Bald Eagles

Today between classes, I ran into a very good birder who I met in the field last spring. We were catching up, sharing each others' sightings and stories when he told me of a Bald Eagle roosting in the Blue Heron colony in the area. I was intrigued, so right after my meeting at noon, I decided to check it out. He said that it had looked like the bird was building up the nest, and was possibly making the nest permanent. When I arrived, I could tell which nest he was talking about immediately. It was 2-3 times larger than the rest, and I could see the bird perched just above the nest in the same tree. When I got my binoculars on the nest, I saw that there were 2 bald eagles, one perched in the tree, and one in the nest. During the spring of '09 I watched a Red-Tailed hawk battle it out with the Great Blue Herons when the Herons came back to thier nesting colony. The hawk eventually left the nest, and the colony moved back in and nested. I am REALLY excited to see what is going to happen when they come home this spring to find that they have 2 new tenants in  thier colony. It was very cool watching a single red-tail harrass the herons, I can only imagine what kind of show is waiting this spring if the eagles decide to make this a permanent nest. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me today, even though the nest is quite far away anyway. I did have my ipod and binoculars though, so I improvised.... Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get a shot at these birds.

This poor photo shows the size difference in the nests. You can kind of make out the eagles as well..........kind of..