Tag Archives: Golden Eagles

Spring Housekeeping

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It’s Spring and time for Spring housekeeping. After a long winter with the nest exposed to the elements there are plenty of things that need looking after. For us it means throwing out all the empty Heineken bottles and those pizza boxes from behind the couch that have accumulated over the Winter. For Golden Eagles it’s time to inspect the nest, perform a D & C (dusting and cleaning) and bring in new sticks to make the nest even snazzier than it was.

Here the male is bringing in a fresh stick that will just fit over the lintel and that will allow him to cross that little item off his To Do list. There’s lots more to be done and both of the pair work together to get things spic and span before the chicks arrive.

Speaking of chicks, it’s close to that egg laying time and the eagles have been taking the  time necessary to make sure that happens. That doesn’t just occur on its own. You’ve all had the birds and bees talk and it takes plenty of one on one time to ensure there are lots of eggs in the nest. You need a bunch of eggs because eagle raising is hazardous to the young eagles health. To get a couple of eaglets all the way to fledging is dicey, you need to start with several more than you need. Dark things happen in the nest and fowl play can often occur . Those are stories best left to another time.

Lets move on to cheerier subjects. From now on these Golden eagle parents will be spending their time decimating the rabbit population to feed those growing eaglets and handling the daily chores that arise. Cleaning the nest, removing carcasses, bringing in fresh sage and soft grasses to line the nest, all the usual eagle raising stuff. Young eagles have it pretty easy at this time of their lives, not speaking to the occasional fratricide that occurs. Their job is staying more towards the top of the nest, not to be in the bottom of the pile, growing feathers, trying their new sharp beak out on their brother, watching for the parents bring in rabbits, tussling to see who is most likely to be pushed from the nest, etc. It’s Spring time in the Rockies. We’re ready, are you.

Je Suis le Leap

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Well the rut is over for this year for the Mule deer with the month the Lakota call Waníyetu Wi — Moon of the Rutting Deer, ending and the Wanícokan Wi — Moon When the Deer Sheds Their Antlers, just around the corner. With their duties over the mule deer bucks begin to gather together again, hanging out, forming small groups we call the Bachelor boys.

Deadly enemies a few weeks ago, now they’re best buds again, but because they still have their antlers they remain a little twitchy. There is still a lingering energy left over and although they no longer want to fight they feel the need to do something. That something is fence jumping. And jump they do, effortlessly, endlessly, leaping back and forth to dissipate that energy that permeates their muscles, until they wear down a little and can go back to grazing.

Coming home last night after shooting a pair of Golden Eagles until it was nearly too dark to see, I came across this mulie working off some of that excess energy in a pasture outside of town. It was actually too dark to shoot, I had the headlights on in my jeep, but through the magic of digital photography even images shot in near darkness can be made presentable enough to view. The graininess and softness is a by-product of this process. Think of it as a beauty mark. They’re certainly not Pulitzer material, but they do show the beauty and form of these magnificent creatures. Enjoy.

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Dawns Early Light

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Why eagles fly. If you’ve ever asked yourself that question I’m sure you’ve come up with the most obvious answer. Because they can. But I think there’s a deeper answer and that is because they want to.

I’m not talking about the fact that they’ve come down the pike genetically designed to fly, or they need to fly to hunt and eat, or to find mates, all the stuff biologists and those other folks who collect facts and figures about them talk about when they describe birds, of course those are reasons.

I’m talking about the feelings that one gets when seeing a bird gliding effortlessly across the sky, hawks riding the thermals or matching the pitch and shape of their wings so that they hover there against the bright blue sky, motionless for as long as they want to be, before swooping down in a breathtaking dive to collect their next meal. Or seeing two Golden eagles performing the most amazing aerobatics during their mating flights, rushing past each other with all the speed they can gather then turning at the very last moment and grasping each others talons to tumble-down towards the earth in a dizzying spiral, letting go just before they strike the earth to swoop away and climb to the very heights of their abilities, to repeat it again and again.

Or just the gentle flight from last nights perch to a new one, one better placed to catch the dawns early light. Watching the subtle shades of the morning light turn from the warm colors of the early sun towards the harsher colors of full day as they make the flight, exercising those wings stiff from last nights cold.  If we see this and experience that feeling of intense but quiet joy at their limitless freedom imagine what the bird feels.

When I was younger I read a book called “The Once And Future King” by T. H. White. You may have read it yourself, I know you’ve probably seen the Disney movie “The Sword In The Stone” which is the first part of The Once and Future King and it is where Wart, who is to become King Arthur in the not too distant future is changed into various animals and birds as lessons in life by Merlin, his wizard tutor.

The part where he is turned into several different hawks and other birds has always stuck in my mind. I want to do that. I mean it, change me into a Peregrine falcon right now. T.H. White’s descriptions of the various changes that Wart goes through are written in such a way that you almost feel you could understand how that would work. What it  would feel like. It is one of the reasons that I try and capture the feeling in my images in the hope that I can bring to life what I’m seeing and feeling when I get to see sights like the one above. This is a shot of a Bald Eagle heading for a sunnier perch than he spent the night on, at Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge. The colors are courtesy of the early morning sun.

A View To The South

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Here at The Institute there is always a constant flow of activity where our many departments pursue their various objectives. In a high-tech environment like ours, with its pressure-cooker deadlines and high stress levels, our staff sometimes forgets to stop a moment and look around to see if all is right in the world.

That’s why early on, when The Institute was first being built, I saw the need to provide a place where one could go and just look. To stop, see, contemplate and become one with yourself again. So there, high up on the tallest spire that anchors a corner of the main hall, right where the south and west walls meet, the tower we call “Cloud Catcher” was constructed that overlooks the foothills of the mountains.  We built a small balcony that juts out through part of the conical roof where you can stand and look out over the land below as far as you want to. Many times you will look down on Redtail hawks and Golden Eagles soaring below. The stingingly cold west wind blowing through your hair and tugging at your clothes as you listen to the snapping sound of the pennants at the very peak above, make you feel alive as never before, and you can see once again if all is still right with the world.

This is particularly important during times of change when monumental decisions are being made and you have to be centered to make those hard choices. So it is mandatory that every member of our staff, especially those who makes important decisions, makes the trek up the 380 steps of the Cloud Catcher Spire and takes in the view from the Balcony of Serenity. I know, it’s a trite name but it makes sense after you’ve been up there a few times.

The image above is an early evening view to the South during the first few weeks of fall. We are still in the last of the monsoon season and there is high humidity in the air which forms mist and low-lying fog in the valleys below as the temperature changes. It is nearly impossible to observe this view for any length of time without your blood pressure coming down and calmness spreading through your mind. The relaxation is total. This is why we limit the visit to once a week and then for no more than 20 minutes at a time. You have to be able to descend those 380 steps.

I am presenting it here this Monday morning for any of you that are faced with hard decisions, stress, uncertainty, and strife in your life to look at and hopefully find some calmness for yourself. But remember only look at it for 20 minutes at a time. Any more than that and you could find yourself saying, to hell with it, I hear the living is easy in Fiji. Or Northern Colorado.

Golden Eagles Sky Dancing

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Goldens2047Golden Eagles Colorado                     click to enlarge

High above the cliffs in the foothills North of Ft. Collins, a pair of Golden eagles perform a courting ritual. They have reoccupied their nest which clings precariously to the face of the cliff wall that juts several hundred vertical feet into the sky and are now in the process of re-bonding, prior to mating and laying eggs.

For several hours in an on again, off again manner, they suddenly take wing and perform amazing acrobatics and synchronized flying that appears to be choreographed or at least very well practiced. They will fly within inches of each other, turning and swooping, diving and tumbling until they finally tire and return to the nest.

The female will sit on the nest while the male goes off and hunts for nesting material, returning with a new branch or something to line the inside of the nest. He rarely brings back food as the female isn’t sitting on eggs at this point. I have been photographing this pair of birds for several years and noticed that they leave the nest area to mate. They fly together for a while in another aerial display, then land on a point of rock or the top edge of the cliff to mate, returning to the nest afterwards. They may mate at the nest site, it’s just that in all my time observing them I have never seen it.

These particular birds are nesting about 3-4 miles from my home but because of a distinctive feather pattern of missing primaries on one of the birds I recognized them as the pair that have been using the rock-face behind the house as a resting and observation point for their hunting. They may be the parents that have brought their offspring here to dump them when it was time for them to leave the nest as described in a pervious post.  http://www.bigshotsnow.com/higher-than-the-clouds-lower-than-the-heavens/

This year because of the damage sustained during the flood of September 2013 the area of the river which runs in front of the cliff where the nest is located was severely damaged and the restoration will apparently take most of the summer to complete and consequently the entire area has been placed off-limits. So it looks like the family gets a pass from being photographed this year. As the nest and the eagles are easily 1/4 mile from the observation area photographing them is not intrusive. It does take some powerful glass however to get even mediocre pictures of them.

While that is disappointing, this being Colorado and an area rich in wildlife, there will be plenty of subject matter to train my lens on. I’ve already got my eye on a new nest of Great Horned Owls and my old standby’s, the Bald eagle family, is revving up for a new season. So I’m tanned, I’m rested, and I’m ready for the summer. How about you?

Slowing Down the Days

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WesternTanager3910Western Tanager                                 click to enlarge

Not quite yet. It’s not quite Spring enough and certainly too soon for Summer but it’s starting. The birds are coming back. We tell time here by when certain birds return, it’s one of  the ways we make the year last longer. If you’re waiting for something to arrive it makes time slow down but the trick is you have something else lined up to wait for when you finally get what you’ve been waiting for in the first place. If you don’t then time grabs the bit between its teeth and races hell-for-leather forward and before you know it its way too late. You’ve lost a whole month or even a year or if you’re not really careful a whole damn life. We don’t want to lose a second, let alone a whole life, so our waiting calendar is pretty full.

Back in February the bluebirds arrived, then Robins, some people say the Robins don’t leave but I can tell you they avoid the high country until it warms up some. The Camp Robbers or Clark’s Nutcracker have been here all winter. They moved on down to get out of the miserable weather above the tree-line in December. We’re waiting for them to go back home. Magpies are another year-round bird here. We’re just waiting for them to do something different. Stellar Jays head downhill when the weather gets bad but they’ve started returning now, so all’s well with them.

Golden eagles are hanging out more on the cliff face behind the house and the Great horned owls have started nesting. There are a pair of Redtail hawks checking out the nest on the road to the cement plant so maybe we get to wait to see what happens there. And one of the big arrivals that screams out Spring, is the return of the Willox St. ospreys and they’re back. I saw the female sitting on the nest yesterday and the male perched nearby guarding her. Now we can wait for this year’s chicks to arrive. That cements Spring firmly in place. The world is becoming right again.

The glitterati of the bird world hasn’t shown up yet but that’s what happens when you wait. You gotta wait. We’re talking hummingbirds in all their various flavors and one of my personal superstars the Western Tanager pictured above. I’ve got time slowed down to just over twice its normal speed which is pretty good actually. There’s a line in an old song about going so fast that telephone poles going by looked like a picket fence. It used to be that days were the telephone poles, now it’s years that are the telephone poles. I’m actively considering adding waiting for the coming of free-range penguins to my wait list. That ought to slow things down pretty good.

Higher Than The Clouds, Lower Than The Heavens

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HigherThantheClouds1594Golden Eagle                                     click to enlarge

In our part of the country we have a lot of Golden Eagles. They seem suited to this high rugged country where the cliff tops are often higher than the clouds.

The rock faces that jut out over the valleys below are perfect for their nests and give them places to rest while they survey the countryside that stretches for as far as the eye can see. They are rarely seen at rest as they are much more comfortable floating on the thermals that rise up along the edge of these mountains.

There are a pair of these Golden eagles that have made this spot the northern limit of their range and spend much of their time here hunting the rabbits that make up their prey. Occasionally they get everyone excited as it looks like they’re going to start a nest but for the last 19 years it hasn’t happened. They fool us by indulging in “false nest-building” where they carry in nesting materials and start to build a nest then give it up part way through  the process.

Over the years this pair or maybe their offspring have flown back here with their young, usually one or two recently fledged birds, having them roost in the old dead snag that sits on the cliff’s edge and then flown away, leaving them to figure out the rest of their lives. The youngsters, being used to the parents being gone for long periods of time while they are out hunting, don’t seem to realize that this time is different. This time they don’t come back.

Over the period of several days the young hop around the tree gradually taking little short flights from tree to cliff-top and back again until hunger sets in. Then their activity becomes more frantic until the bravest one suddenly takes off and begins looking for food. It isn’t long before the other follows suit and they’re both gone from their perches more than they’re there. They return to the snag less and less until one day they’re gone. They seldom come back for the rest of the summer.

This image is of one of the adults in late spring using the last of the days thermals to gain altitude prior to heading south to where its main nest site is. Huge thunderheads have been building all day and a front is moving in that should bring some much-needed rain. The weather doesn’t seem to bother the birds and they are often seen riding the wind squalls that precede a storm. Although much of their flight is somewhat nearer the ground so their contact time once they spot prey is less, they often get to great heights, hanging motionless in the sky, just a dark spot against the blue, higher than the clouds but lower than the heavens.