A busy morning at the nest

Posted on May 29, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was the end of March and the late baby eagles in my neighborhood were still not flying yet.

I heard Mom screaming and realized that another juvenile (from the nest at the other end of the neighborhood) was cruising over the nest and trying to land. Mom chased off the intruder and landed back on the nest tower. The nest far over on the other end of the neighborhood was several weeks ahead of this nest. Those babies were already flying and this one came looking for an extra meal.

After the intruder left Mom sat there and screamed for a while. I guess she was calling for her mate. The mate flew in and they both sat there for a few minutes. They were on the other end of the tower and it’s was tough to see both of them together.

All of a sudden they started mating. I’ve read that they stress mate even while they still have babies.

After the eagles calmed down I started looking around and saw this woodpecker with a snack on the fence.

A great crested flycatcher and a palm warbler landed in the trees I was sitting under.

I heard some screaming and realized some monk parakeets had flown into the bottle brush trees next to the fence. They were eating the seed off the brushes.

Across the field a squirrel was eating what looked like a big mushroom.

Fun things at the eagle’s nest

Posted on May 6, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was mid-March and I was sitting in my chair along the fence line at the eagle’s nest. I was waiting for the baby eagles to wake up and I look over the small wooden fence and see some deer feeding right in front of me. I stood up to take some pictures and they stopped to check me out but then kept eating and working their way down the utility field.

One of the parents dropped off a tiny fish for breakfast and after eating the oldest baby did some practice flaps.

A few days later and the oldest was still flapping his wings while Mom watched.

On this particular morning I heard a loud scream and got out of my chair and turned around just as a pileated woodpecker flew in the tree next to me. She was pretty close and ignored me.

A red bellied woodpecker flew onto the utility pole next to the tree and started banging. He must have caught the attention of the pileated woodpecker. She flew over and chased him off the pole. I guess size wins in this game. It’s amazing the critters I see at the eagle’s nest.

The flapping has started

Posted on April 20, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was late February and I was stopping by the neighborhood eagle’s nest every couple of days. One morning I caught the parent bringing in a fish for breakfast. Now they were just dropping off the food and letting the babies eat on their own.

At least one parent was still hanging close to the nest.

At one point an osprey flew close to the nest and the eagle was yelling at him to leave.

One of the babies was flapping his new wings and you could still see the pin feathers.

Finally, I could get a decent shot of both of the babies sitting up. The younger one seemed to sleep a lot and wasn’t flapping yet.

The kestrel couple landed on the wire nearby.

A few other birds that came by the nest was a phoebe and a brown thrasher.

I could see a red shoulder hawk far away on the other side of the field.

A great egret flies right over my head.

All In the “eagle” Family

Posted on April 14, 2022 by dinajohnston

I stopped by the eagles nest in my neighborhood just after mid-February. The 2 babies were flapping their wings pretty hard. At this point the parents were just dropping off food and the babies were eating on their own. One of the parents had been sitting just above the nest and took off.

A few days later I came back and one of the parents was sitting near the nest and started yelling.

I then saw the other parent flying by but didin’t stop. I’m thinking this was the male. The female went after him, screaming along the way. Where was he going and where was breakfast (I’m assuming that’s what she was yelling)?

I saw them both land several towers down the field (that’s an osprey nest on the bottom left). They both sat up there for a while before taking off again.

The kids were like “Where are they going and where is our breakfast?” I waited about 45 minutes after that but still didn’t see the parents come back. One of them probably came back around lunchtime with a snack. At this point the babies still weren’t flying at all but flapping pretty hard.

More to come on the eagle family. I guess I should name them all at this point. Any suggestions?

SkyWatch Friday

Bald eagle twins

Posted on April 19, 2017 by dinajohnston

From far away I could see the bald eagle in the tree.

This is all I saw for several weeks. An adult bald eagle sitting low on the nest.

I didn’t get a chance to stop by the eagle’s nest near my neighborhood for several weeks. I finally stopped by thinking I was going to be disappointed since there were no babies here last year. Boy was I surprised. Not one big baby but two sitting proudly on the nest. They looked almost as big as their parents. There was a parent on the nest the entire time I was there so they were still pretty young even though they looked so big. I stayed for a while hoping to see the other parent bring in food but I couldn’t stay much longer past lunchtime. I’ll be back though. All of the above were extremely cropped.

Eagles nest at the farm

Posted on March 29, 2014 by dinajohnston

Both babies are about the same size now.

One is flapping a little more.

I think they were fighting over scraps.

The parent looking around. The babies were on the other side of the tree trunk on the right.

It’s a big nest.

This is the 2nd time I’ve seen bluebirds hanging around near the nest. I didn’t see any last year. They’ll be leaving soon to head back up north.

The lone baby chicken is getting big. I was glad to see it doing well.

This horse was very friendly.

There were several other people there watching the eagle’s nest on my most recent trip and this horse wanted attention.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon so I decided to stop by the eagle’s nest one more time to see how the big babies were doing. They were pretty big at this point. They looked to be the size of the parents. One was already flapping his wings pretty good. It’s peaceful there and I like seeing all of the peacocks and chickens running around. I took a ton of pictures on this trip since the weather was so nice and the birds were pretty active. I’ll post more later.

Linking up to Saturday’s Critters Shine the Divine