eagle

Tag

By Jordan Lake Dam Bald Eagles, 4 photos 11/23/2018
This morning at the dam it was officially COLD!
 
Bald eagles love bright, cold, brisk, and windy weather.
 
The sunrise brought the first eagle of the day.
 
Not long after the first adult, another adult came by, ignored me and looked back and to the south.
I grabbed a moment, quit shooting and looked too, but could not see what the eagle was watching.
 
Several juveniles came through during the morning.
This one is a two-year-old bald eagle.
The last juvenile of my morning was this 3-year-old bald eagle watching for fish in the Haw River right at the dam.

By Jordan Lake, Bald Eagle nest update: First Nest, 3 photos 11-12-2018
First Nest update
 
Yesterday, I was standing on top of the dam when a bald eagle appeared, flying up from the south end of the lake.
I got my lens on the eagle, and suddenly realized I knew her.
Kate is the mother eagle at First Nest.
 
 
 
 Kate turned her head and looked at me, changed her direction, made a single loop over me and headed back up lake.
I haven’t seen her in about 5 months.
 
 
 
 
This morning, I went by the First Nest cove.
The nest looked okay and I could hear an eagle calling.
I finally found Petruchio, the father eagle of First Nest, sitting up high on a favored perch in a pine.
While I was watching, he made a long swing down almost to lake level and I thought he was going fishing.
Turns out he wanted to investigate what the crows were doing.
 
 
 

By Jordan Lake Dam: Close Fly-By 11-08-2018
I was on top of the Jordan Lake dam this morning.
A large flock of crows was mobbing a red-tailed hawk between me and down towards the tailrace and Haw River.
There were more than a dozen crows.  Between the crows’ shrieks and the screaming hawk, the sky was noisy.
And then everything went silent as crows scattered and the hawk rolled upright and stared behind me, over my shoulder.
I turned around and found myself literally on the same level as this inbound 3-year-old bald eagle.
It flew slightly up and over me, made a large lazy turn and came back.
As it passed over me again, a little bit higher, it cocked its head to take one last look at me.
Oh, my.  I think I started breathing again some time around noon!