We have some eagle videos to share in this post, but first I wanted to share some interesting eagle news from the Refuge.

On January 10, the Refuge held its 29th Annual Mid-Winter Eagle Survey. Our surveys are part of a national effort to track the health of local eagle populations. Participating in the Blackwater Refuge portion of the survey were 27 volunteers and 7 employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and despite the relatively mild weather conditions in early January, a record number of eagles were sighted during the morning portion of this two-part survey effort. A total of 145 eagles, consisting of 108 bald eagles, 1 golden eagle, and 36 unidentified eagles, were observed during the morning count. And in the evening roost count, 130 eagles were observed, including 120 bald eagles and 10 unidentified eagles. At least four additional golden eagles that were not detected as part of the official survey were observed by survey participants.

When the winter is mild, Blackwater Refuge often sees fewer eagles because the warm weather means the eagles can stay up north longer (or not migrate so far south). But even with the milder weather, Blackwater’s count this year was very good. To give you an idea of how our bald eagle population has grown, in the 1980 eagle survey, we reported only 24 bald eagles!

Although some golden eagles were spotted in the survey, normally Blackwater Refuge does not see many golden eagles since they are more of a western raptor. But one of our volunteers — Dave Brenneman — got a chance to photograph a golden eagle during the survey, and he was kind enough to share his beautiful photo with us. This golden eagle is sitting in a loblolly pine tree — the favored tree of nesting bald eagles.

It’s important to note that immature bald eagles can look a lot like golden eagles, so birders have to look extra hard to be sure that what they’re seeing is really a golden eagle. At Blackwater, any brown eagle-sized raptor is more likely to be an immature bald eagle, but occasionally birders get lucky and see an actual golden eagle.

In addition to the survey, we had some other excitement on January 10 — a rehabilitated adult bald eagle was released at the Refuge. In December 2007, this injured bald eagle had been transported from Blackwater Refuge to Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research in Newark, Delaware, and treated for soft tissue damage. This eagle returned to the Refuge on January 10, and was released with the help of Tri-state staff and Refuge volunteers. The release photo is also courtesy of Dave Brenneman.

As always, we thank Tri-State for their excellent work in saving and rehabilitating local birds that have had run-ins with cars, power lines, windows, and even other birds. Tri-State is always looking for volunteers, so be sure to check out their website.

And for our last piece of eagle news, I wanted to report that we have a new bald eagle nest that was just discovered near our popular Marsh Edge Trail on the Wildlife Drive at the Refuge. Since the eagles appear to be getting ready for nesting season, the Refuge management has decided to close this trail until about April, so as not to disturb the eagles while they might be tending eggs or young chicks.

So if you visit the Refuge and are disappointed to see our scenic Marsh Edge Trail closed, you can try some of our other prime eagle-spotting places, such as the rest of the Wildlife Drive, as well as along the lower reaches of Maple Dam Road, which you can reach by taking a right at the end of Key Wallace Drive. (Note that Key Wallace Drive is the road where the Visitor Center is located). In fact, many folks don’t bother to go out on Maple Dam Road, even though it possesses some of the most beautiful and unspoiled sections of marsh at the Refuge. So if you’re up for exploring, be sure to drive south of the Refuge and check out the less visited sections of Blackwater. (Note that this section of road is also very popular with cyclists.)

Eagle Videos

I was out at Blackwater Refuge on Monday, and while the eagle activity was a little quiet, I did see two adult bald eagles playing in the sky a bit. During mating season, eagles will perform a sort of aerial dance that you may have heard about, although it’s common to hear the story repeated that bald eagles will mate in the air, with talons locked, as they’re free-falling to earth. While it is true that bald eagles will engage in dramatic aerial displays when courting, the real mating or copulation occurs on the nest or in a tree — not in the air.

As for the bald eagles’ aerial displays during courtship, most of them are very impressive. One is called the cartwheel display, where the eagles will fly high, lock talons, and then cartwheel to earth, only breaking apart at the last moment before they hit the ground or water. Another is the chase display, where after chasing each other they will lock talons and roll together. And finally there is the roller-coaster display, where an individual eagle will fly high, fold its wings, then plummet down, only to swoop up at the last minute to avoid hitting the earth. While these aerial activities are certainly captivating to watch, eagle biologists report that the ritual of building the nest together is probably more powerful in securing a tight bond between the pair.

While I was at the Refuge, I also recorded some live video from our Eagle Cam. Left-click on the links below to play the movies or right-click and choose “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to download the movies.

In the first video clip, watch in the upper left corner and you’ll see the male approaching the nest. He lands in the branch on the left, then works his way up into the nest. Next the female arrives and they engage in a short tug-of-war over a stick (which she wins), followed by a little pecking. Notice in this clip how much bigger the female eagle is compared to the smaller, more compact male.

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In the second video clip we see the male leave and then return a short while later. Both eagles then engage in some fussing with the grass and sticks in the nest — moving things around and doing general housekeeping. They do this a lot, and we sometimes see the older eaglets mimicking this behavior once they’re in the nest.

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A couple technical notes: 1) our videos do not have audio because there is no microphone on the cam and 2) you can see some yellow artifacts in the clips; this was some noise in the video signal and not yellow coloring on the birds.

We’re still hoping for eggs soon, as our eagle pair certainly looks ready for another nesting season. We won’t be worried about an egg-less season unless they go into mid-February without producing one. At that point, we might have to reevaluate our prospects for seeing chicks.

Until next time,
Lisa - webmaster
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eagles, wildlife refuge, eagle cam, eagle video, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Eagle Videos, Blackwater NWR, Eagle Cam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.