Well, this is the end of hopes for eaglets from the famed Hornby Island pair of baldies.

A week ago, one of the eggs went missing without a trace, and this Thursday morning the last remaining egg was found crushed, with no sign of a chick within.

Scientists think the pair may be simply too old to raise a pair of viable eggs to chick stage, although they allow it could just be bad luck. Theories as to what happened to the other egg include predators such as ravens, or the parents inadvertently or deliberately pushing it out of the nest. Apparently, on occasion eagles will decide a certain egg is not viable and will delete it. No traces of eggshell were found on the ground, but another predator or scavenger could have made off with the egg-coated snacks.

"At 11:24 a.m. the eagle got up and the egg was completely broken. I looked as closely as I could but could see no evidence of a chick hatched successfully or of a dead chick," wrote Carrick in an e-mail.

"The parent [female, I believe] looked at this central area for a while and then sat back down just like any other time. We'll have to wait for a while longer."

And here's the eagle cam, for what it's worth now. Just a plain ol' pair of empty nesters.