Mike Powell

For several years I have keeping an eye on two Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One of them is adjacent to several trails, so each year the authorities close portions of those trails to keep the nesting eagles from being disturbed. This year, an additional area was closed and a sign was posted indicating eagle nesting activity.

I knew more or less where the new nest was located, but I had trouble spotting it from the trails that are still open. On Wednesday, I was delighted to spot an eagle in the nest, as you can see in the first photo below. A second eagle was keeping watch over the nest from a nearby tree and I managed to get the second shot by zooming out with my Tamron 150-600mm telephoto lens.

There was quite a bit of vegetation between me and the tree where the new nest is located, so I had to move about a lot to get a relatively unobstructed view of the nest. I suspect that the nest will be completely hidden when leaves reappear in a few months. Until then, I will continue to observe the new nest with a hope of seeing some eaglets. The incubation period is about 36 days for bald eagle eggs, but I do not think that any eggs have yet been laid.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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There was a lot of activity on Tuesday at the large Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nest at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I still cannot determine if any eaglets have hatched, but several times I observed an eagle fly into the nest or fly out of it. The nest is so deep that an eagle is often hidden from view when sitting on an egg—the only way to know for sure that an eagle is present is when one of them arrives or departs.

The eagle in the first photo was arriving and had spread its wings to slow down its speed and forward momentum. In the second photo, an eagle that was in nest had popped its head up and was looking towards a nearby tree where its mate was perched. After the eagle had reassured itself that everything was ready, the two eagles executed a changing of the guard ceremony—the eagle in the nest flew away and the perched eagle took its place. I captured the third image just as the eagle was taking off from its perch to take its turn watching over the nest.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I had already spotted a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sitting on a small nest at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge (see the final photo in my recent posting Out on a limb). However, until Wednesday  I had been unable to determine if the eagles had started to sit on eggs in the much larger and prominent nesting sight. That nest is so large and deep that a nesting eagle is hidden from view most of the time.

We had unusually warm weather on Wednesday, so I felt compelled to leave my house with my camera and towards my favorite site for wildlife photography. As I walked past my normal viewing site for the nest, I wasn’t surprised that I could not see an eagle in it.  As I continued to walk down the trail, however, I continued to keep my eye on the nest as I continued to walk down the trail. My view was partially blocked by trees, but looking through the trees, I suddenly spotted a small white head sticking out of the nest.

I don’t know if the warmer weather prompted the eagle to sit up higher in the nest than during cold weather, when the eagle would tend to hunker down to keep the eggs warm. Whatever the case, I welcomed this confirmation that the eagles were in the nest. The first image shows that the eagle was quite alert and keeping and eye on things. The second image helps to give you all a sense of the massive size of this nest.

As I write this posting, my heart is breaking as I continue to watch horrific events unfolding in Ukraine. I would simply ask that you pray for the brave Ukrainian people who are fighting and, in many cases, dying to defend themselves and their country.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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As we near the end of the month of February, we are moving into nesting season for the Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) that I regularly observe at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Some other wildlife photographers have photographed one of the eagle pairs mating, but when I visited the refuge last Wednesday, there was no such activity. The best images that I was able to capture were of a solitary bald eagle perched on the outermost tip of a branch overlooking the trail on which I was walking—as the first photo shows, the eagle was quite aware of my presence.

Later that same day, I spotted a bald eagle that appears to be sitting on one of the two nests that monitor. One of the nests is so large and high up in the trees that it is almost impossible to tell when an eagle is sitting on the nest. The other nest, which is the one shown in the final photo, is much smaller and a sitting eagle is quite visible. There are barriers blocking the road to keep eagles from being disturbed, because a trail runs right under the nesting tree, so I am able to capture images only from a distance.

I will be checking in on the nests as time passes and with a little luck will be able to share some images of any eaglets that I manage to spot.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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As many of you know, I have been keeping an eye on a pair of Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, waiting for the eagles to begin sitting on the nests. I featured one of the nests, an enormous one high in a tree, several times during January, but have not yet posted any shots of the smaller nest this year until now.

The most direct roads leading to this smaller nest are blocked off at this time of the year, because the nesting tree is located near the intersection of several major trails, including one on which cars are normally permitted to drive. However, I am able to take a circuitous route to reach one of the barriers that provides a distant view of the nest from which I can take some photos.

Several weeks ago I was delighted to photograph both members of an eagle couple perched together on a limb of the tree with the small nest that has been used in each of the past three years (and maybe even longer than that). As you can see in the first photo, one of the eagles is quite a bit larger than the other—generally the female is the larger one.

When I first started watching the nest that day, only the smaller eagle to the left was perched on the limb. As I pulled back on my zoom lens to be able to show the nest in the lower righthand corner of the photo, the second eagle flew in to perch next to her mate, and I captured that moment in the second photo.

The two eagles stayed together for a short while side-by-side, when suddenly the larger eagle took off. The final shot shows the eagle extending her wings and taking off from the perch, leaving the smaller eagle to keep watch over the nesting site.

I have been back several times to the site since this encounter, but have not seen the eagles there again. I am optimistic that they will soon be sitting on some eggs. In this smaller nest, the eagle is partially visible when she is sitting on eggs, whereas the other nest is so big and deep that a nesting eagle is hidden from view.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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It is almost nesting season for Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Recently when I have seen eagles, they have mostly been in pairs. When I spotted the Bald Eagle in the first photo last Monday, it was calling out loudly to its mate, I believe, as it perched atop a raised platform at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge on which ospreys sometimes build a nest. An actual nesting site that has been used in recent years is located in a nearby sycamore tree.

A much larger nest is located in another part of the refuge, as shown in the second photo. Two eagles—presumably a mating pair—were hanging around close to that nest, though I have not yet seen them occupy it. The final photo is a close-up shot of the eagle that was perched right above the nest.

I will be checking the nesting sites periodically for signs of further activity. The large nest is set back from the trail a good ways, so you cannot approach it and the trail remains open. The smaller nest in the sycamore tree is adjacent to a trail that is now closed to keep the eagles from being disturbed. I am able to observe that nest from the barrier that blocks the trail and, if I am lucky, I will be able to monitor the nest and capture a few distant shots as I have done in the past.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) was hunkered down in its large nest last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge but still managed to keep an eye on me through a peephole between the branches. (You may need to enlarge the first image to see the eagle, in what has been described by one of my friends as a “Where’s Waldo?” photo.) Earlier I had seen both of the eagles fly into the nest and they promptly disappeared from sight—one left a short time later.

As I watched and waited, I realized that I would have a tough time timing any shots of the eagle leaving the nest. When a bird is perched, I look carefully for indications that the bird is preparing to depart, hoping to be able to capture a decisive moment. The second shot below was the best that I could manage when I reacted to the appearance of a wing tip over the edge of the nest.

I have no way of judging the dimensions of the interior of the nest, but it looks to be really big and really deep, as you can see in the final photo. In the past, it has been hard to spot eaglets in this nest until they are old enough to climb around a little and pop their heads over the edge of the nest. I hope to see some little ones in this nest later this season.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I am now keeping an eye on two Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. As far as I can tell, the eagles are not yet sitting on eggs and are still in the process of repairing and preparing the nests. Despite this increased activity, catching the eagles at the nest is very much a hit-or-miss proposition.

One of the nests is a very large one that I have featured multiple times in this blog, most recently in a posting on 18 January entitled Eagles in the sunlight. This past Monday, both members of the eagle couple were working on the nest and I was thrilled to capture some shots of them. I generally had to wait for them to take a break in order to get a clear shot—when their heads are buried in the branches making adjustments, their bodies more or less disappear from view.

The nest is big enough that the two eagles can both work on it at the same time. Female eagles tend to be larger than males and I think the eagle in the first image is the female. She seemed to be doing most of the work on the nest, while the other eagle, pictured in the second and third shots, periodically flew away and seemed to come back with additional small branches.

I was trying to capture a shot of both of them in a single frame when I snapped the final photo. The eagle on the left started to take off and I shifted my camera slightly and almost cut the second eagle out of the frame. I thought about cropping the second eagle out, but decided I liked the wider view of the nest provided by leaving the eagle in place. As always, I encourage you to click on the images to get a closer look at the eagles and their enormous nest.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Last week we were blessed with a couple of days with sunshine and blue skies, a nice change to our endless diet of dreary winter days. The weather lifted my spirits and multiple sights of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) last Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge raised them even higher.

The Bald Eagle in the first image was initially facing away from me as I moved toward it. Somehow, though, it sensed my presence and turned its head to glare down at me. As you may be able to tell from the angle of the shot, I was almost directly below the eagle.

In the second image, the eagle was farther away. If you look closely at the eagle’s talons, you will note that the eagle is holding onto the branch with a single foot. It looked to me like the eagle had tucked the other foot up under its fluffed-up feathers, presumably for warmth.

The final shot shows the large nest at the wildlife refuge. I have yet to see the eagle couple working on the nest, but both members were in the vicinity of the nest on this day, including the one int he photo.

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It won’t be long before it is nesting season at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge for Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). I know of two nests that have been used the past few years. One of them is close to a trail that the refuge authorities block off when nesting is taking place. The other, pictured below, is high in a tree that is visible in the distance from a trail but is inaccessible to human traffic.

You can’t help but notice how large this nest is, especially when you compare it with the size of the bald eagle that I managed to photograph early one morning last week. Every year the eagles add on to the nest and now it is so deep that I am unable to see the eagles when they are sitting in the nest.

I will be keeping an eye on the eagle nest in the upcoming months and will be sure to give a progress report if/when I see additional activity.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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From a distance, I could see that a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) was in the nest on Monday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. As I have noted in the past, the tree with the nest is right beside one of the trails at the refuge. Normally I approach the nest from the same direction and an eagle can see me from a pretty good distance away because the trail runs through an open field.

This time, however, I was walking from the opposite direction and the tree trunk blocked my view of the eagle as I got closer, which meant that it probably kept the eagle from spotting me. The first shot shows my initial look at the eagle once it came into view as I approached from the right. At this point, I think the eagle was unaware of my presence and I tried to remain as stealthy as I could.

I moved forward a bit more and continued to observe the eagle, completely in awe its beauty and majesty. My peaceful reverie was broken when I head the sounds of people approaching. Perhaps they were speaking at a normal conversational level, but it sure sounded loud to me. In the second shot, the eagle was looking in the direction of the noise. Had it heard the others? In the final shot, the eagle seemed to be looking right at me, having finally become aware of the fact that I was there.

The eagle did not take off immediately, but a short while later it flew off to a nearby osprey nesting platform. Later in the day I observed two eagles on the platform, which seems to be a favorite perching spot for the eagle couple.

It won’t be long before the refuge closes the trail from which I was taking the photos. I am wishing the best for the eagle couple as they move into nesting season. Last year there was one eaglet in this nest, I believe, and the year before there were two.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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