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I arrived a little after 1 PM. I drove very slowly by the dead trees to the west and did not see an eagle.
I was alarmed to see a large white branch sticking up through the nest. It was at an angle, the bottom of which was quite a distance below the bottom left side of the nest and the top appeared to protrude through the nest and ended about even with the large center trunk in the back of the nest. It's the trunk with the red vertical streaks. At times, the incubating eagle's head was obscured by the top part of this stick/branch.
I watched until 3:45 with a 20 minute break and thankfully, I noticed no change in the behavior of the eagles. It was very windy when I first arrived and I feared that the dead bare branch had blown into to the nest and perhaps struck and injured a chick, egg or adult. I can't imagine that an eagle would be able to lift such a thick and long branch to the nest.
I wish I could share a picture with you but for some reason all of a sudden, when I connect the camera to my computer (and I've tried more than one computer), nothing happens. The camera does not flash "busy" like it always has before and the computer does not show that it is connected. This has not been my day.
I took a look at recent pictures of the nest to see if could compare to what I saw today. I noticed in Ken's third picture posted yesterday that there was a large branch as part of the nest near the bottom left side. It is partly obscured by some pine needles/leaves or whatever they are called. I'm wondering if the strong wind repositioned that branch, however, in Ken's picture, the branch is not white like the one I saw today. Maybe it was just the lighting.
The male showed up at 3:30 and quietly (no greetings) landed on a tree branch above the nest. The female continued to incubate for about 3 minutes and then stood up, called out and flew to the dead trees to the west. The male flew in a little circle and took over the nest duties.
Jill
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