Full Circle

It was November when I spotted this pair of bald eagles together for the first time.  In December, I realized that they were nesting.  The hatching probably happened in January, completely hidden from those of us on the ground.  I saw the chicks for the first time in February, and watched their fuzzy little heads sticking up more and more over the nest in March.  In the beginning of April, they all of a sudden looked like full-grown hawks.  And now, my baby birds are leaving the nest.  Today I saw both of them sitting on the tree where I met their parents.

I also saw something pretty awesome yesterday morning.  One of the eaglets was on the "daddy tree," and while I was watching took off on a short flight around the clump of trees.  In another few weeks, after they've learned to hunt and their wings get accustomed to longer flights, they'll leave the nest and never return.  Adults re-use the same nests fairly often, so maybe we'll get to do it all over again next year.  I hope so - I'm already lamenting the empty nest!

Poacher!

The dog next door was barking like mad a little while ago.  She's not a barker by nature, so I figured there was somebody outside.  When I looked, there was Harley walking along with a fish in his beak that was about the size of my hand.  Harley's head, as you probably remember, is about the size of a ping pong ball.

I was upstairs and immediately galloped downstairs (yeah, about as graceful as you're picturing) to grab the camera.  When I got to the side window and opened the blinds, Harley was there but had put down the fish.  There was no way he was going to swallow this thing whole, so I guess he was going to pick at the flesh?  And so I focused the camera as well as I could through the screen and waited.  Before I could get a single picture, he flew away.  Without the fish.

What the...?

...and then an eagle landed on top of the fish!  That son of a gun is poaching fish from other birds!  OK, I get that he has two increasingly large mouths to feed that can't quite leave the nest to hunt for themselves, but it just seems such a cruel way to make a living.

(at this point I will refrain from pointing out how interesting it is that our forefathers chose the bald eagle as the symbol of our country - the predator that sees something it wants and takes that thing away from the 'lesser' creature that did all the work in the first place)

Anyway, I did manage to get two other pictures before lunch flew back to the nest.  Hope you enjoy them!

 

Vultures? Hawks? No, Eagles!

It's been just over a month since the last time I stopped and took pictures of the babies.  They're so big! And kind of ugly! But also kind of cute.  They sit up on the edge of the nest and occasionally flap their wings. It won't be long now before those wings start to work for real. I only hope that I'm able to get a picture of one of them actually out of the nest before they go away...

PotD: 3 Weeks?

WE HAVE AN EAGLE BABY!!!  Actually, we may have two little chickie-poos up there, but we've only seen what looks to be the back of the head of the second one. (not visible above)

As thrilled as I am to finally have proof of life up there, I'm slightly disappointed to find that it (they?) is probably already 3-4 weeks old.  I came up with that from photos from this entry (3 weeks) and this entry (4 weeks) on the CCB Eagle Nest Blog. Those photos were taken in 2010, but there are 3 new eggs in their nest this year.  I'm totally hooked!

I'm going to exercise self-control and not post all zillion photos I took this afternoon.  But I can't resist showing one more - with the possible second eaglet in the left side of the nest. 

(hat tip to Scott, who was the first to notice the chicks in the nest)

PotD: Bird Sex!

The sandhill cranes were out this morning, and I thought I'd try to replicate this picture, only with Elphie sitting in the doorway.  Unfortunately for me, the grill is further on the patio than usual, and got in my picture attempts.  But while I had the camera out, the bird closest to me flapped her wings wide. I lifted the camera to my eye to get a picture of the wingspan. The other bird jumped on her back. I snapped the picture. The second bird dismounted.

The whole thing took less than 30 seconds.  Scott missed it completely, though to his credit he did hustle back over when I said, "umm...I think they're mating!"  I actually Googled 'sandhill crane mating' to make sure that's what I had seen.  Yep - that's definitely bird sex.

Actually, it's been a big "circle of life" 24 hours here in the neighborhood, though all out-of-order.  On my way home last night, I stopped at the dumpster and snapped a picture of the eagle nest, complete with one bird peeking out the top.

And then around sunset, we spotted a sandhill crane family out front.  The colt is in the middle:

At this point, I think I'm done with wildlife photography for the weekend. But we're planning on heading out to enjoy the beautiful weather today, so who knows what we'll see?

PotD: Let the Eagle Soar

This is actually a picture of the eagle landing.  With wings spread and one foot in the air, the only thing keeping this from being a really great picture is the fact that you can't see its head!  Here are some bonus photos:



Nesting

Alternate misleading post title:

What to Expect When You're Expecting (Baby Eagles)

Do you see it in the picture up above? It's pretty well camouflaged. How about in the picture below?


I could barely see the birds in the nest with my naked eye. And not at all in the camera viewfinder. I lucked out with my timing - one bird had just flown back to the nest with a new stick, and they (I assume) were tucking it in where it needed to go.


So while I don't have any clue if or when we'll actually have a whole big eagle family, I know that for the immediate future I'll have plenty of photo opportunities.