One adult ("Brown-tip") at nest this morning

[NewMexiKen]

Met Tom and Trisha at nest at 8:00 AM today. They had been watching since about 7 AM without seeing any eagles. A few minutes after Mary Lou and I arrived, one adult flew into the nest from the west with a medium sized prey item. It tore at it and ate for about 15 minutes, then flew off to the east, curving south and then to the west. It reappeared in about 5 minutes from the west, flew behind the nest and disappeared to the east. One of Tom's photos showed it to be "Brown-tip" (the one with a brown tip on the outermost right tail feather).

One of my photos (not this one) appeared to show a white feather on its bill as it was eating.

[Trisha]

Beautiful picture, Ken. It looks like at least a foot of new sticks have been added to the nest as their lighter color stands out.

I wonder why we are seeing the adults bring food back to the nest even though they are not incubating or feeding their young. It would be interesting to know if this is a behavior that you see in all nesting pairs. Your theory of it being a way for one adult to bring the other back to the nest makes sense as the adults did that same behavior when the young took their somewhat unsuccessful first flights.

Perhaps since the southern most pairs don't seem to migrate up north they keep using the nest more often. The migrating pairs are far from their nests and so obviously eat where ever they are each day.

Just more thoughts to ponder about our magnificent eagles.