Free Range Photography

When I made the trek up to the Benbow Bald Eagle nest watching spot last Saturday, I knew to keep going past the old nest-watching spot and look for activity around the new nest apparently still being built this year. A friend had snapped a picture of the new nest from the river which provided proof that the project was well underway, maybe even nearing completion.

The challenge was going to be finding it from up on the road way across the valley. On the previous Saturday a couple other friends and I watched some activity that included one of the eagles breaking a branch off of a nearby tree and carrying it somewhere into the curtain of green that made up the forest’s front row at the edge of the river bank. But we could not pinpoint the nest.

The first thing I saw when I arrived this past Saturday was both eagles taking off together from somewhere in that some neighborhood of the new presumed nest. A hopeful sign! One headed down toward the river and out of sight, but the other flew to a nearby tree and perched at the top for awhile.

Using my camera’s powerful lens and my binoculars, I scanned again and again the area I was pretty sure the nest was in, but no luck. It wasn’t until one of the eagles appeared with a good sized stick in its talons and showed me exactly where the nest was as the furniture delivery was made that I was able to see it.

Overjoyed to have located it with considerable help, but a bit disappointed to realize that the view was a bit blocked, I watched with glee the familiar process of placing and arranging the stick until the bird was satisfied and took off again.

With no eagles in sight for quite a while, it was clear that incubation had not yet begun because eggs would not have been left for that long. I kept glancing over toward the old nest, just because I have seen them working on that one as well this season, but there was no activity. Finally, another delivery of nesting materials arrived, this time softer fluff to line the bowl of the nest.

Thanks to fellow eagle watcher Jennifer Amidi and friend Naomi Linzer, I learned that Bald Eagles sometimes build multiple nests and then switch off from nest to nest season to season. It can be part of their pair bonding behavior, as well as insurance in case one of the nests is destroyed in a storm or if the tree falls. The birds will not open an air-bnb in their spare abode.

This new construction is making for a rather late start for this pair, but there is still time for eggs to be incubated and hatched, a process taking about 30-35 days, followed by about 12 weeks of rearing the youngster(s) to fledging. It might be awhile before I get up there again with a big storm moving in for the next week or so, but I’m hopeful of soon being able to make out the white head of one of the parents parked steadfastly on this beautiful new structure.