Have no fear, both are here!

[Mike Fossler]

Went by the nest around 2:45pm and found both adults on the nest. Below are some photos I took from the median. After about 5 minutes, the brown-tipped adult flew off and landed on one of the pines near the roadway west of the school zone sign. Around 3:00pm it flew away. The last photo shows the single adult in the nest. It was still there when I left at 3:05pm. MF (11-27-09)

[NewMexiKen]

That is great news!

The photos are excellent.

Thanks so much, Mike.

[NewMexiKen]

OK-- now our next challenge will be to sort out the male from the female bird.

Brown-Tip was very active in nest-building. Is Brown-Tip larger or smaller? If larger, and maybe base of the bill appears thicker than its mate, then we may have determined that Brown-Tip is female. Remember, last year the female bird seemed to have one or more white feathers on its breast. No guarantee they will be there again this season.

BTW, I first photographed Brown-Tip on October 29th and posted it here on the FORUM. I cannot find any earlier shots that show the distinctive tail feather, but perhaps there are many more that are on our computers. Let's see if we have any earlier views. I could not find the distinctive mark on any of last year's photos, but of course they undergo annual molt.

This year we have ready-made names for the adults-- White-Tip and mate.

I've avoided going out to the nest so as not to create undue attention, but will try to "sneak' out there tomorrow.

[Mike Fossler]

Ken, is that a white spot on the chest of the one on the left in the photo with both birds? I believe that is the one that stayed behind when the brown-tipped one flew out. MF

[Mike Fossler]

Went back and looked at a series of photos I took when both were in the nest - the white spot on the left one's chest may just be a tufted, loose feather? I'll keep an eye out on future trips and photo ops. MF

[NewMexiKen]

Yes, Mike, it may just be a fluffy contour feather out of place, but that is actually about what the spot on the female's breast looked like last year. I wonder whether such an anomaly might persist through a body and flight feather molt.

When the eagles have a full crop, the under-feathers sometimes show as lighter. Also, the female may have a brood spot as some other species do, and this might cause swelling of the breas area and expose lighter contour feathers.

Interestingly, the female chick fledged last season also sported a white spot, if I remember correctly.

Others may wish to chime in on this one.

Here are photos from last Feb and March-- one of the pair does have some dark tail feather tips, and it was the one that we assumed was the male, as it was a bit smaller. However, the white spot on the presumed female is inconsistent.

When I posted this photo I noted that the presumed female was on the left. Note the several dark tail feather tips on the presumed male. The final photo shows several small brown markings on the tips of the  tail feathers on this bird.

[Kathy]

That is great, and very nice pics!!!  What kind of camera do you use?  I have been thinking about getting a Nikon D90 anyone have any experience with this camera?

[NewMexiKen]

I have had no experience with the Nikon. I use a Canon 30D with a Canon 300mm IS lens and a 1.4x extender, for a total focal length of 420 mm. It's not too heavy to carry on long walks, and is about as powerful as you can go for routine hand held use.

[Mike Fossler]

I use a Canon 40d with different lenses. The photos here were with a Sigma 50-500 zoom lens. The camera is very good, the lens is very good when subjects are close and your zoomed in tight. The lens is not as good for reaching far away objects (like the photos posted here, which are all cropped to acheive close-in look.) I also have a dedicated 2x converter which really gets in close, but image quality is compromised dramatically. The Sigma lens is $1000 vs $5000 for a 400mm f2.8 Canon lens - now you know why I own it! Canon does make a high quality, sharp 400mm f5.6 lens which is very popular with birding crowds because of its light weight and sharpness (does not have IS) which is just a little more $ than the Sigma.
The Nikon D90 is said to be a good camera - similar to Canons current 50D. Each have their pros/cons. A great site for camera evaluations is www.dpreview.com. Pay special attention to the "conclusions" section.
Hope this helps! MF

[Kathy]

Mike thank you so much for the detailed reply!  I am a former artist, currently Nurse and I have enjoyed wildlife photography for the past several years.  I have gotten by with a basic point and shoot camera and I am looking for a good DSLR camera that uses glass lenses and is not too pricy!  Will go to website, and thank you again!

[Trisha]

Great news Mike......my how we worry about these guys!  It's so good to know they are together! Nice photos too!

[serrah46]

Ken. These are photos taken on 10/2/09. I don't see any white feathers on its breast.

[NewMexiKen]

Thanks-- I see some brown on the outermost right tail feather in the top photo. This may be the presumed male, as discussed previously. I think we must just see if indeed the female does show a white feather on her breast-- it may not be consistently present, but let's keep watching and photographing, now that both are being seen at the nest.

Very interesting!

[Trisha]

The few times that I saw both birds together last year in a similar pose it always appeared that 1 was broader in the chest....wider and fuller. I always assumed that was the female and your pictures really illustrate what I mean, Ken. I noticed the same differences with the 2 juveniles, but their coloration was so different that we didn't need other means to identify them.

[Monica]

We first went to see the eagles back in april, but havent been back since, are both juveniles still there as well?

[Mike Fossler]

No, the juveniles have moved on to places unknown. The adults left shortly after you were there last but have since returned in the last month or so preparing the nest for this year's mating season. MF