Haw River

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By 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.

Mom Loblolly

By Loblolly Was Very Angry…

Jordan Lake: Big Pine Nest. This morning I saw four of the Bandits of the Gang of Eight. In these two photos you see first Mom Loblolly and she was very very angry and upset and yelling. In the second photo you can see why Mom was so upset. In the upper left of the photo is one of the yearlings from the gang and it is circling above her. Right after I took this photo Loblolly took off, still screaming, after the immature bald eagle and they both disappeared up lake. Please note that I added a little bit of blue to the sky so that you can see Loblolly better… I took these photos in between rain showers this morning, about 9 AM, and all of the photos were gray on gray on gray.

Loblolly
Loblolly to the right; intruding 1-year-old at upper left

By 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.

4-year-old bald eagle
1-year-old bald eagle
2-year-old bald eagle
3-year-old bald eagle
1-year-old bald eagle
3-year-old bald eagle
1-year-old bald eagle
3-year-old bald eagle

By 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).

3-year-old bald eagle
3-year-old bald eagle
Dad Pitch

By 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!

Unknown Intruder, with nares feathere
Mom Loblolly
unknown intruder again
Dad Pitch, can see a bare white streak of his head

By Big Pine Nest: Eggs Have Been Laid

Jordan Lake: Eggs have been laid! This afternoon the Captain and I were out on his boat doing nest checks. This photo was made at a distance of an eighth of a mile – 660ft. You cannot see this view from anywhere on land. So please remember that and let’s remind everybody to not actually enter the shelter area. In this kind of cold weather if either parent comes off those eggs and leaves them for even a few minutes the eggs will die. An attempt at getting a sighting or a photo from land is not worth the loss of a single egg. You have to look carefully to see Dad Pitch’s eye through the branches – the yellow arrow is just below his eye. Dad is small and sits down low in the nest.