Readers’ wildlife photos

September 29, 2014 • 5:59 am

We have bald eagles today from two readers. Reader Glenn Butler has banded eaglets! Here are his photos and a report.

Here are some eaglets (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) being banded at Norfolk Botanical Garden in Virginia. I was lucky enough to give them a ride to and from their nest. Diana MacPherson may think they look like grumpy old men.

These three chicks fledged under the mother’s watch but she was later killed after hatching another brood of three.  Those three chicks were removed from the nest  [JAC: I documented this, as I recall, and the chicks were successfully raised and then released from a rehab facility] and it was a melancholy scene watching the male return to the nest. You could almost feel his shock and confusion looking for his mate and chicks.
Two of the chicks, Camellia and Azalea (from two different broods) can be tracked here.
Weighing and banding the chicks:
Eaglets Butler
Cbicks back in the nest, banded and provided with a lovely fish. Look at the size of those feet!
Eaglets in nest
Glenn’s notes:
Here’s mom or dad circling overhead while we’re in the nest. Needless to say I was wearing a helmet and safety glasses. Being attacked by an angry adult bald eagle while on their turf probably wouldn’t end well.
Dad circling anxiously o 1
 The mother was killed in a collision with a plane at the Norfolk Airport. Glenn has an editorial comment:
My personal view is that Norfolk Airport should hire someone full-time with a pair of binoculars to disperse wildlife from the runways. The male has had his nest destroyed at least eight times to encourage him to leave. The airport has over $150 million in assets and can spend money on marble columns and huge skylights but skimps on wildlife protection. Priorities need adjusting I think. I believe at least four eagles have been killed at the airport since 2002.
Finally, Stephen Barnard in Idaho sent five eagle pix with the note:
A vehicle drove up and spooked these eagles while I was shooting.
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19 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. I think the baby eagles look more like doddery old women than angry old men. “Come along Mildred, let’s see what’s happening at the mall today”.

      1. My friends also enjoy my miming skills. I was imitating a chipmunk that kept running ahead a few feet, turning and looking at me sitting on the deck behind him, then repeating but turning around the other way. The chipmunk’s facial expressions were funny & my friends told me that my impressions really sucked them into being right there in my yard with the chipmunk. 😀

        1. I think we need some pictures of you imitating a chipmunk to add to the “readers’ wildlife photos”. 😉

  2. Seems numerous bald eagles have made their nests around the approach paths into MSP airport. There are reports on the radios off 3 different runways… The approach paths to 30 left and right and 35. All three of these are over the Minnesota River. Beautiful birds who I hope see me way before I see them.

  3. Living in Washington and having travelled to Alaska on many occasions, I have been lucky to see Bald Eagles in all sorts of behaviors: fishing, eating, mating, fighting. They are breathtaking birds, and I can watch them for hours…though they don’t stick around that long unless there is a large halibut carcass to dismantle. They are formidable predators, and know how to intimidate other species. A crow, unlucky enough to finally piss-off a Bald Eagle while trying to eat from the same fish carcass was attacked, pinned to the ground and plucked and pecked until only a pile of black feathers and a red mess remained. Other crows and seagulls got the message and high-feathered it away. A gruesome yet fascinating experience.

    Alas, though I’ve seen many of these birds in person, I’ve never been able to capture their magnificence on “film” like the photos here. Thanks!

  4. “The airport has over $150 million in assets and can spend money on marble columns and huge skylights but skimps on wildlife protection. Priorities need adjusting I think.”

    It’s funny how budgets always seem to work like that. It’s like the national budget- combating the effects of climate change or improving the nation’s education system are too expensive, but Ceiling Cat help you if you propose cancelling production of a nuclear submarine or the increasingly over-budget and totally unable to deliver on its assigned role Joint Strike Fighter.

    2. I wonder if APHIS Wildlife Services have an office there? Preventing wildlife/aviation incidents is one of their missions. Of course, they probably got their budget cut, too. (Maybe we should label bald eagles as terrorists?)

      1. Bald eagles are the national bird. What we really ought to do is start a campaign of accusing everyone who refuses to support protecting the bald eagle as hating America.

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