— It's the modern way to enjoy the best in bird-watching, without leaving your home or getting all muddy. And for the faithful viewers of the Duke Farms Eagle Camera, the patience has paid off — with chicks.

Over the last few weeks, hundreds of viewers at the Duke Farms live eagle webcam website have been commenting and waiting somewhat impatiently for the big event — the hatching of two eggs to a pair of bald eagle parents nesting about 100 feet up a tree at the Duke Farms estate.

"The first egg was laid on Valentine's Day," Thom Almendinger, Duke Farms director of stewardship, said. "The next one a couple days later, on the 16th."

The hatchlings made their first appearance earlier this week, according to Almendinger. He said it's typical for eagles to lay one to three eggs per season.

CONNECT WITH US

• Follow us on Twitter



• Like us on Facebook



• NJ.com/somerset



But life in the nest isn't always as peaceful as it can look.

A Red-tailed hawk made a dive attack into the nest on Sunday, but one of the adult eagles made quick work of the hawk, taking it down and kicking on it until there was no sign of movement from the hawk.

"The eggs hatched right around the same time as the hawk attack," Almendinger said. "We're not sure if they were related, but maybe the hawk was checking out the eggs."

The eagles have been feasting on the hawk's remains since.

"They finished off the hawk already," Almendinger said. "They were eating trout yesterday."

He said the eagles have a five-mile radius foraging area, which is how far they'll travel looking for food. He said that in some areas like Florida and Alaska eagles will nest closer to each other, but here there's no reason.

"Here it's just the one pair," Almendinger said. "In winter time we do get a lot of visitors (bald eagles) because of the rivers and the lake, but only the two are nesting here."

A bald eagle fights off a hawk attack to protect its unhatched eggs.

Duke Farms set up its live eagle camera about five years ago to watch over nesting bald eagles. But it didn't take long for administrators to catch on that there was a large audience of fans.

Almendinger said that since the camera has been online, the site has gotten more than 7.8 million views.

"One year year it went down when Hurricane Irene knocked it out," Almendinger said. "We spent the year repairing it, but then Hurricane Sandy blew the nest out and snapped the tree in half. The eagles rebuilt the nest in about two weeks."

Almendinger said a new webcam system was installed in time for this year's viewing.

Although the bald eagle were removed from the endangered species list in 2007, they are still protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the Lacey Act, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.