Saturday morning January 22-- feeding eaglet(s)

[NewMexiKen]

Mary Lou and I arrived around 9 AM in light rain. As she walked over to the nest I photographed one adult standing, facing away. My photos were poor and I could not tell its sex. It flew off to the west almost immediately and I could hear two eagles calling. Within another minute or so a second eagle arrived, possibly with prey. In any event, it tore repeatedly at the prey as if taking off small portions, and put its head down into the nest. Leave obscured my shots at first, and when I finally found the "sweet spot" to the east of the nest it had finished feeding, but still was looking down into the nest. After about 10 minutes the second eagle flew to the melaleucas to the west. Both members of the pair roosted on adjacent melaleuca snags.

Mary Lou mentioned that it was unusual to not see at least one member of the pair standing guard at the nest, or brooding the very young chick (and incubating egg(s)?), especially with the rain falling. Maybe they are getting careless in their old age, or they have learned not to perceive any threat from us.



Male:



Female:

[NewMexiKen]

A couple of more images of the second adult, just after feeding the chick(s). -- I had to edit the eyes as my flash produced bad eye shine ("steel eye").

You can see the originals on my FLICKR photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosyfinch/