Post by baja252 on Jul 4, 2013 14:19:40 GMT -6
A while ago people in the eagle chat said they liked to hear the stories that went with the photos I took, so here is a long story from this morning. I will warn you up front that some of you hard core eagle watchers may feel uncomfortable with the situation the juvies were in and some people may not approve of my actions. All I can say is I was there and I made the call. Next time if it’s you, you can make the call on what to do.
The boats and noise of the 4th of July weekend doesn’t ever seem to really bother the E’s too much. They stay year after year so I can only assume it’s not a big deal to them. I have seen them swoop down and grab a fish 30 ’away from kids swimming at the dock, they always seem to silently go about their day in amongst all the lake activity. S & O on the other hand will experience many new sights, sounds and smells this weekend. I imagine they will be confused with all the activity. The tranquil setting of their little cove will come alive with people, boats, jet skis and the sound and smoke from fireworks.
At about 6:15 this morning, I decided to go out and see if I could find S &O before the lake got busy. Two days ago I sat in the cove for a couple of hours without seeing a glimpse of anything. Then when I returned home I saw both juvies on the cams, relaxing at the nest. I’m not doing that again, so I checked the cams first and find one juvie is gone to the lake (juvie #1) and one (juvie#2) is in the nest. I decide to wait awhile before I go out. While sitting on the couch I see a parent fly by, two minutes the other one flies by. (FYI, I don’t know where Elsie goes during the day, but most of the time its Stein I see feeding the juvies away from the nest.) I check the cams again and sure enough juvie #2 takes off. The cam pans to the lake (thank you) and I see him head towards the water. I grabbed my camera and off I go to the dock. I’m in the bass boat and using the trolling motor, so I go slow and make no noise. I never even saw him sitting on the roof of the dock, but I get three docks away from the point (300’ or more) and I guess I scare him off because all of the sudden I hear the sound of talons scraping and sliding on the metal roof of a dock as he takes off for the back of the cove.
I try so hard to not bother them or interfere with the eagles in anyway; I hate it when I scare them. They as a whole are very tolerant of me taking their pictures and I never want to push it. I remember Morgan from two years ago at times seemed almost tame. I went to Thumper's house one afternoon to give them a disc of photos and Morgan came flying around the house and landed on the front porch 3’ in front of me. I backed off and put the disc in the mailbox. If I would have tried I believe I could have fed him by hand.
I hated it that he hung out on the power poles behind our house. It just seemed dangerous.
Sick of my long stories yet, hope not I’m just getting started. Okay, back to S &O. I follow juvie #2 towards the back of the cove, but I can’t find him. Then off to the right a couple hundred feet I hear the familiar “squeak”. I move on down the shore and unfortunately this is what I see.
It’s Morgan on the pole all over again and it looks very dangerous. I already bothered him once by accident; do I do it again on purpose and scare him away from the wires? I don’t know what the right thing to do is. They probably sit on the poles all the time, I just have never seen it before and it’s very scary to see him so close to the wires. After a few minutes I just can’t stand it anymore, so I stood up and waved my arm and sure enough he flies off. For a split second, I’m feeling very relieved but then he lands on another power pole. This pole has fewer wires, but has a big transformer on it.
To make it worse this pole is behind a tree and I can only see him if I move over to the side of him. The docks are close together, but I move as close as I can. I wave my arm again……… nothing. I stand up and wave…………nothing. I wave both arms and stomp my foot……………nothing. If anyone sees me they probably think I am harassing the eagles, not to mention its 7:15 in the morning and I’m 2’ from their dock. What now? Yell at him? I truly don’t know what the right thing to do is. I hate scaring them, but it’s for their own good isn’t it? I’m thinking it’s probably a federal offense to harass them. I get an idea; I start the big engine on the boat. It roars to life and I think that should do the trick, but no he won’t move. Am I making this worse? Is he scared and therefore not moving? I decide to move around to the other side of the tree and pole and…… WHOA here is another juvie on the roof of the house!
I must have passed right by him on the way in. That means this one is juvie #1 that I scared off the dock, so its #2 on the power pole. Juvie #1 hops up to the satellite dish. A great photo opportunity, but I can’t mess with photos settings now.
The caption on this is; How's the reception now?
The docks are too close to maneuver in to see juvie #2, so I go back around the other side. While I’m going around the dock Juvie #1 leaves the dish and joins Juvie #2 on the pole, are you kidding me!!!!! Both Juvies flapping and trying to stand on an 8” pole. Their wings are all over the wires.
I remember reading about a juvie from another nest last year being electrocuted while sitting on a pole. I understand birds land on wires all the time and squirrels run across them, but I have to tell you when you see their wings flapping around hitting the wires, I sincerely thought I was going to see a tragedy. I’m no electrician, but I believe if one wing touched the main wire and the other touched the guide wire going to the ground he would get shocked. I wave and make some noise to scare them off the pole, but do they fly off………no, they actually settle down and just look at me. At least their wings aren’t hitting the wires anymore.
I now see that juvie #2 is not on the pole but on the wire insulator and there are two guide wires going to the ground not one! This is very hard to look at. I’m sure people say they were fine or that I shouldn’t have interfered, but in the moment I just couldn’t sit there and do nothing and then have something happen right in front of me. So, more waving, stomping and some soft yelling, but I get nothing, just stares. 300’ from him and I scare him off the dock roof, but all this and no movement at all. I’m just hoping someone comes outside so I can have them to walk over to the pole and scare them off.
Then the best sound I could possibly hear, a loud simultaneous chorus of SQUEEEEEEK’S starts up. That can only mean mom or dads back. I turn to see a parent with a fish on the roof of the same dock I scared juvie #1 off of. Remember juvie #1 was the first one to leave the nest on the cam, before I see both E’s fly by my house. This means they saw him on the roof of the dock as they flew over. Now one has returned to the same dock with a fish, ie; their last known location of a juvie. I find this very interesting.
Thank goodness Juvie # 1 leaves the wire and flies to the dock, jumps on the fish and assumes guarding position (I always think this is O). I also now see it’s dad with the fish.
Juvie #2 is still sitting on the pole. I’m having no luck getting him off the power pole, so I decide to move away and go towards the dock. After a couple of minutes Stein moves to a tree, beautiful opportunity for a series of photos, but I’m so distracted by the juvie on the power line I miss it completely and frankly at this point I’m not worried about photos too much. Finally after several minutes Juvie #2 leaves the pole. This shot could have been so good if I was only ready for it. You also see both guide wires and how his wings could have easily reached both wires.
He flies over me, Juvie #1 on the dock roof, over Stein in the tree and lands on the roof of a house.
At this time I’m am worn out by the whole thing and decide to leave the eagles to themselves for the rest of the weekend. The good news is no one was hurt, I don’t think I scared them for life and the house roof juvie #2 flew to is one house closer to me than I have ever seen them before. One more house and 150’ of water and they will be in my front yard.
Happy 4th of July everyone
The boats and noise of the 4th of July weekend doesn’t ever seem to really bother the E’s too much. They stay year after year so I can only assume it’s not a big deal to them. I have seen them swoop down and grab a fish 30 ’away from kids swimming at the dock, they always seem to silently go about their day in amongst all the lake activity. S & O on the other hand will experience many new sights, sounds and smells this weekend. I imagine they will be confused with all the activity. The tranquil setting of their little cove will come alive with people, boats, jet skis and the sound and smoke from fireworks.
At about 6:15 this morning, I decided to go out and see if I could find S &O before the lake got busy. Two days ago I sat in the cove for a couple of hours without seeing a glimpse of anything. Then when I returned home I saw both juvies on the cams, relaxing at the nest. I’m not doing that again, so I checked the cams first and find one juvie is gone to the lake (juvie #1) and one (juvie#2) is in the nest. I decide to wait awhile before I go out. While sitting on the couch I see a parent fly by, two minutes the other one flies by. (FYI, I don’t know where Elsie goes during the day, but most of the time its Stein I see feeding the juvies away from the nest.) I check the cams again and sure enough juvie #2 takes off. The cam pans to the lake (thank you) and I see him head towards the water. I grabbed my camera and off I go to the dock. I’m in the bass boat and using the trolling motor, so I go slow and make no noise. I never even saw him sitting on the roof of the dock, but I get three docks away from the point (300’ or more) and I guess I scare him off because all of the sudden I hear the sound of talons scraping and sliding on the metal roof of a dock as he takes off for the back of the cove.
I try so hard to not bother them or interfere with the eagles in anyway; I hate it when I scare them. They as a whole are very tolerant of me taking their pictures and I never want to push it. I remember Morgan from two years ago at times seemed almost tame. I went to Thumper's house one afternoon to give them a disc of photos and Morgan came flying around the house and landed on the front porch 3’ in front of me. I backed off and put the disc in the mailbox. If I would have tried I believe I could have fed him by hand.
I hated it that he hung out on the power poles behind our house. It just seemed dangerous.
Sick of my long stories yet, hope not I’m just getting started. Okay, back to S &O. I follow juvie #2 towards the back of the cove, but I can’t find him. Then off to the right a couple hundred feet I hear the familiar “squeak”. I move on down the shore and unfortunately this is what I see.
It’s Morgan on the pole all over again and it looks very dangerous. I already bothered him once by accident; do I do it again on purpose and scare him away from the wires? I don’t know what the right thing to do is. They probably sit on the poles all the time, I just have never seen it before and it’s very scary to see him so close to the wires. After a few minutes I just can’t stand it anymore, so I stood up and waved my arm and sure enough he flies off. For a split second, I’m feeling very relieved but then he lands on another power pole. This pole has fewer wires, but has a big transformer on it.
To make it worse this pole is behind a tree and I can only see him if I move over to the side of him. The docks are close together, but I move as close as I can. I wave my arm again……… nothing. I stand up and wave…………nothing. I wave both arms and stomp my foot……………nothing. If anyone sees me they probably think I am harassing the eagles, not to mention its 7:15 in the morning and I’m 2’ from their dock. What now? Yell at him? I truly don’t know what the right thing to do is. I hate scaring them, but it’s for their own good isn’t it? I’m thinking it’s probably a federal offense to harass them. I get an idea; I start the big engine on the boat. It roars to life and I think that should do the trick, but no he won’t move. Am I making this worse? Is he scared and therefore not moving? I decide to move around to the other side of the tree and pole and…… WHOA here is another juvie on the roof of the house!
I must have passed right by him on the way in. That means this one is juvie #1 that I scared off the dock, so its #2 on the power pole. Juvie #1 hops up to the satellite dish. A great photo opportunity, but I can’t mess with photos settings now.
The caption on this is; How's the reception now?
The docks are too close to maneuver in to see juvie #2, so I go back around the other side. While I’m going around the dock Juvie #1 leaves the dish and joins Juvie #2 on the pole, are you kidding me!!!!! Both Juvies flapping and trying to stand on an 8” pole. Their wings are all over the wires.
I remember reading about a juvie from another nest last year being electrocuted while sitting on a pole. I understand birds land on wires all the time and squirrels run across them, but I have to tell you when you see their wings flapping around hitting the wires, I sincerely thought I was going to see a tragedy. I’m no electrician, but I believe if one wing touched the main wire and the other touched the guide wire going to the ground he would get shocked. I wave and make some noise to scare them off the pole, but do they fly off………no, they actually settle down and just look at me. At least their wings aren’t hitting the wires anymore.
I now see that juvie #2 is not on the pole but on the wire insulator and there are two guide wires going to the ground not one! This is very hard to look at. I’m sure people say they were fine or that I shouldn’t have interfered, but in the moment I just couldn’t sit there and do nothing and then have something happen right in front of me. So, more waving, stomping and some soft yelling, but I get nothing, just stares. 300’ from him and I scare him off the dock roof, but all this and no movement at all. I’m just hoping someone comes outside so I can have them to walk over to the pole and scare them off.
Then the best sound I could possibly hear, a loud simultaneous chorus of SQUEEEEEEK’S starts up. That can only mean mom or dads back. I turn to see a parent with a fish on the roof of the same dock I scared juvie #1 off of. Remember juvie #1 was the first one to leave the nest on the cam, before I see both E’s fly by my house. This means they saw him on the roof of the dock as they flew over. Now one has returned to the same dock with a fish, ie; their last known location of a juvie. I find this very interesting.
Thank goodness Juvie # 1 leaves the wire and flies to the dock, jumps on the fish and assumes guarding position (I always think this is O). I also now see it’s dad with the fish.
Juvie #2 is still sitting on the pole. I’m having no luck getting him off the power pole, so I decide to move away and go towards the dock. After a couple of minutes Stein moves to a tree, beautiful opportunity for a series of photos, but I’m so distracted by the juvie on the power line I miss it completely and frankly at this point I’m not worried about photos too much. Finally after several minutes Juvie #2 leaves the pole. This shot could have been so good if I was only ready for it. You also see both guide wires and how his wings could have easily reached both wires.
He flies over me, Juvie #1 on the dock roof, over Stein in the tree and lands on the roof of a house.
At this time I’m am worn out by the whole thing and decide to leave the eagles to themselves for the rest of the weekend. The good news is no one was hurt, I don’t think I scared them for life and the house roof juvie #2 flew to is one house closer to me than I have ever seen them before. One more house and 150’ of water and they will be in my front yard.
Happy 4th of July everyone