Loblolly Bald Eagle

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By Jordan Lake Bald Eagle Nests Report

Jordan Lake Bald Eagle nests update. The lake has been so high that it has not been easy for any of us to monitor the nests. It has been dangerous to try to get boats out to check the nests – today’s photos are both from the shore.


Loblolly at Big Pine nest. The shelter nest is of grave concern to all of us – given the human intrusion the other day and we have not been able to actually see the nest from a boat, we don’t know the status of the chick there. So please hold Loblolly and Pitch and their chick in your heart.

Loblolly

The H&G nest. Their chick is growing! You can see it above the red arrow. The chick is looking to the left.
I sure am going to be glad when the lake gets back down to normal level and we can get out and get better looks at all of the nests all over the lake!

H&G bald eagle chick

By Human Intrusion at Big Pine Nest

Jordan Lake: Two park visitors crossed inside the protection boundary at the shelter building this afternoon. Mom Loblolly went yelling up into the air and circled several times before coming in for a landing way north of the nest. An angry bald eagle comes in for a confrontational landing with its feet dangling … ready to strike in any direction. Usually bald eagles land with feet up and forward to catch the branch. However in this case, we know mom bald eagle was not chasing another bald eagle, but was trying to frighten off the humans. It is very rare for a bald eagle to actually attack a human. The bald eagle parents’ ultimate defense is to simply abandon the nest – I sure hope Loblolly and Pitch don’t react in that way. Mom Loblolly was protecting her nest the ancient bald eagle way but the people didn’t care or react to her efforts. After about five minutes or so the people got in their car and left. I ached for Mom Loblolly and Dad Pitch … that they are still being harassed by humans.

Mom Loblolly

By Mom Loblolly is Wet!

Jordan Lake: Big Pine Nest. Bald eagles hate getting wet. Being soaking wet really ticks them off. They tend to look towards the heavens and say why didn’t you rain somewhere else? So, this morning I found Mom Loblolly with all of her wings, head and body feathers spread out as she was trying to drip dry. I sure was glad to be able to get back out and check on the Big Pine Nest because the whole Ebenezer Day-Use area had been closed for the last couple of days due to repair work that had to be done on the water system.

Mom Loblolly

By Big Pine Nest has a HATCH!

Jordan Lake: At least one egg has HATCHED! We don’t know yet if there is a second egg/chick. That is mom Loblolly reaching down towards the chick. She’s got a bite of fish in her beak. We can’t quite see the chick yet. The next two weeks are extremely critical to this chick because a chick must to be at least two weeks old before it can thermal regulate – in other words it can’t control its own body temperature until then and depends on the parent’s body heat for warmth. So on one hand I am very glad that it is warm today and that the chick won’t get chilled if the parent should be spooked from the nest. On the other hand, and I don’t blame them, there will be more people out at the park because the visitors want to be outdoors in the sunshine. I just pray that the visitors all respect these bald eagles and stay out of the Shelter 8 loop.

Mom Loblolly feeding her chick

By NEW Petition for Big Pine Nest

NEW Petition for Help for Loblolly and Pitch at Big Pine Nest! This is on a different platform and I hope it will bring additional signatures. So, even if you signed the first petition, would you please consider signing the new one too? And sharing this post too? Thank you from Loblolly and Pitch!
New petition is at https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bald-eagles-loblolly-and-pitch-need-help

Dad Pitch on left and Mom Loblolly on right

By Big Pine Nest update: Mom Loblolly

Jordan Lake: Yesterday, late morning, Captain Doug and I were out cruising and checking on bald eagle nests. We went to check the Big Pine Nest and there was Mom Loblolly incubating her egg(s) and we could fully see the upper half of her head and her great big beautiful eye. Captain Doug and I went on about the lake checking out other nests and so we came back by Big Pine Nest early in the afternoon. Now we could barely see the top of Loblolly’s head and could only make out a bit of her eye. The difference in the two photos and why in the first one you can see her eye and in the second photo you have to look hard to see the rim of it? That’s because in the late morning photo there wasn’t any one in the parking lot at the shelter. When we came back by in the early afternoon we could see people standing in the parking lot. Mom Loblolly was definitely keeping tucked down into her nest and as out of sight as possible.

Mom Loblolly
Mom Loblolly Staying As Out of Sight as Possible