Hello Eagle Friends,
Today I woke up to an inch of snow on the ground and more falling. It was 32 degrees when I reached the valley and the snow had stopped for a period. The overcast moody lighting gave me an unlimited array of dramatic scenes to choose from, I simply had to pick the nest and canvas I wanted to create first.
I chose nest 6. There is always something stirring there. Today I believe their eaglet hatched, but I have no photo proof. The goose mound Canada goose was taking a cool sip of water from the marsh and then she went back up to her nest and laid on her eggs. I noticed at least two ivory white eggs the size of a man's hand clenched together laid in a suitably soft bed of grey and white goose down. The other thing I noticed was the aluminum band on the leg of the goose. I took some shots of it, and I'll have to zoom in to see if I can read the numbers.
I want to know where this goose came from and keep track if she returns to lay again next year. It will be interesting to learn if she was hatched here, or how far she has come to choose this nesting area.
I moved on to nest 5. There I saw one eagle in the air, the mother or father who was stirring up the shoveler duck flock from one end of the marsh to the other end of the marsh. Then it came in and the female or male who was on the nest flew off.
Then I watched the eagle who had flown in, lean into the nest and feed the eaglets.
I do believe we have twins on that nest. One is 7 days old, and the other, I'll guess is 5 or 6 days old. As they usually hatch a day or so apart. The one eaglet is visible in the picture, it's very small, but that is the size of a 1 week old eaglet.
I left this nest area and was starting to head to nest 3 when I noticed a large brown and black bird face down in the reeds.
Another dead Canada goose. His head floating half above, half under the water that gave him life. He wasn't there yesterday, so it happened since late afternoon yesterday.
I wondered if one of the eagles tried to take him for a meal (yes, they will take a Canada goose), or did he die in a courtship battle. I immediately thought of that long battle Em and me saw a week or so ago, the one where both geese nearly drowned each other in an attempt to take the female.
Nest 3 and Nest 4 eagles were on their nests. Nest four was standing on the edge, which made me wonder if they have hatchling? They are at 32 days incubation today. Nest 3 is at 35 days.
When I arrived at nest 2, Judy was on the nest and feeding their 6 day old eaglet, Terry Gail. All I could see was snow covering every opening between sticks on the nest. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a better shot of their eaglet. Of course we are supposed to have a snow-filled week.
The day went so fast it hardly seemed possible that the evening was already upon us. I hiked out to Daedee and Dancer's nest area. I saw Dancer perched on one his favorite river edge trees watching me hike in. He looked, turned looked around, looked back at me, then to Daedee.
He was so perfectly content, I was sure his eaglet had hatched. There is a calmness that follows the antsy antics of an eagle who is expecting their eaglets. With a food stock on the nest, there were no worries for food, with the extra bedding already flown in, there were no worries for the nesting material.
As I sat down at my post about fifty feet from Dancer he looked at me with the most expressive, exhausted looking expression I was sure that he was a new daddy. I couldn't walk to the river where I could get a shot of Daedee on the nest and possibly their eaglet, because Dancer was there.
I didn't stay long as it was getting dark and I had the only shot I was going to get today, The Dancer guarding his mate.
I'm looking forward to day 96.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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