Mike Powell

Have you ever tried to sneak up on a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)? Given the eagles’ superior eyesight and quicker reactions, they almost always detects me before I can get within camera range and often my first indication of an eagle’s presence is when I see it flying away from me.

As many of you know, there are several eagle nests at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and this is the time of the year when eagles begin nesting in them. The roads are blocked in the area surrounding one of the nests, so it is hard to get a good look at it. The largest nest, though, is set way back in the trees, but is visible from one of the main trails, which remains open.

During a visit to the refuge on Wednesday (Valentine’s Day), I noticed through the trees that both members of an eagle couple were perched atop the nest. Male eagles are often smaller than the females, so I think that the eagle to the left in the first photo is a male. I was still a long way from the nest when I captured that first photo, but experience has taught me that it is best to capture a “record” shot, before trying to get closer for a better one.

I continued down the trail in the direction of the eagle nest doing my best to walk near the high vegetation at the edge of the trail that blocked the eagle from seeing me and, alas, prevented me from seeing the eagle.

I know where the spots are where there is an open view of the nest and I prepared myself as I approached the best one. As I stepped partially into the open and raised my camera, one of the eagles took off and I captured the second shot below. As I was trying to track that eagle in the air, the second one took off too and I watched as they both flew away over the waters of the bay.

Before long, the eagles should be sitting on one or more eggs in the nest. The nest is quite deep and high up that it is almost impossible to tell if there is an eagle in the nest when they are incubating the eggs. The members of the couple rotate the responsibility for sitting on the eggs and I have been lucky on a couple of occasions to see the “changing of the guards.” Perhaps I will have that same good fortune this year.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Last Thursday I enjoyed watching a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) couple working on rebuilding their nest at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One member of the couple remained in the nest while the other one went off in search of sticks to add to the nest. Together they worked to arrange the new sticks and slowly seem to be raising the height of the walls of the nest. If you click on the images, you can get a closer look at the eagles and their building materials.

For those of you who have been following my posts on the two eagle nests at my favorite wildlife refuge, this is the “small” one, the one that was damaged last summer when a branch broke off. It is a bit of a race to see if the nest will be in good enough shape when the eagles are ready for nesting, but I am really hopeful that it will be. I will be keeping an eye on the nest and will continue to provide updates.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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As I noted in a posting last week, I am currently keeping an eye on two bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Eagle couples have actively used both nests in each of the years that I have been visited this refuge. In that earlier posting, I provided a look at one of them, a really large nest.

Today I am featuring the second one, which has always been quite small. During this summer, I noticed that it had gotten even smaller. I can’t tell for sure what happened, but it looks like one of the supporting branches may have broken off and a significant portion of the nest was dumped on the ground. I was afraid that the eagles would abandon the site and rebuild at another location.

I was thrilled therefore when I spotted the couple last week engaged in some reconstruction efforts that I documented in the posting Carry a big stick with a shot of an eagle carrying a large branch to this small nest. The first two photos, which I took last Monday, show the current size of the nest. For comparison purposes I included the final photo which is from January 2019—it looks to me like the nest was considerably larger two years ago.

The refuge has blocked the trails near this nest to keep the eagles from being disturbed, but I am able to get photos like these from the barrier that blocks the road. I’ll continue to watch the nest as often as I can and I am hopeful that the eagle couple will be able to restore it well enough to use for nesting this year.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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One of the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge seems to have suffered some damage during the off-season. It looks like one of the supporting branches broke off and more than half of the nest was dumped to the ground. The nest was relatively small in previous years and until yesterday I saw no signs that the eagles were planning to try to repair it and use it again this year.

The refuge has blocked off portions of the nearby roads to allow the eagles to nest in peace, but with my long telephoto zoom lens I am able to get a glimpse of the action. As I was standing at the barrier yesterday, I was thrilled when I saw one eagle fly into the nest and a few moments later, the second one arrived as well. After a short time together, one of the eagles flew off while the other eagle assumed what looked like a position of waiting.

A few minutes later the first eagle returned carrying a pretty large branch. I have seen ospreys carrying branches like this, but I had never seen an eagle do so. These three shots document part of the eagle’s journey with the branch. The final shot shows the eagle carefully approaching the nest where its mate was waiting. Amazingly, the eagle was able to weave its way through the branches of the tree and place its prize on the nest that is clearly still under construction.

I shot some images that show the current state of the nest that I will share in a future post. I also plan to do a post on the status of the other eagle nest at the refuge, the one that is huge by comparison with this one. Stay tuned for further developments as the eagles prepare for nesting season.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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There are at least two Bald Eagle nests (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the location where I take many of my wildlife photos. One of them is located adjacent to a popular trail and most years the authorities close nearby trails during eagle nesting season. There has been a lot of construction at the refuge over the past few months and, although I saw an eagle couple at that nesting site on several occasions, it looks like they may not have occupied that nest this year (and the trails have not been closed).

The second nest, pictured below, is in a more remote location—it is visible through the trees from one of the trails, but is surrounded by dense vegetation, so the eagles are more insulated from human activity. On a recent visit to the refuge, I was pleased to spot both members of an eagle couple in the nest. I am pretty sure that the eagle on the left is the male, because male eagles tend to be considerably smaller than their female counterparts.

With a bit of luck I hope to be able to spot some eaglets here in the upcoming months, although I noted last year that it is a real challenge to do so, because the wall of this large nest appear to be quite high and effectively hide the eagles from view.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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