The baby eagles have started standing on the edge of the nest in an old-growth Douglas fir tree and flapping their wings, noted Bob Trebil, who has a bird's eye view of the nest from his Old Oregon Trail home at the south end of the lake's middle basin.

"The male was out last week, but the female didn't try her hand at the nest walking until this past weekend," Trebil said in a June 3 e-mail sent to a host of folks interested in the nest activities.

It marks the third year in a row the breeding pair have raised offspring in the nest -- two chicks in 2001, one in 2002 and two again this year, said Cara Stinson, who also can see the nest from her Columbia Street home.

The pair of adult eagles first gained local notoriety when they built a nest next to the Governor's Mansion on the Capitol Campus in 2000. They hatched one chick there, but wildlife biologists said it did not appear to survive.

In advance of the 2001 breeding season, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials aimed a camera at the nest so wildlife biologists and the public could view nest activities on the Internet day and night.

But the project never panned out.

The adult eagles abandoned the nest right after the Feb. 28, 2001, Nisqually Earthquake and hastily prepared the new one they have used ever since.

The chicks appear healthy and are fast approaching the time they will take their first flights from the nest, said Kelly McAllister, a state regional habitat biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"I've seen one of the adults out on the edge of a branch, flapping its wings, teaching them how to fly," Stinson said.