It takes a lot of nesting material to keep a bald eagle’s nest clean and insulated.
I am not sure which parent bald eagle this is, but he certainly has a large load of straw.
To collect the material, the bird finds rows of the straw on the shoreline or sometimes on a sandbar.
The eagle then flies across the patch, talons open, and snags the straw while flying.
Reminds me of a plane catching the tail wire on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.
doc ellen's journey 