April 23 - 24

The temperature Saturday morning and Sunday morning was right at 30 degrees and the winds strongly howled all day both days. Thank goodness for the inventor of those little hot packets/hand warmers - we used many of those on ourselves and on the camera batteries to keep them warm!

For as cold as the constant, beating, noisy wind made it on those days, I will never complain about it again. The adult eagles seemed to revel in it. We only saw an adult land in the trees one time. Instead, they spent much of the time soaring and soaring and hanging in the wind - barely moving a feather. Sometimes there would be one adult above us or in front of us, other times both adults would be soaring at the same time. One time there were three adults soaring in circles above us. Other times the immature would join in the soaring and the adults would tolerate it for a little while. Once the tolerance level was reached, however, the adult would fold up its wings and go into a steep stoop attacking the immature.

We also witnessed an adult very swiftly escorting a Canada goose away from the nesting area. I didn't know a goose could fly that fast - and honk away at the same time! Another amazing sight was when a short, wide, stocky light colored hawk (similar in size to a Red Tail) came into the area and actually went after the adult eagles as they were soaring around. The second time it came by and started to chase an adult, the adult ended up getting turned around and going after the hawk. There were several turkey vultures soaring around both days, but they ignored the adults and the adults left them alone, too. The accipiters were also not considered a threat.

Saturday morning there was no feeding and the adults were not on the nest except for a minute or two at a time before they would take off again. The nest was not only swaying in wide sweeping arches back and forth in the strong wind, but you could also see the nest twisting and turning sideways as well. The adults were also landing on the nest from a different direction due to the wind. Their approaches were much slower, too. The would get closer to the nest, seem to hang there for a few seconds and then lower themselves closer to the nest, hang for a moment and continue this transition until they could finally land. The adults also let their legs hang down as they were getting closer to the nest - usng them like stabilizers in the wind.

The wind was also wreaking havoc with the adults when they were on the nest at times. More than once the female adult would have its back to the wind and start to lean over - and then a gust of wind would come up from under the tail feathers and catapult the adult chest first down onto the nest with wings sprawled out all over the place trying to catch and stabilize herself.

  








Big Bite
Sunday it was still windy but there was a lot more action at the nest. The adults brought in many meals - some with scales, some with fur and there even appeared to be feathers on one catch!

We were in awe most of the weekend just watching the adults soar in front of us and above us. It was such a majestic and moving sight. Many times they were so close to us and would just hang effortlessly in one place. Then they would slowly start to circle and circle, higher and higher until they were but specks in the sky. Incredible - we all felt so blessed.


Hovering
This hovering shot shows the angle the adults had to use to land on the nest. Even the tail feathers were fanned out and angled sharply at times to compensate for the windy conditions. The wings would also cast a large shadow over the nest as the adults would slowly lower themselves onto the nest. Although by the baby's expression, it wasn't slow enough!



Fighting
Of course, the sibling rivalry would flare up occasionally. The larger baby would usually end up pecking the smaller one on the head and the smaller one would just put its head down on the nest and lay there motionless.

The babies are just starting to get feathers on the trailing edge of their wings. They were practicing flapping their wings a lot, too.




New Feathers
Both babies are spending more and more time flapping their wings. It is going to take a little more practice before the words graceful, smooth and coordinated can be used to describe the flapping efforts! You can see there are feathers starting to appear on the edges of the wings.



Friend or Foe
This is a glimpse of the fast-paced interaction between an adult and the immature. The adult would be friendly and would soar with the immature at first and everything seemed calm and peaceful. Then for whatever reason, the adult - or adults - would all of a sudden attack the immature and chase it away. There were a few times when the immature did a 180 degree flip with its feet straight up in the air defending itself.

One time, there were four eagles soaring together right above us. There were two adults from the nest, the immature that seems to "hang" around quite a bit (last year's baby?) and an older immature.

We saw the younger immature 3 or 4 times on Saturday and a couple of times on Sunday. The aerial battles are so amazing to watch. The high speeds, sharply banked turns and incredible dives are just unbelievable. What a blessing!