Hello Eagle Friends,
Today it rained most of the day. It was 60 degrees when I reached the valley and the rain stopped for a couple hours giving me time to shoot without ruining more camera equipment.
I hiked out to my Wildlife Study post and found a song sparrow singing on a perch. Daedee, the nest 1 female was drying her
wings in the intermittent sunshine. Obviously she was the parent on the nest incubating their egg(s). Today was day 34 incubation.
Dancer was up on the nest. I could see him through the sticks, and I kept listening for a eaglet cry, but heard only that song sparrows' song. He left and joined perched on the look out tree when the sun came out. Then he flew over to her and sat by her. I think he was trying to get her to go back to the nest, but she wouldn't budge. She was still wet.
He flew back and continued incubating the rest of the time I was there.
I hiked out and moved on to nest 2. I am wondering about this nest, worrying their little ones aren't not going to hatch as they laid too early. Still, they could be sitting on one and I wouldn't know unless I happened upon them during a feeding. So I'm not
giving up on them yet.
Further up the road I found a brown bird that I was unfamiliar with. He was smaller than a golden eagle, but bigger than a red-tailed hawk. His wings had rusty bars and he had a white tail. I'll have to do some research and find out what kind of bird he is. I've never seen one like this in the valley.
Nest 6 was the hot spot today. When I arrived Dick was up on the nest incubating. It seems the male eagles prefer the afternoon shifts. Then a huge great blue heron flew in next to me and I got several pictures of him. While this was going on
the ducks were shifting from one side of marsh to the other but they were not flying out of the area.
Those immature eagles blend in so well to the spring scenery it took two passes of the ducks before I realized that Badger, the nest 6 2007 eagle was trying to catch a duck. Those ducks were almost laughing at him, yet took his talons seriously enough that they flew low across the water.
This seemed to frustrate little Badger, so he took after a Canada Goose male who was protecting his female on the nest box.
The goose proved to be more of a challenge than Badger wanted with water spraying up into his face just as he was a foot above the goose, he flew off and went back chasing ducks.
When I arrived at nest 5 I noticed both eagles on the nest and nest tree. I was sure I'd hit a nest incubation shift so I waited it out. This was Day 40 for this pair.
I looked back again after setting my video camera down, and I could see an eagle dipping its beak into the nest. Not once, not twice, but for over five minutes it repeated this behavior. That is a 100% sure sign that an eaglet has hatched! Our first 2008 eagle of the valley. That is a five mile hike back to that nest, well, maybe 4 miles going from the top of the bluff down, if the back marsh isn't submerged like it is behind nest 3 and 4.
I guess I shouldn't get too excited yet, I still don't have photo proof of the eaglet, but I have five minutes of shots and video of an eagle tending whatever was in the nest below her, and she was not taking chunks of food for herself, those would be large bites. What she was doing was small, almost invisible even with my huge lens, but I'm confident we have our first eaglet.
Then the eagle on the tree branch flew off and up towards me and above me, circling and then went over the bluff. I was about a half mile away, and I mention this just so you know how well those eagles know everyone and everything going on in their territory.
I moved on into the light rain to the gulls. I find them so lovely to watch. They make me laugh as they fly about looking for food and when they find some they either gobble it down in midair, or they lay it down as a trophy for the other gulls to try and steal.
The last ice is thawing the NE corner of the marsh, by this weekend all the marshes will be open and all the snow melted. It also means the gulls will be leaving and in their place hundreds of white pelicans will arrive.
That's why I like the marshes and wetlands. The arrival of the species tells me the time of year better than any calendar ever could. Then again, like my dad always said, "There is real time, and there is 'Lisa time'".
My day started with a song sparrow singing and ended with a pair of wood ducks hiding their song in the grasses, but they swam in close intensely watching me.
I'm looking forward to day 90.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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