In May of this year, we had the good fortune to be introduced to a wonderful couple whose 110 acre backyard (farm) has been host to a pair of nesting bald eagles for five of the past six years. The nest tree, a 200 year-old ponderosa pine, looks like it will stand for many years to come.

In spite of the many helpful calls from the property owners, I was unable to catch the first flight of either of the two nestlings. The 50% failure rate reported for first flight of this species left me liking my chances for getting close views of at least one grounded fledgling feeding and learning to fly. I also fell short on my goal to capture numerous deliveries of prey by the adults to the nest. As it turns out, I came away with decent images of just one delivery.

By watching the nest, I learned eagles are very vocal when coming and going, Great Blue Heron make up some portion of their diet, fledglings continue to use the nest as a feeding platform after their first flight, and Bald Eagles can be surprisingly effective, albeit noisy, when foraging in dense forests.

While I was in the woods looking for a pair of Swainson's Thrush, I was startled by an adult Bald Eagle crashing through the understory towards me in pursuit of unidentified prey. After a brief but conspicuous wrestling match, just 30 yards away, the eagle flew up through the trees to the nest, depositing what I suspect was one of the (zillion) rabbits that I  came across earlier. 

I am very grateful for the opportunity to survey the avifauna associated with this remarkable property, and for the owners sharing time with me both in the field and in their home discussing all things about birds, and of course for their delicious tea & scones.

We hope you enjoy the (eagle centric) images below:

And a few images of other species we encountered while watching the eagles;

Nesting Red-breasted Sapsucker:

Red-breasted Sapsucker Red-breasted Sapsucker Red-breasted Sapsucker Red-breasted Sapsucker

Western Wood-pewee:

Western Wood-pewee

Jill enjoying the farm, hanging out watching the eagles:

Hungry Tree Swallows:  (on a side note - the sapsucker and swallows fledged the same day)

An American Robin eating a frog - a first for me: 

Nest detritus (we've found kids love this stuff :) and a few pictures of other things we took notice of:

If you were told the farm is located in the n. Willamette Valley, then what, if anything, would you find unusual about the landscape?

Hint: In what type of tree is the eagle's nest placed?

Literature Cited

Buehler, David A. 2000. Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/506 doi:10.2173/bna.506