Eagles return to ridge and nest

There have been far fewer bald eagles wintering in the Nisqually delta than I've seen in a long time. The chum salmon run was much less bountiful than last year. So much so that the chum fishing season was closed early.

In winter of 2011, I spotted at least a dozen bald eagles at a time along the Nisqually River. I shared the company of eagles - lots of them - to bring in the new year in 2012.

I've wondered if my favorite eagle pair would return to the nest this season. Occasionally I would see a juvenile in the area and, once, saw both male and female mates flying in the area in January. For the past couple of weeks, though, I've seen papa in his favorite snag where he watches over his mate and the nest. He spends a lot of time stretching and cleaning every feather - twice. No sign - or sound - from mama though. In the past few years, they would talk to each other - he from the snag and she from the nest.

Padme the wonderdog, and occasionally my son, would walk with me down the street where we can see the nest, watch papa for awhile, then head on our way. Papa was always patient, ever-vigilant. Young eagles, in fact many young raptors, wouldn't survive without two devoted parents.

These two are truly a team and are quite fond of each other. They talk together, fly together, roost together, hunt together. And take turns caring for their young.

Last weekend, we had glorious sunny weather here with temps in the 60s. I took the opportunity to visit the nest area at least once a day. Early evening about

an hour before sunset always offers at least a couple of chances to photograph last activity before sleep.

Papa lifted off from the snag and headed for another favorite tree directly over the nest tree. Meanwhile I spotted mama flying out of the trees near the nest, and they both started talking to each other in that chortling call they use with kin. They both circled around the nesting area, then settled atop the tree close to each other. And talked and talked. The whole experience lasted maybe 10 minutes.

Then mama flew back to the next and disappeared into its depths. She's probably still sitting on eggs, so can take short stretch breaks but cannot leave for more than a few minutes. Looking at these images again, though, I think that's actually papa who left the shared tree for the nest. Mama is bigger and has a bill that comes almost straight out from her head. Papa has more of an indent at the juncture between his forehead and bill. These two are fabulous parents, to be sure.

I started photographing this pair in April 2011. Since then, I've observed and learned their routines, how they interact with humans and other animals. And, of course, photographed hundreds of eagle activities.

And, so it begins again.

Waiting herons

 

Many great blue herons hunt in the Nisqually River delta and Puget Sound. I once watched a heron hunting at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge for half an hour. They are very patient hunters, slowly walking or wading, then like snapping up prey in the blink of an eye. Wait for it...BAM!

I wrote about Today's Pterodactyl last month in this blog. I'm hoping to photograph one of the heron rookeries this spring. In the meantime, I'll scan the skies for those massive wings and the river delta for patient hunters.

New eagle at the nest

This is about a month ahead of when I've seen nesting activity on our hill for the past few years. I've spotted my favorite eagle pair once so far this winter. They flew over us in early January during our usual evening walk. I photographed papa eagle in one of the favorite trees in November. I've also spotted adult and juvenile eagles in the distance at Nisqually National Wildlife refuge. I don't know if the pair are among them or not.

Yesterday, I spotted a young female bald eagle atop a tree near the ridge. I watched and photographed her for a few minutes, then she flew off to one of the trees in the nesting area a few blocks away. There have been reports of a new roosting area about a half mile from the nest. I've been checking that area about once a week and occasionally see juvenile eagles. I haven't seen any nest-building there though. Last night, I drove down to the new area after this young adult flew from the ridge. When I drove past the tree where she was roosting en route home, she was still there. Is she a new potential mate, or is she looking for a mate while attempting to claim the nest? There doesn't appear to be much building activity at the current nest site either.

Bald eagles don't breed until they're mature, at about five years old. If there's a sparse population of eagles in an area, they may breed as young as four years old. Their age corresponds with the emergence of pure white heads and tails. That's how I know the female I photographed yesterday wasn't fully mature. She still has a light gray mask by her eyes and her tail feathers are tipped in black.

Last April, a young adult female visited the nest area, staying for several minutes. She was clearly interested in what was happening in the nest which was most certainly mama eagle incubating her eggs. This could be the same eagle.

Today's Pterodactyl

National Public Radio's popular and long-running BirdNote® calls the great blue heron a "modern day pterodactyl." The great blue heron is the largest heron in North America. The great egret, a slightly smaller and white version of modern pterodactyl, is second largest. We've begun to see great egrets more frequently, even one that wintered at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.

Scientists believe that birds are descended from dinosaurs, so it's really not much of a stretch to believe these creatures were once much larger and more fierce predators.

Herons pretty much eat anything they can catch and swallow. I've watched them hunting fish but recently saw one catch a mole. I wondered how it could swallow something so large. I saw this heron catch it, shake it, then hop into the water. He came back to the hunting area a few minutes later without his prey.

They're usually solitary birds, except when they nest which they do in large rookeries with 25, 50, even 100 nests in close proximity to each other. I'm hoping to find a rookery to photograph this spring. You can see more heron photography in my Low Tide Gallery and Water Wings Gallery.

Eagle siblings

A juvenile male, about a year old, observes duck action on the lagoon below

Last summer one of my friends asked how I could possibly know that the eagles I saw in the Nisqually delta were "my eagles," the eagle family I've been observing and photographing for several months. A strong hunch based on observation and what I've learned about bald eagles.

Many raptors set invisible boundaries around their nesting areas. Bald eagles generally don't allow other bald eagles within a mile radius of their nests before the kids fledge. When I spotted two adults hunting down on the delta, they were almost directly below the nest area. Mama eagle snagged a fish and flew up to the ridge, where I've observed them numerous times traveling back to the nest, only from the ridge viewpoint.

Sister eagle (on left) takes over a prime spot her brother was in a couple of seconds before.

So how do I know that two juvenile bald eagles I photographed at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge are the kids of "my eagles?" A strong hunch based on observation and what I've learned about this bald eagle clan. There are two active nests on the DuPont side of the Nisqually delta. I've seen and photographed the Red Salmon Creek eagle clan on a few occasions. In late summer, I see them in the southeast sky practicing eagle maneuvers on the thermals along the ridge. Sometimes there are several juveniles, soaring, dipping, flying in formation, and practicing the courting sky dance, where they link talons and spin in the air.

Sister eagle takes over the prime spot while her brother heads for another area.

These two are young, not more than a year old. I observed them a couple of times in the past week. I saw some similar behavior that I saw when they had just started flying but were still being fed by mom and dad at the nest. They were as big as their parents, actually a bit bigger...Ma Nature gives young eagles "training wheel" wings that are slightly longer than adult eagles. Mama or Papa would drop off food, then get out of the way. These two often engaged in a food fight (link to a blog entry from July). One would steal a chunk of food and fly off to another tree.

The two at the Nisqually refuge are about the right age and are male and female. Later that afternoon, brother eagle displaced his sister in another tree above the Nisqually River. She flew off to a snag in the center of the marsh. A growing collection of favorite images from the past year can be found in my Fauna collection.

Sand, surf and snowy owls

Sand, surf, sun, and blue skies...in January. I'm sure the January water temp is below 50 degrees F. There were hundreds of people walking on the beach, clamming, and even surfing in Ocean Shores, Washington. On the Jersey Shore, we'd call this place a "barrier" island or peninsula with Grays Harbor on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Like the Jersey Shore, Ocean Shores and other low-lying beach towns can easily be swamped by a storm surge.

The whole place is teeming with not-so-wild wildlife. Herds of mule (black-tailed) deer, raccoons, bald eagles, osprey (seahawks) can be found in every neighborhood. And, lately, snowy owls.

Snowies, also known as Arctic owls and great white owls, live near the Arctic Circle most of the year. In the dark winters, these birds head south to Canada and the northern U.S. In winter of 2012, Washington and British Columbia experienced what is called an "irruption" of snowy owls, when a large number of the owls are seen in areas they're not normally seen. Here's a map of sightings from the past two years. Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes irruptions happening every four years or so when owls winter even as far south as central California, Texas, and Florida.

Damon Point's terrain looks a lot like the Arctic tundra with grasses and few trees.

Damon Point in Ocean Shores is again attracting snowy owls, although not in the numbers we saw last winter. I spent part of the weekend before New Year's visiting with two owls. Snowies are the largest owl (about 4-5 lb.) and are diurnal which means they hunt day and night. That makes sense when you think about what Arctic summers where the sun doesn't set for 60 days.

I'll be heading over to the coast to spend more time with the owls later this month. In the meantime, here are a couple of favorites. A few of my snowy owl photographs from last year are online in my Talons Gallery.

Home to roost for the holidays

Brother eagle returns to a favorite roosting spot in mid-October.

It's hard to believe–this is the first exhibit of my work in a year! If you live in the area, stop by DuPont on Saturday, November 17. All that shooting means that I've spent the past couple of months producing prints and ordering my new favorite presentation: archival metal prints.

My favorite eagle pair have been engaged in hunter education with the kids down on the Nisqually delta. So how do I know that's where they've been? I've been observing their flight patterns for several years. They have two favorite water hunting areas and occasionally pick off an unsuspecting squirrel or chipmunk in the tall trees along the Hoffman Hill ridge. Last summer, I managed to get down to the delta during several "minus tides" which is the only time it's possible to get close to where many birds hunt. My Low Tide Gallery includes several of my favorite eagles hunting.

These eagles fly up the ridge from the Nisqually delta below, then fly low–less than 100 feet and sometimes about 10 feet above–either across the golfcourse to the north or directly west of us to the grove of old growth trees on the Fort Lewis golfcourse to the east.

The photos above were taken from my front lawn. Sister eagle was about 20 feet above me. I got this image with a 70mm lens. You can see her in the second image about mid-right.

I estimate that my favorite pair are about 12-13 years old. Bald eagles are mature at about 4 or 5-years-old, when the head and tail are fully white. The neighbors whose yards back up to eagle territory tell me the nest has been active for about eight years.

Sometimes they drop food (accidentally?)-like a half-eaten fish. This one was on the sidewalk about a block from my house, near our mailboxes. I decided the fish looked like a Japanese sumi painting, so I posterized it in grayscale. All that's missing is my red "chop."

In late fall and through the winter, I often see one of the eagle mates or their offspring flying over my house. I'd like to think they know me but I also know that we live in the flight path of many wild birds.

I will likely spend the rest of Darkember (that would be the period that we're not in Daylight Savings Time, which means sunrise about 8 a.m. and sunset about 4:30) editing and selecting photographs from the past year. I invested in a 400mm lens, which is really the only way to see what's going on in the nest, which is about 50 feet up and at least 100 feet away from where I can photograph easily.

What's next is finding a venue or two to exhibit this work. I'm also working on a book about my observations with (of course) lots of photographs. My latest work can always be found on my Kate Lynch Photographs website, where there are also links to my posts on Facebook and where to special-order framed and unframed prints.