Post by baja252 on Apr 20, 2014 10:34:03 GMT -6
The E’s have been acting a little differently away from the nest this year. They don’t seem to fly by the house as much when they leave the nest and they don’t land in the yard as often. Last week I was planning to watch them after a shift change to see where they go, but the problem is you never know when a shift change is going to occur. I had no choice but to just go out on the water and sit and wait for them to show up.
A shift change usually happens around dusk, so to increase my chances; I went out an hour before sunset. After about a half hour of seeing nothing, even though it was getting dark I decided to idle down to the end of the cove. As I got closer, sure enough I see an E standing in a few inches of water, taking a drink. The turtle next to her doesn’t seem to be scared of her at all.
Even more surprising, there was a juvie flying around.
As I’m taking photos of him landing in a tree, I catch another one off to my side.
Two juvies in the cove with Elsie, wow! Unfortunately it was getting too dark for photos, so I just sat and watched the three of them. I have no idea if they were her juvies, but something tells me they are.
The next morning I got up early and went out in the boat to see if they were still there. As I’m pulling out I see Elsie fly over the trees and head to the back of the cove. This is very different from their usual route they take when they leave the nest. They usually fly down the hill and across the little cove that Star and Ozark hung out in and continue out the cove to the main channel of the lake. This time she cut across to the north, over the trees and turned west towards the end of the main cove. I watched her fly all the way down to the end of the cove ahead of me.
This photo shows the end of the larger cove the E’s live in, it’s about a half of a mile from the nest. The water here is only about 2 feet deep this time of year and is full of turtles and fish. If you look close you can see Elsie enjoying the morning sun, in her favorite tree on the far left.
After a few minutes I left her to enjoy her day.
That evening I decided to try again. Just like the previous night an E was already there waiting for me, this is definitely where they have been hanging out lately. As I got closer I could see it was Elsie. I just watched her for a while until she flew off.
She cuts across the cove and headed to her tree.
Seconds after I take that photo I spot a juvie sitting in a tree. Can you say camouflaged? He was there the whole time and I didn’t see him at all.
While I was watching Elsie land, the juvie took off and flew to a limb just under her. I got the impression he was looking for a free meal. I missed the takeoff, but I did catch a photo of him landing in the tree. An interesting shot, I cropped the photo to show the tail feathers. It looks like when the tail feathers begin to turn white they do it on one half of the feather at a time.
Elsie just watches him and doesn’t seem to object too much the juvies arrival. Wouldn’t we love to know for sure if it’s one of hers?
The next night I sat in the end of the cove waiting for them to come to me for a change. This would make the setting sun at my back and give me better light for photos. After about an hour of waiting, the sun was going down behind the trees and it looked like the E’s would be a no show. So much for my new plan. I packed up my camera and had just gotten the boat up on a plane when I see an E headed down the cove towards me.
While slowing down I reached over got my camera out of the bag and watched as Stein approached me. The closer he got he dipped below the tree line which meant he was no longer lit up by the setting sun. This instantly killed what little light I had. I took several shots anyway, as he suddenly turned almost right over my head. In addition to the low light, my zoom lens setup doesn’t work very well when he’s only 30 feet above you.
I’m not posting this next photo because it’s a great photo, it’s not. I’m posting it because it shows something unusual. No, it’s not the other bird. Look again; Stein appears to have one long wing feather!
I quickly looked at my camera to see the images I’d taken and as I feared they were so dark they were almost not visible. As quickly as I could I changed a couple settings, the whole time knowing I was missing him grab a fish just 50 feet from me. By the time I had adjusted the camera he was already flying to shore with his snack.
He landed in a tree, ate the fish and then flew off to the end of the cove for the night. I took several shots of him eating and when he flew off, but it was so dark I knew they wouldn’t be very good. Sure enough they were very dark so I altered the exposure so you could see them.
Stein eating the fish in the tree.
Before I show you the photos of Stein flying off, let me remind you that most of the time I can’t really see any detail when I’m taking photos. I just click the shutter and try to get them in the frame when they are moving fast, then when I get home and see them on my computer I get to find out if I got anything good.
Remember the photo of the longer feather, well when I first saw the photo I thought it was strange, but I didn’t really realize what was going on. When I saw this next photo where Stein turns around, I instantly understood what the longer feather represented.
When he takes off the wing feather comes out and begins to float down to the ground as he flies away.
The next morning I went back to the spot he took off from to see if I could spot the feather. After 30 minutes of driving the boat back and forth along the shore, I finally saw the feather sitting on the bank.
This evening thing is working out pretty well for me, so the next night I went out again. I got a late start, so I wasn’t surprised to see an eagle already in the tree. As I approached, the sun was directly in my eyes when I looked towards the tree. When I finally get to a spot off to the side so my eyes can focus, I see the silhouette of not one but two eagles sitting in the tree! One larger one, I assume Elsie and a smaller one. The juvie is back again, this is amazing! As I move to the right to get the sun out of my eyes I see that it’s not a juvie at all, it’s another adult eagle sitting a few limbs away from Elsie!
Is this Stein? Did they finally both leave the nest? I was running the scenarios through my head as Elsie drops down out of the tree. She’s right in line with the sun, but still interesting photos.
As soon as she leaves, the other adult follows her across the cove.
Elsie lands on a small strip of rocks, mud, lovely beer cans and I assume a fish.
The other adult continues to follow right behind her and that’s when Elsie draws the line. She starts squawking, screeching and puts her wings up in an attempt to scare the other eagle off. This behavior makes me think it’s not Stein, but in first looking at these photos it’s very hard to tell. Her display works and the other eagle flies off.
The adult eagle circles back around and lands in a nearby tree. When I now see the photos he looks like a very young adult. You have to wonder why Elsie is so tolerant of another adult only a half mile from her nest and eggs. Again is this one of her offspring?
With the other adult in a tree Elsie is left standing on the rocks with her fish. This evening it was very windy and she’s having trouble standing up.
She puts her head down and tries to stand her ground, but with nothing to hold on too she losing the battle.
This next group of photos is interesting. Look at the rock I’ve circled in red (above) and keep focused on it as a reference point as she puts her wings up, her tail down and lifts off the ground like a kite.
I’m not sure if she’s even trying to fly, but she’s hanging on to her fish even though she’s moving backwards in the wind.
When she comes back down she looks like she’s actually moved backwards about 10 feet.
A minute later she flew to a small tree nearby, so she could hold on to something while she ate her fish.
The other adult instantly flew into the tree above her and watched her as she ate the fish. In-between bites, Elsie squawked at the other eagle to show her disapproval.
When she was done with the fish she flew off towards the nest and the other adult flew off in the other direction over the trees and out of sight.
It sure has been a strange few days seeing two or three different juvies and one other adult in the cove. It’s hard to imagine the E's will have no juvies this year, but hopefully the E’s will hang around and keep me company this summer.
A random photo, from one of my trips to the end of the cove. Can you spot the E?
And finally, when they grab a dead fish on the shore they get mud, leaves and sticks along with the fish. Perhaps this explains why we see eagles so often with dirty tail feathers.
A shift change usually happens around dusk, so to increase my chances; I went out an hour before sunset. After about a half hour of seeing nothing, even though it was getting dark I decided to idle down to the end of the cove. As I got closer, sure enough I see an E standing in a few inches of water, taking a drink. The turtle next to her doesn’t seem to be scared of her at all.
Even more surprising, there was a juvie flying around.
As I’m taking photos of him landing in a tree, I catch another one off to my side.
Two juvies in the cove with Elsie, wow! Unfortunately it was getting too dark for photos, so I just sat and watched the three of them. I have no idea if they were her juvies, but something tells me they are.
The next morning I got up early and went out in the boat to see if they were still there. As I’m pulling out I see Elsie fly over the trees and head to the back of the cove. This is very different from their usual route they take when they leave the nest. They usually fly down the hill and across the little cove that Star and Ozark hung out in and continue out the cove to the main channel of the lake. This time she cut across to the north, over the trees and turned west towards the end of the main cove. I watched her fly all the way down to the end of the cove ahead of me.
This photo shows the end of the larger cove the E’s live in, it’s about a half of a mile from the nest. The water here is only about 2 feet deep this time of year and is full of turtles and fish. If you look close you can see Elsie enjoying the morning sun, in her favorite tree on the far left.
After a few minutes I left her to enjoy her day.
That evening I decided to try again. Just like the previous night an E was already there waiting for me, this is definitely where they have been hanging out lately. As I got closer I could see it was Elsie. I just watched her for a while until she flew off.
She cuts across the cove and headed to her tree.
Seconds after I take that photo I spot a juvie sitting in a tree. Can you say camouflaged? He was there the whole time and I didn’t see him at all.
While I was watching Elsie land, the juvie took off and flew to a limb just under her. I got the impression he was looking for a free meal. I missed the takeoff, but I did catch a photo of him landing in the tree. An interesting shot, I cropped the photo to show the tail feathers. It looks like when the tail feathers begin to turn white they do it on one half of the feather at a time.
Elsie just watches him and doesn’t seem to object too much the juvies arrival. Wouldn’t we love to know for sure if it’s one of hers?
The next night I sat in the end of the cove waiting for them to come to me for a change. This would make the setting sun at my back and give me better light for photos. After about an hour of waiting, the sun was going down behind the trees and it looked like the E’s would be a no show. So much for my new plan. I packed up my camera and had just gotten the boat up on a plane when I see an E headed down the cove towards me.
While slowing down I reached over got my camera out of the bag and watched as Stein approached me. The closer he got he dipped below the tree line which meant he was no longer lit up by the setting sun. This instantly killed what little light I had. I took several shots anyway, as he suddenly turned almost right over my head. In addition to the low light, my zoom lens setup doesn’t work very well when he’s only 30 feet above you.
I’m not posting this next photo because it’s a great photo, it’s not. I’m posting it because it shows something unusual. No, it’s not the other bird. Look again; Stein appears to have one long wing feather!
I quickly looked at my camera to see the images I’d taken and as I feared they were so dark they were almost not visible. As quickly as I could I changed a couple settings, the whole time knowing I was missing him grab a fish just 50 feet from me. By the time I had adjusted the camera he was already flying to shore with his snack.
He landed in a tree, ate the fish and then flew off to the end of the cove for the night. I took several shots of him eating and when he flew off, but it was so dark I knew they wouldn’t be very good. Sure enough they were very dark so I altered the exposure so you could see them.
Stein eating the fish in the tree.
Before I show you the photos of Stein flying off, let me remind you that most of the time I can’t really see any detail when I’m taking photos. I just click the shutter and try to get them in the frame when they are moving fast, then when I get home and see them on my computer I get to find out if I got anything good.
Remember the photo of the longer feather, well when I first saw the photo I thought it was strange, but I didn’t really realize what was going on. When I saw this next photo where Stein turns around, I instantly understood what the longer feather represented.
When he takes off the wing feather comes out and begins to float down to the ground as he flies away.
The next morning I went back to the spot he took off from to see if I could spot the feather. After 30 minutes of driving the boat back and forth along the shore, I finally saw the feather sitting on the bank.
This evening thing is working out pretty well for me, so the next night I went out again. I got a late start, so I wasn’t surprised to see an eagle already in the tree. As I approached, the sun was directly in my eyes when I looked towards the tree. When I finally get to a spot off to the side so my eyes can focus, I see the silhouette of not one but two eagles sitting in the tree! One larger one, I assume Elsie and a smaller one. The juvie is back again, this is amazing! As I move to the right to get the sun out of my eyes I see that it’s not a juvie at all, it’s another adult eagle sitting a few limbs away from Elsie!
Is this Stein? Did they finally both leave the nest? I was running the scenarios through my head as Elsie drops down out of the tree. She’s right in line with the sun, but still interesting photos.
As soon as she leaves, the other adult follows her across the cove.
Elsie lands on a small strip of rocks, mud, lovely beer cans and I assume a fish.
The other adult continues to follow right behind her and that’s when Elsie draws the line. She starts squawking, screeching and puts her wings up in an attempt to scare the other eagle off. This behavior makes me think it’s not Stein, but in first looking at these photos it’s very hard to tell. Her display works and the other eagle flies off.
The adult eagle circles back around and lands in a nearby tree. When I now see the photos he looks like a very young adult. You have to wonder why Elsie is so tolerant of another adult only a half mile from her nest and eggs. Again is this one of her offspring?
With the other adult in a tree Elsie is left standing on the rocks with her fish. This evening it was very windy and she’s having trouble standing up.
She puts her head down and tries to stand her ground, but with nothing to hold on too she losing the battle.
This next group of photos is interesting. Look at the rock I’ve circled in red (above) and keep focused on it as a reference point as she puts her wings up, her tail down and lifts off the ground like a kite.
I’m not sure if she’s even trying to fly, but she’s hanging on to her fish even though she’s moving backwards in the wind.
When she comes back down she looks like she’s actually moved backwards about 10 feet.
A minute later she flew to a small tree nearby, so she could hold on to something while she ate her fish.
The other adult instantly flew into the tree above her and watched her as she ate the fish. In-between bites, Elsie squawked at the other eagle to show her disapproval.
When she was done with the fish she flew off towards the nest and the other adult flew off in the other direction over the trees and out of sight.
It sure has been a strange few days seeing two or three different juvies and one other adult in the cove. It’s hard to imagine the E's will have no juvies this year, but hopefully the E’s will hang around and keep me company this summer.
A random photo, from one of my trips to the end of the cove. Can you spot the E?
And finally, when they grab a dead fish on the shore they get mud, leaves and sticks along with the fish. Perhaps this explains why we see eagles so often with dirty tail feathers.