Big Pine Nest: Mom Loblolly Chases 3-year-old Bald Eagle

By neighdoctor February 10, 2022 Big Pine Nest: Mom Loblolly Chases 3-year-old Bald Eagle

Jordan Lake: Here is what I caught yesterday of the interaction between Loblolly and the three-year-old gang of eight member. 1st photo: the three-year-old is sitting up in the tree quite proud of itself. 2nd photo: Mom Loblolly is at about Mach 3 heading straight for that three year old. 3rd photo: the three-year-old has realized that he is in danger and in a very wrong place as he turns and is trying to launch. 4th photo: above the pine branch you can see a blurred Mom Loblolly‘s head and below that same branch you can see the tail of the three-year-old. 5th photo: the three-year-old catching its balance on a branch before it leaps out. 6th photo: the scared and fleeing 3-year-old passed me in a hurry. 7th photo: mom Loblolly is heading back up towards the nest area. In yesterday‘s video you can see mom Loblolly enjoying a bit of a rest and some grooming after the ouster of the obnoxious three-year-old bald eagle.

Mom Loblolly Head Above Branch & 3-year-old Tail Below Branch

3-year-old Trying to Balance as it Flees

Big Pine Nest update

By neighdoctor February 7, 2022 Big Pine Nest update

Jordan Lake: Mom Loblolly brought a nice-sized fish to a tree for her breakfast yesterday. She ate it in a hurry, keeping a close eye out for any of the Gang of Eight. When Loblolly finished her meal, she did a short skip over to an outer branch of the tree where she was perched. Mom’s head nodded and cocked and I could tell she was looking for a repair stick for the nest. Up in the air Mom went and she did indeed break a fair-sized branch away from the tree. I watched in concern, not that the load was too big for her (it wasn’t), but because instead of making a straight line for the nest, she suddenly veered. At the point where the parking lot at the shelter came into her sight, she dipped a wing, and detoured out more than a 1000 feet before heading much further up the shoreline. Around the northern bend of the shoreline, Mom with her stick turned back towards the nest. Instead of a few wing beats to get to the nest with her stick, Loblolly’s flight was about tripled. I don’t know if it was visitors in the parking lot or possibly one of the Gang of Eight that caused the large detour. Either way I mused on the extra energy Loblolly was expending in an effort to get a stick to the nest for the repair. With all the high gusty winds we have had lately, I would not be surprised if several of the bald eagle nests at Jordan Lake have been in need of repair. I just wish Loblolly wasn’t having to make detours for any reason.

Gang of Eight Bandits at Big Pine Nest

By neighdoctor February 3, 2022 Gang of Eight Bandits at Big Pine Nest

Jordan Lake: Over the last couple of days I have observed a new to me bald eagle behavior. I have watched immature bald eagles raid the nests of adult eagles. Those raids have always been a one on one situation. This Gang of Eight Bandits is harassing not only the Big Pine Nest but also the H&G nest. So far, thankfully, I’ve not seen any of the immature bald eagles actually make it into either nest. But I will not be surprised if that does happen. I have watched paired adult eagles tag team when they were catching gulls on the water. I am beginning to wonder if this Gang of Eight Bandits might not try to tag team one or both of the nests. I will keep watching and praying that it is only harassment that occurs. As I have said before, this activity really puts a great deal of strain and stress on the parents at Big Pine Nest because they are dealing with both human and eagle intrusions. I have put the immature photos in no particular sequence other than the most interesting youngster is first. It happens to be the four-year-old – and it is indeed a masked bandit. There are 3 one-year-olds and 1 two-year-old and 3 three-year-olds and the four-year-old that make up the Gang of Eight Bandits.

Big Pine Nest: Worry!

By neighdoctor January 31, 2022 Big Pine Nest: Worry!

Jordan Lake. Doc is getting rather WORRIED. Besides the intrusion of humans, the parents at Big Pine Nest are now having to contend with the intrusion of immature bald eagles. All parent eagles have two or three or more sentinel trees, where they sit so they can watch the nest and watch the surrounding areas. The parents switch between the sentinel points during the day because that’s telling other eagles that inside the area where I am perching, I am staking out my territory: inside this area is MINE and you stay away. Well, with human intruders coming into the parking lot, that has pushed Loblolly and Pitch into using only two out of the three most frequent territory perches that they like. So, I watched as a three year old bald eagle came out from the area of the parking lot at shelter 8 and went fishing. Parent bald eagles do Not allow immature bald eagles to fish in the area immediately in front of their nest. As soon as Dad Pitch realized there was a problem, he turned around and chased the three-year-old eagle back out of the area. So you can see the problem: instead of being able to stake out a territory by using several sentinel trees, the parents are now limited to only two points because of the human intrusions and the immature bald eagles have noted this. I watched a second immature eagle pull this same stunt. This is very dangerous as we all remember what happened over at First Nest when an immature eagle got into the nest and ate the eggs there. I keep calling and sending emails to those who can close the gate. I ask all of you to please continue to go to the petition at https://chng.it/hRtHXdzg9z and sign/share and to call and to send emails to contacts found on https://www.facebook.com/100063040248633/posts/285177876926885/ . Thank you! (photos 1&2 is the 3-year-old bald eagle; photo 3 is Dad Pitch; pink smudge is from branches I was shooting through).

Big Pine Nest update

By neighdoctor January 29, 2022 Big Pine Nest update

Jordan Lake. The Captain and I were out on the lake yesterday afternoon doing bald eagle nest checks. We came across this unknown adult bald eagle sitting at the northern Sentinel Point for the Big Pine Nest. I did not recognize this bald eagle. Notice that this eagle has feathers growing out of her nares/nostrils. Quite a distinct marking, yes? We saw this eagle at 1:28 PM. We went wandering off to check other nests around the lake. At 2:24 PM we came back around to Big Pine Nest and there was mom Loblolly sitting where the unknown eagle had been perched earlier. While we were watching, as you can see, mom jumped off of the Sentinel Point perch and went barreling down the shoreline, turned sharply past the nest and disappeared in the tree line. I was trying to photograph the little speck of Loblolly in the tree line, when back around the same track that mom Loblolly had taken, came that same unknown adult bald eagle (the one with the nares feather). The unknown adult went zipping right past the nest and headed north up the lake. Dad Pitch stayed hunkered down on top of the eggs, protecting them. Very interesting episode! Hard enough on Loblolly and Pitch that humans are intruding, much less having another adult eagle show up in the area!

Dad Pitch, can see a bare white streak of his head

Big Pine Bald Eagle Nest

By neighdoctor January 12, 2022 Big Pine Bald Eagle Nest

Jordan Lake. This morning I found Mom Loblolly on alert. As I was watching her, she suddenly jerked her head around to her right and leapt off the branch. I quickly lost Loblolly as she went below the tree line. I have no idea what caused her sudden flight. I was not where I could see the parking lot in the shelter area so it may have been a natural intruder such as another bald eagle or a human. Please continue reaching out to every contact you can about the problem at Big Pine Nest and the gate that needs to be closed.