NORFOLK -- Tragedy struck the Norfolk Botanical Garden eagle couple again Thursday with the loss of two eggs.

For several hours, Eagle Cam fans watched with apprehension, noting the eagles were not in the nest. Now, scientists say the eggs may have broken overnight.

Reese Lukei, Jr.

This picture was taken at 7:10 a.m., the time when scientists say they first glimpsed one of the broken eggs.

“It sounds like something probably happened overnight and that’s why we’ve not seen them on the nest,” Reese Lukei, Jr, Research Associate at the Center for Conservation Biology, told WVEC.com Thursday afternoon.

After further reviewing the day's events, he believes the eggs were broken around 6:22 a.m. when the eagles were aggitated by something above them. Lukei said it may have been a great horned owl, since the owls nest less than half a mile away from the eagles.

Lukei says the female eagle ate one of the eggs, which was on the right side of the nest, around 7:00 a.m., and he speculates the egg may have been partially eaten before it was light enough for the camera to clearly catch it.

The second egg was visible near the back of the nest around 7:10 a.m., but Lukei was unsure of what it was until later review.

Most viewers did not catch the eagle eating the first egg or notice the second, but they did notice the lack of eagle presence in the nest starting at 11:40 a.m.

After hours away from the nest, the eagles returned, and viewers first glimpsed the remnants of the second broken egg when the female consumed it at 4:34 p.m.

Reese Lukei, Jr.

The female eagle ate the second egg Thursday afternoon.

Stephen Living, a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, explains the behavior is not uncommon.

“The egg eating behavior serves to recapture the valuable calories and calcium that went into creation of the egg,” he said.

Lukei added that once an egg is broken, eagles no longer consider it one of their offspring, and see it as just another food item.

Viewers have speculated the female eagle may have lacked calcium while forming the eggs, prompting soft shells that broke easily, but scientists say there is no way to confirm that at this point.

The eagle pair lost their first clutch of the season after a female intruder chased them from the nest, exposing the two eggs to the elements. On Sunday, March 16th, the female eagle laid the first egg of the new clutch, and Wednesday, viewers believe she laid a second.

The eagle couple seems intent on making sure they have another egg, and mated at 7:34 p.m. on the branch next to the nest. Lukei saw it as a message to all that the eagles have not given up.

The latest eagle couples in Virginia have been known to lay eggs is the first week of April.