Hatchlings?

Mama comes in for a landing

What I've observed in past years is that eagles sitting on eggs takes a few weeks. Mother eagles don't leave the nest if the temperatures are lower than about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, unless eaglets have hatched. This evening, papa eagle arrived in one of the trees near the nest tree. He and mama talked back and forth, then mama flew out of the nest to the tall snag a bit farther from the nest tree.

Mama groomed herself and was freaking out a pair of starlings that were nesting nearby. There have been several of the birds in the vicinity of the snag.

Papa grooming with nervous starling nearby

Papa then flew to the nest tree. That's when I realized it was mama returning to the nest tree. How can I tell? Mama is about 20 percent larger than papa and has a deeper bill. I can tell them apart when they're close to each other but often mistakenly identify one for the other.

The way the nest is built this year should protect it from winds that have brought a couple of their nests down in past years. But it's really challenging to try to figure out whether the eggs have hatched. I'll have to just wait for babies to show themselves. In past years, it's usually mid-to-late April when fuzzy little eaglet heads are visible.

Mama flies to the nest tree

Mama talks to her mate before flying back to the nest

Mama back in the nest

Nesting begins

Mama eagle is barely visible from my favorite viewing spot. This year's nest is in yet another spot. In a tree they nested in two years ago but on the lee side. Hopefully, it will be enough protection from the winds we often experience on our bluff 200 feet or so above Puget Sound.

I'm now checking on the nest a few times a week. Part of my observation is how mama interacts with other birds and her mate. There so much we don't know about the lives of animals. Bald eagles are territorial and usually would not let any raptor near their nests. I've observed this pair frequently spending time with other adult and juvenile eagles, less than a half mile from the nest. One year I photographed a 3-year-old bald eagle that stayed in a tree next to the nest tree for at least 20 minutes. Observing parenting behavior? Acting as a guardian? Checking out possible vulnerabilities?

While I was there yesterday, papa eagle flew by with one of their children from either last year or the year before. I've seen similar behavior in past years - sometimes they chase off the kids, other times they greet them. Could this be the next phase of training the kids in the ways of the eagle?

Papa and youngster greeted mama with their characteristic chortling call they use with kin. Papa and youngster made wide circles over the nest, twisting their heads in all directions to make sure she was doing okay. Mama called back but wasn't moving much, which means she's probably working her hatching magic.

Eagle's nest enters second decade

Mama eagle in May 2015

Watching bald eagles or any creature best observed from a distance can be expensive. If you're an avid birdwatcher, you have spent quite a bit on high-powered binoculars and spotting scopes. If you're a photographer, you find that you just need 100 millimeters more (at a cost of another $900-$5,000) to capture and share what you're seeing. When I started photographing a pair of eagles nesting not far from my neighborhood in April of 2011, my longest lens was 300mm. Two years later, I acquired a 400mm lens, which gave me much more insight into the lives of these beautiful birds.

Mama (at top) and papa - February 2016

Last nesting season, I photographed my favorite eagles several times but the nest was out of view. Their nest came down in 2014 and two babies were lost, so I'm sure that's why the 2015 nest was in a very protected space. You could hear them but the only views were of mama and papa outside the nest. I did quite a bit of traveling last summer, so I didn't witness how many eaglets fledged. Some of the images I captured last year are posted in my Flickr gallery.

This year, I have a 600mm lens and am very happy to know that our dedicated eagle parents are again nesting. There's also good chance I will have a better view. This year's nest appears to be in a taller tree that is in better view. Yesterday, I talked to one of the neighbors with a backyard view of the nesting area. Together we estimated that the pair must be 16-17 years old. The houses with backyards near the nesting area were built 12 years ago and they've been nesting there every year.

So begins a new cycle of life and my sixth year of learning the way of the eagle.

Summer Art Festivals

Happy Summer!

Lots of new work and new adventures from behind the camera to share. I hope you'll stop by and say hello at one of the arts festivals I'm in this summer.

Gig Harbor Arts Festival

Saturday, July 19, 10-6 

Sunday, July 20, 10-5

This festival is one of the best in the Puget Sound region. Details and directions are on Peninsula Art League's website. My booth is on the corner of Judson and Gilich. 

Tumwater Farmers Market

Wednesday, August 20, 11-2

I've designed six of the eight market posters since it opened in 2006. I'll have a booth at "Dog Days of Summer" when there will also be herding demonstrations and other fun activities. Tumwater Farmers Market directions. For some of the posters I've designed, visit my Word and Picture Communications site. 

Some of the new work I'll be exhibiting includes images from the Kenmore heron rookery, bald eagles (of course), hummingbirds, and a new photo illustration of sunrise and moonrise over Mount Rainier. 

I'm updating my exhibit calendar as I add events - 2014 Exhibit Schedule. Also coming up this summer are the SequaliShoot awards on Sunday, August 17. This is my second year of challenging area photographers to get their best shots of historic Sequalitchew Creek in DuPont, Washington, in 24 hours. We'll have a display of work at the DuPont Historical Society's annual Hudson Bay Day. 

As always, many thanks for your continued support and encouragement. 

Do eagles grieve?

Parents tend their nest on May 17. 

The nest has been unusually quiet for the past two weeks. Deadly quiet. I stopped by the nest a couple of times between June 9 and 20. No sound. No flapping wings of eaglets stretching. Something was very wrong. There were gaps in the nest area closest to the tree trunk. It looked like a chunk of the nest was gone.

Eaglets on June 9

One neighbor I talked to said he saw both parents making a lot of racket and flying around the nest tree on Father's Day, June 14. It's not unusual for both parents to be at the nest but it's very unusual that they're both so quiet. Watching but none of the vigilance seen last month. Another neighbor asked if the babies might have fledged already. I knew it was too early. The last time I saw them, they still had some fluff clinging to their new feathers. They wouldn't have been ready to fly until the first week of July at the earliest. The parents would be out with them, not sitting at sentry at the nest site. I hope I'm wrong but it doesn't look good for my favorite eagle pair.

Nest tree on June 20

Do eagles grieve the loss of their nest? Their offspring? Nearly half of all fledglings don't survive their first flight. Do the parents keep an emotional distance? Both have been frequently at the nest area, keeping vigil. Or maybe they're making sure that no other eagles take over their territory. When I visited with them yesterday, both were very quiet and in separate trees - papa near where the nest was and mama in their favorite snag nearby.

Papa eagle June 26

Mama eagle June 26

Devoted to each other and to the tree of life. As above, so below.

"That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing." - The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus

Minus tide brings wildlife up close

Crabbers at Sequalitchew beach with Anderson Island in background.

Spring and summer on Puget Sound bring opportunities to see creatures normally far away or underwater. Although I grew up 45 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, I don't remember anyone talking about "minus tides" the way people do here in the Northwest. A feature article in The Olympian (Olympia, WA) in early June detailed special beach presentations by area naturalist and marine biologists.

Shore crabs and barnacles

A minus tide is an unusually low tide. Yesterday, there was a -3.4 ft. tide - so low, it looked like you could walk across Puget Sound to Anderson Island.

Thousands of tiny shore crabs - most no larger than 1 inch - scrambled from quickly drying beach pebbles to small tidepools. Starfish (sea stars), tube worms, whelks, limpets, mussels, and baracles emerge from water that's normally several feet deep.

Great blue herons, bald eagles, and seagulls - normally not in each other's company - are all present for the minus tide feast.

Bald eagle, seagull, and great blue heron

Minus tides are about the only times it's possible to walk east to the Nisqually delta from Sequalitchew Creek trail in DuPont. If you're a photographer, though, what's challenging is getting back to higher ground before the tide comes back in. We did pretty well, but still managed to slog back up the trail with wet hiking boots.

There are lots of springs that feed Sequalitchew Creek and trickle into Puget Sound from the hillside. It makes for slow careful walking over watery and seaweed-slicked rocks.

Beach walk at 1 p.m.

Tide coming in about 3:20 p.m. Cement barge wreck in background.

Creatures normally underwater didn't have to wait too long. A nearly 15-foot high tide was expected after 8 p.m. Two hours after the minus tide peaked, the water level was rising to once again submerge the resident sea stars.

Several images from minus tides in the past can be viewed in my Low Tide Gallery.

Eagle babies getting bigger

Ariel and I have visited our favorite eagle's nest about three times a week for the past month. I haven't posted in awhile because the view has been pretty much the same: mama or papa eagle standing sentry, and babies mostly out of site. I get an occasional glimpse of a downy head and, now, a really large wing stretch or two. In just three weeks, these babies have grown formidable beaks and impressive wings.

 Until this week, one or both parents was always present, sometimes greeting a kid from an earlier clutch with a bit of warning to not get too close. Now that babies have those big sharp beaks and can feed themselves, they're alone for a few minutes at a time. Eagles have an endearing (to me, anyway) chortling call that they use with kin. Others get a shreak - think screaming eagle. Yup. It's loud. All of the neighbors attest to that!

At the same time, everyone I've talked to who lives on the street near the nest tells me that we're blessed to have this special family in our midst.

Amen to that.

The only spot I can see the babies in the nest is about a block away. That's why they look kind of rough around the edges. Here's the tree, followed by tightly cropped images of the kids.

Please let me know if you have favorites. I'm getting ready to print some new images for art festivals I'm doing in July and September. More from past years in my Talons Gallery.