Eagles in the Park

Bald eagles have nested in a large white pine in northcentral Pennsylvania’s Little Pine State Park for at least 25 years. I remember looking across the lake at the nest way back when and being a bit frustrated because live limbs on the tree blocked all but a small part of the nest.

We visit the park a couple of times each year to see the birds and check on their nesting success. The original nest tree died and the birds continued to use the nest for a while. More recently the eagles built a new nest in another tall lakeside white pine. Last year a Canada goose chose to use the old eagle nest as a place for her own nest. A fellow photographer saw the goslings leave the nest, fall about 50 feet to the ground – they survived – and head for the water. This spring the goose was again incubating her own eggs in the old eagle nest.

One misty morning I headed for the park again to see the eagles and try for some photos. From the vista in the park I looked across the upper part of the lake toward the new nest –

One bird, probably the male, was on a limb near the nest; male bald eagles frequently guard the nest from predators and rivals.

After a while he took off and flew (can you find him in the photo?) to a nearby pine –

He spent some time there before taking off again and heading down the valley toward Pine Creek.

As I waited and watched a great blue heron landed on the lakeshore –

After about 15 minutes the female eagle flew in to land on the same limb where the male had been. She called a few times but, due to the distance (over 1000 feet), I couldn’t hear her. After spending some time there, she took off and heading upstream –

It wasn’t too long before she returned, carrying a large fish –

When she entered the nest she began feeding a young one.

Although it was really hard to see at that distance, it appeared that there were two young eagles in the nest. The eaglet(s) is quite small given the late date when these photos were taken; less than a week later the eaglets in a nest a few miles away were fully feathered and exercising their wings. After the eagle fed her offspring she ate some of the fish herself.

Then the female eagle returned to the limb and, as the morning’s drizzle turned to heavy rain, went back on the nest to shelter the eaglets –

As the rain increased even more it was time for me to seek shelter in the car and head for home and some food.