| Eagle at the Refuge Updates on the Family |
| May 12 The two eaglets in the photo was taken about 8 a.m. are in a dead tree perhaps 100 yards north of the nest. This is the first time that I have seen two of them together in a tree other than the nest tree. I began observing the empty nest at approx. 7 a.m. and about 20 min. later one of the eaglets flew into the nest and began eating something which was already there. After a few minutes it flew away toward the north and after a short search from the Dynamite Shed Road I saw the two of them in the tree together. After several minutes both eaglets flew out of the tree toward the north. After another search, I located them in another dead tree (this tree is approx. east of the faded red ribbon on the right side of the road) perhaps an additional 100 yards north of the nest. I also observed that there was another immature eagle in this tree several feet to the left and below these two, and partly obscured by some leaves in another tree. I observed the 3rd eagle with binoculars and am confident that it too was an immature eagle. This is of some interest since I have not seen all three eaglets together since the Sunday when the rather severe wind storm came though the area. Of course, the fact that three immature eagles are observed in the same tree does not prove that these are the 3 eaglets that hatched in the nest that we have been observing, but it gives us some hope that all three of those eaglets are still alive and well. By the time I moved my camera into position and was refocusing on the second tree at a different distance from the road (and camera) the eaglets(?) all flew out of the tree and I was not able to get a photograph of all three together. They flew generally south, and I later observed 2 of them together again in the nest. W. Lawrence Croft |
| May 22 The two eaglets were in the nest or on nearby limbs for the approximately 2.5 hrs that I observed the nest (I never saw the 3rd eaglet.) The eaglets were eating some "meat" in the nest off and on. One of the parents flew into the nest and joined in the feast, and at times would tear off a piece of the entree and give it to one of the eaglets. After a time, a helicopter flew by at a great distance from the nest making lots of noise which seemed to bother the birds and the adult flew out of the nest during this time, but that may not have been an example of cause and effect. W Lawrence Croft |
