It
was probably fall 2007, late evening, when Shaving 4 and I saw a large bird
circling high overhead. The bird looked so large and so high that I wondered
out loud if it might not be an eagle.
November
8, 2008, a clear Saturday morning, Shaving 3 had agreed to take a cruise with
the new outboard as I promised to ~ not fish (= trolling only). This time there
was no doubt. Two bald eagles, white heads & all, were cruising tree top
high around the west end of Goat Island. They were in plain view for some time
and one actually took a swing at something on the surface not far from another
boat up against the mountain. We returned to the dock and ask Gary if he knew
he had two bald eagles out there. His reply was “TWO??” Our reply was “two!”
I
called Ken M., chairman of biology and vertebrate adventurer, to report the
sighting. He said it was the time of year that they paired up for nesting.
It
was likely 2009 when I ask Gary if anybody had been seeing the eagles. Gary
said “there’s a nest”. I say “where?” Gary looks up the lake, down the lake,
then at me and says “I don’t tell everybody” (which of course meant don’t you
tell everybody). Fair enough.
Since
Ken M. had speculated on future nesting I had been trying to guess where eagles
would decide to put a nest. In the event I was completely, wrong but the
location they picked made sense upon further reflection.
The
eagles’ presence, if not nest location, became widely known when what has got
to be one of, if not the, weirdest ever eagle photograph hit the Birmingham
News September 1, 2010.
 |
Standing shoulder to
shoulder, in knee (?) deep water, on the lake’s edge with a real wading bird in
the foreground. [It just now occurs to me that the heron eats fish too and maybe
the eagles were simply studying an alternative technique]. That the photo
produced a predictable flurry of local nature interest could be determined by
simply listening to the marina’s end of the phone calls. “Yes ma’am we see them
around. No ma’am it’s hard to tell just when or where. Etc, etc.” I told them
to figure out when the slowest day was for boat rentals and tell interested bird
watchers frequent sightings were then…far shore. He spoke of one inquiry where
he told the caller he hadn’t seen them in a while and, just then, an eagle
flies through the parking lot and landed in a nearby tree.
By
spring 2011 Gary said a photographer had nest photos and there were young. They
appear to continue to make a go of this location.
And other locations. Around 9AM, about two years
ago, Shaving 4 & I are pulling out of ‘upper Choccolocco’ and a big bird
circles away from us tree top high. I was saying things like “What the heck is
that? Not exactly right for a heron.” Apparently
overhearing the conversation of undue respect, the bird did a slow left hand
bank over our heads just so we could get a good look at whose presence we were
in.
Saw
5 ospreys at Lake Purdy three days ago.
ML
4/15/14
