February 2, 2006: Housework
"I was up at the eagle nest's upper site yesterday. There are new, softer nest materials (appeared to be rather course grasses) on top of the new sticks, on top of the old original nest. It looks like our eagles are continuing to get their home ready for a new family! One adult was soaring above the area but never came close to the nest."

February 8, 2006: Action at the nest
"Just back from the eagle's nest area and the nesting is getting more "refined" and comfy-looking. A mature eagle came from lower trees beyond the nest and soared up and around a few times easing off to the southwest and out of sight. In a little bit an immature eagle came soaring in and landed on a limb to the lower right of the nest and looked around a bit, then jumped up onto the nest and walked around on it like an inspector and using its beak picked up a bunch of materials--cornstalk piece and grasses--and repositioned it. Then it just stood tall looking around and here came a the mature eagle from behind and above me and down to the nest and did a very near fly-by over the immature eagle causing it to duck and spread its wings, but the mature kept on going and immature sat there awhile longer acting a little nervous and not standing nearly so tall as before and then it took off and soared low in the area awhile. Then it flew over to area where the mature had appeared in the first place--we know they sit on branches over there and in fact the immature was still visible on a branch as I came down and past the lower site--it was on past lower site. I'd stayed off the trail so as to be further from the nest area. That was all the excitement for today, it was pretty cool."

February 14, 2006: More eagles and another nest
"Happy Valentine's Day! Just back from the eagle nest and there was a mature sitting on it and another soaring overhead. I didn't go close enough to get a good look but I am sure the one on the nest was sitting--maybe laying an egg or resting... The nest looks ready for occupancy and I expect it to be home to a new family of babies again this year."

Our source has also recently informed us of a second eagle's nest they have been watching that is not far from "our" nest and a mature eagle was spotted sitting on it Sunday (February 12, 2006) afternoon. She notes that this nest first appeared last year and the eagles that nested there had two babies that looked a little older than the babies at “our” nest. This second nest is about 4 miles away from our nest.

February 20, 2006: Eagles and nests withstand cold temperatures

"Yesterday I hiked up far beyond and up above the nest site (inorder not to disturb the eagles) but I could see enough to spot a mature eagle sitting on the nest. I was wondering if it had withstood the below zero weather and the accompanying stiff winds of the past few days but all looked ok. Haven't been over to check the new neighboring nest but it's protected from northwest winds there so I'm pretty sure it'll be ok, too. Of course I have no way of knowing if they're still laying eggs or if they're actually incubating them.

March 10, 2006: Eagle "sitting low"
"I ventured up to the nest area yesterday and could see an adult sitting on the nest. It still appeared to be sitting "low"--it seems to me that once the babies are hatched the parent sits "up" a bit to allow room for the babies. I'll see if this theory works again this year!"

March 19, 2006: Waiting....
"Adult eagle still sitting comfortably on nest this afternoon."

March 24, 2006: Settling in
"I sat out at our eagle nest observation site about 20 min. and she was facing SE with butt to wind (that always seems wrong as the wind blows her feathers up and lets the cold in and the heat out!) so had pretty good view of her and she seemed to be sitting tightly same as other day but then after awhile she put her head down a bit and started to wibble-wobble her body like settling down on eggs more or rearranging them under her and then settled down again. Couldn't see her left wing but right one still looked close to body--appeared to be no room for a baby under there. I watched awhile longer but she just sat looking around her at her little corner of the world."

March 26, 2006: Yahoo! New eagle baby
"When I got up to the upper nest site the mature was halfway standing up. She stayed that way for a long time--standing sideways to me. It's a beautiful day and I thought if there was a new baby it'd be a good day for it to get some sun. I watched for quite a long time and was about to give up and go home and suddenly there was a fuzzy gray head outside the parent's wing. It would appear and disappear and appeared to be moving back and forth along the wing at times--hard to see clearly with only 10x binocs. I only saw one baby but I couldn't see the other side of the parent and then she very carefully moved her feet around and then snuggled down in the nest with cautious wiggling. The baby seemed to be quite strong as its head didn't bobble as much as they sometimes do. And that's the news of the day!"

April 1, 2006: It looks like an only child for this year
"I'm just back from nest after waiting nearly 2 hour for anything to happen. I saw one baby very briefly as it came out from in front of adult--after I'd been there an hour or so-- and then finally about 2:15 the male flew in--must've had grasses in his talons--when he started feeding baby it was from something furry already on the nest. The female took off right away as soon as male landed and started pulling on the food. I didn't see where she went as I was intent on watching to see if there was more than one baby, but only one was standing there. I couldn't see the feeding as parent had his back to me and so was completely blocking my view of the baby almost all of the time."

April 8-9, 2006: A big weekend for the eaglet

The eaglet is growing!

"There was only one baby in the nest this weekend, and we were surprised at how big it was! We do not know if only one baby hatched or if two hatched but only one survived. Many times, two eaglets will hatch in the nest, but if one is stronger and larger it will eliminate the smaller, weaker one. Knowing that female eagles are larger than males, it may be that a female was hatched first and a male hatched thereafter. The baby may be larger than expected as it gets all the food, or it may be older than originally thought. We think it should be about three weeks old."

Home alone...

"We observed a parent (it looked like the female) on the nest in the early morning, but the baby was left by itself for most of the time. The eaglet was pretty active and entertained itself by looking out of the nest, spreading and flapping its wings, preening, and calling out vocally. It seemed to be much more vocal than the multiple babies we have observed in past years. Was the eaglet asking for food, or maybe shouting "I'm big, I can fly just like mom and dad", or just wanting attention, or just beautifully entertaining the world around it? We also wondered where the parents were when they were both away from the nest for hours. Were they out hunting for food?"

"We did notice however, that if any other birds, like a crow or an immature eagle, came near the nest, one or both of the parents would appear out of nowhere to protect their baby."

Stomach-turning "tails" for dinner!

The baby had a hodgepodge of food over the weekend. However, we did not see any fish or "typical" eagle food being served. Read on to find out what was on the menu...

"One afternoon, both adults were on the nest at the same time with the baby. It was great to see the whole family together and enjoying a meal. What that family meal consisted of was probably much more appealing to an eagle than it would be to us!"

"We witnessed the mom preparing the meal for the baby early one afternoon. She fiercely plucked the fur from something that had been on the nest. She was also pulling very hard trying to tear the meat apart. It was quite a sight to see how hard she worked to get pieces of food. After the fur was gone, there was not much meat, but we saw the ligaments, bones and a large tail--all of which, were very well received by the baby. Watching the baby eat the tail was incredible. It looked larger than the baby! We were surprised it was able to get the whole tail down in one big piece! It looked like it could have been a tail from an opossum."

"On Sunday afternoon, we observed the parents bringing long slimy globs of reddish-purplish things to the nest for food. The meals appeared to be leftovers from the calving season. Just watching the parents feed the stringy, slimy goo to the baby was enough to ruin everyone's appetite!"

April 22-23, 2006:

Leisurely Saturday at the Nest

We were amazed this weekend at how much the little one has grown. When you compare this year's pictures of April 22 to last year's, there is a huge difference in the eaglet's size!

On Saturday, there was not much activity on the nest. We observed the nest from early in the morning until late afternoon. The baby was left on its own during that time, except on two separate occasions. On both of these occasions, an adult landed at the nest, did not feed the baby at all, and then left the nest after about 20 seconds. The poor eaglet's crop was so empty! (The crop is the pouch that birds of prey have at the base of the neck that holds the food until they are ready to send it to the stomach).

Throughout the day the adults would occasionally soar over the nest and the sight was pure magnificence. The baby would cry out to them, but they did not seem to respond.

We saw two different immature eagles fly over at different times. The mother on the nest was very vocal when an immature flew over and the father aggressively chased one of them away.

The turkey vultures apparently are not a threat as they were pretty much ignored by the adults, even when they come fairly close to the nest.

While observing the nest we also got to watch a pesky crow attack a mature eagle a couple of times.

The eaglet was fun to watch as she was practicing with her very long wings. She has a ways to go before the coordination and balance are smooth! The other hawks that soared by were enjoying the gentle winds of the day. The Dutchman's Breeches and other wildflowers, their colors covering the spectrum of the rainbow and more, were also basking gloriously in the warm sun.

Trauma in the nest!

Sunday was a whole different story from Saturday! We hiked out to the nest early Sunday morning and were disappointed to see that there were still no adults hanging out there.

Not much happened all morning until about 9:30 when suddenly the female adult came and did a flyover above the nest with something in her talons, circled and came back. We thought it was exciting enough that there was food being brought to the eaglet, but the excitement that ended up unfolding was more than we could have ever imagined!

The adult came in for a landing and the eaglet almost fell over backwards trying to quickly back up and get the heck out of the way! The adult barely touched her talons on the nest when she went plunging straight back down over the same side of the nest from her approach. I thought she had fallen off the nest, but was quickly corrected by the other viewers that she intentionally dove after something that had escaped! You could hear her wings crashing and smashing into the branches as she was headed down and coming back up.

She came back up to the tippy top of the little pine branches that shoot straight up from the nest and tried to land there. It was only a touch landing as she dove onto the nest once again. Her wings were spread out and flopping every which way trying to provide her balance as she was struggling and trying to subdue some varmint that was determined not to go gently into the still night.

The poor eaglet was subjected to all the scrambling and ended up underneath wings, tails and who knows what else! She was so scared and hunkered down in the nest and put her head down and soon tucked her head clear under her body while the adult bird fought with beak and talons trying to gain control of an obviously out-of-control situation.

Things calmed down somewhat and the baby backed as far away from the adult as possible. We even wondered if the eaglet was going to back right off the nest as it was trying to move to safer ground.

The adult finally started eating and tried to offer the eaglet some tempting morsels, but the eaglet seemed to be too traumatized to move an inch. It's very possible she was bonked around quite a bit by the combatants. Eventually she started opening her beak a little way, then shut it. She did this for awhile and then finally started accepting mom's offerings. She must have then remembered just how hungry she was and moved closer to the food. Her little, empty crop became extremely full by time they finished eating. (The crop is the pouch that birds of prey have at the base of the neck that holds the food until they are ready to send it to the stomach). The adult stayed on the nest a long time and occasionally fed the eaglet another bite or two. Then it was time for a long nap by the little one!

June 1, 2006:

No Eagles in Sight

"I finally hiked up to the eagle nest this afternoon but didn't see any eagles anywhere. I could see the nest at times through the blowing trees/leaves but was unable to see surrounding branches. I sat up there awhile but didn't hear or see any eagles so I guess our baby's grown up and flown away!"

July 6, 2006:

Nest is too hard to view

Greetings! With the advent of summer and trees sporting their foliage in full-force, we are sad to report that our nest is too hard to view. Our diaries will probably be done for the year, but if we catch sight of anything, we’ll be sure to update. In the meantime, please check out other related links for different perspectives on eagles all across the country.

Make sure to check back to see what developments occur. For more fun, see stories and pictures from past years or visit the National Wildlife Federation's web site, which contains lots of information and a live Bald Eagle web camera! Another site to check out with a live Eagle camera is www.nu.com/eagles/live/default.asp.

Eagle Nest Diaries 2006:

A new year, a new nest!

The eaglet is growing!

Stomach-turning "tails" for dinner!