Reports of eagle chick sighting January 20 & 21

[NewMexiKen]

Yesterday (January 20) we observed the nest for about 45 minutes after 9:30. On the nest, the head of an adult was always visible, so this was unusual, an indication that an eaglet may have hatched. However, there were no signs of brooding behavior, and the second adult was never in sight.

This morning (January 21) an eaglet was seen being fed. Mary Lou and Phil saw it, but I did not. Phil said that yesterday (January 20) he got a poor photo of the chick. We watched the eagle nest for about an hour this morning, from about 8:30-9:30 AM. Three watchers had just seen an adult fly to the nest tree from the dead melaleuca stumps to the west. When we got there the male was roosting only about 6 feet above the nest.



The female was actively tearing at a prey item and may have been feeding the chick when I took this photo, but I had a bad angle..



The male then flew to its usual perch in the live Australian Pine to the east of the nest. I walked over theree to get photos without having the sun behind the bird. At that time, Mary Lou saw the eagle feeding a chick-- she could see the top of its head just above the nest rim.



I concluded that this was the male because it appeared smaller and slimmer, and its beak seems a bit narrower. No sign of the dark streaks on the outer tail feathers that distinguished the male for the past two years. Phil's photo of the male also shows the tail feathers to be all white.



When I got back to the nest I did not see the eaglet. Upon reviewing my photos, it is possible that I did get a shot of the top of the eaglet's head.  There were 6 to 8 other bystanders observing the eagle nest while we were there. On processing these shots, I thought maybe I could see the head, just to the right of the adult.

[NewMexiKen]

Here is Phil's photo of the eagle that he identified as the male, showing all white tail feathers:



This photo was taken October 30, 2011.