.com/