Saturday, January 28 -- Eaglet(s) briefly left unguarded

[NewMexiKen]

Saturday (January 28)  morning we checked the nest, hoping to see one or more chicks peeking over the rim of the nest. The first-hatched should be about 13 days old. At 8:15 AM the female was quiet and rather low in the nest, so we assumed that the chick(s) had been fed and were probably sleeping. We note that when a food drop approaches the hen stands high and gets restless. Therefore we went birding at Chapel Trail and returned at about 9:30 to find the male roosting in the nest tree on a horizontal limb above the nest. We had probably just missed the food drop.



Note the slimmer and more tapered body of the male. His bill also appears to be a bit less massive than that of the female. This year he does not have the dark streaks on the outer tail feathers that helped us distinguish him the past two seasons.



The female was active, tearing at prey and feeding the the chick(s). I think we had just missed a prey drop. About 10 minutes after our arrival the male flew away low to the west.



The female remained on the nest for less than 5 minutes before flying over to roost on a Melaleuca snag just to the west.







She flew back to the tall pine just west of the nest and roosted a few minutes, then settled back on the nest. The nest was left unguarded for about ten minutes. This rarely happens when the chicks are less than two weeks old (see the Eagle Milestone spreadsheet PDF) This was the first time this season we witnessed the nest uncovered and without a lookout nearby.

[Mike Fossler]

Nice set of photos Ken - especially at the dead tree strand! MF