Friday morning, 8:00am to 9:30am

[Mike Fossler]

When I arrived an adult was at the malaluca strand and both juveniles were attempting to set there as well, but flew off immediately. The adult stayed for the entire time I was there. Around 9:15am or so, Trisha saw one of the juveniles flying in from the northwest - it flew by in front of us over the area were the adult was roosting and continued to the nest. At first it was drizzly, but soon cleared to be a beautiful blue sky with nice morning sun. The adult gave us some of the most majestic poses I've seen and the morning sun illuminated it perfectly! Soon though, the weather turned stormy again and I retreated to the car/home. The adult remained roosted in the rain. Attached are some of this am's pictures. I posted some others as well on my flickr page.

[Trisha]

Awesome shots Mike, as always! I'm still going through mine as I wound up staying until 10:30.

I watched the adult that was so close, right in front of us, on top of the bare trunk, hunker down for a really hard rain. It made itself almost a ball...with its head tucked (I think) under its wing. When the rain stopped, I emerged from the car and the eagle from its "ball". It shook all over and started to pull and pick at its feathers. It looked like a drowned rat but didn't seem at all bothered by the hard rain or the condition of its dripping feathers.  

At about 9:50 Hope arrived just like Justin had previously and flew by the adult, calling loudly, heading towards the nest. I heard Justin's loud greeting so I'm sure that where it headed. The VERY loud calling continued from the nest area and about 10:10 they both flew from the nest area and began flying in the vicinity of the adult still engaged in the "full service preen." It really was humorous, the siblings circling and flying right by the parent calling in a very loud, demonstrative manner. The adult just continued to preen, occasionally looking up to watch its offspring.....but not budging. I think the siblings were yelling "we're hungry" and the parent stayed busy and quiet. I think many of us can identify with ignoring noisy children!

Hope and Justice finally flew off and circled for a while to the north and then returned with more loud calling, flying near, but not getting too close to the adult. The adult continued to preen. Hope and Justice returned to the nest, where they were when I left. The adult took 2 little short hops/flights to other dead trees (testing out the dryness factor maybe?) and then finally took off to the west.

[NewMexiKen]

Magnificent photos, Mike!

I'd like to remind everyone that a full slide show of Mike's Flickr photos may be accessed above, or directly on this link to the Eagle Nest Watch page.