As some of you know, I have been monitoring two Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests this spring at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This past month I have devoted most of my photography time to dragonflies, so yesterday I grabbed my long lens and headed off to the refuge, hoping to see some baby eagles. One of the nests is huge and has high walls, so it is hard to know what, if anything, is going on inside it.
I waited and waited and finally the head of an eaglet popped up over the edge of the nest. As I reviewed the first photo, I noticed that there is another eaglet on the other side of the tree trunk, just a little lower. (You may need to click on the image to spot the second eaglet.) Both of the baby birds were facing the tree trunk and I soon learned why.
It turns out that one of there was an adult eagle behind the tree trunk. In the second image, it looks like the adult eagle, whose only visible part was its beak, was giving a bite of food to one eaglet while its sibling looked out from the other side of the tree trunk and did not seem very happy about the situation.
In the final shot, you get a better look at the adult eagle and a partial view of one of the eaglets. I now know for sure that there are at least two eaglets in that nest—some years there have been three eaglets. As the eaglets get older, I hope they will be more active and curious and that will allow me to get some better shots of them.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Beautiful photographs, Mike. They’re very clear even at long distance.
Thanks. I was using a monopod to support my 150-600mm zoom lens and I think that helped with sharpness
Beautiful capture! I enjoy your descriptions, they are heartwarming stories of nature’s magic. Thank you Mike.
Great update, Mike, with the feeding storyline.
Thanks, Ellen. I think that is what was going on, but it is still somewhat of an interpretation of what I saw in the photos. It is a little easier to figure out what is happening when you have a cleared view of the action as you and Ted seem to get with some of your shots at the rookeries.
True, and sometimes I am way off in my interpretations 😳 I discover as I learn more about these animals we observe. We have been fortunate to see into some nests which certainly helps guide our thoughts.
Nice story telling images, Mike. Hope we get to see more as the eaglets grow up.
Thanks, Chris. I hope I get to see the eaglets again as well. At this time of the year a lot of the other birds are hidden in the leaves of the trees–it is a little easier to keep track of the eagles because the nest is relatively out in the open, although a pretty good distance away from the trail.
The Virginia Creeper makes a nice canopy, a relief from the relentless sun!
[…] past and saw that I posted a shot of eaglets at this same nest on 19 May last year (see the posting Eagle nest update in May), so things seem to be following the same approximate […]