Friday morning NOV 29 - no eagles seen in area of nest

[NewMexiKen]

Mary Lou and I got to the nest site a little after 9:00 AM and stayed for about 45 minutes. Phil M and three other photographers were there. They had been observing the nest for over an hour and none had seen any eagles. While the female will sit very low in the nest after depositing her first egg, she will periodically get up to change position and also to turn the egg, showing at least her head and upper body. We did not observe this behavior, and neither did the other nest watchers, so it seems safe to say that the first egg has not yet been laid.

The lake next to ours in the Sunset Lakes subdivision appears to have turned over because of the cooler nights. (The lake develops a layer of cooler water on top. Since this water is more dense, it will either get so cool that it breaks through the warmer water underneath, or the wind disrupts the orderly layer and it suddenly sinks to the bottom and mixes the boundary between the deep cooler water and the rest of the lake. Suddenly the cooler water is no longer locked in the depths of the lake and it rises and mixes, bringing up life forms such as vegetation and fish, including the larger fish that prefer to stay deep during the hot summer.)

This lake (between Monaco Cove and Monaco subdivisions on Miramar Parkway attracted at least 6 Ospreys and hordes of Ring-billed Gulls this morning (Saturday NOV 30). I am quite sure I saw and heard one Bald Eagle around 7:00 AM but could not tell whether it was in adult plumage. We were taking our morning walk and had a poor view of the lake behind the row of homes.

Am hoping our lake, which is a bit larger will also turn over-- it has done this twice before in the past nine years, around Thanksgiving. It attracted Bald Eagles as well as many other fish-eating birds such as herons and egrets. At other times the process has been more gradual and less dramatic, but if the cool weather returns we can expect better fishing for the Ospreys and eagles during the next few weeks in most area lakes.

By the way, yesterday there were some nice snacks for the eagles in front of their nest-- a flock of Cattle Egrets.