Eagle Fledgling
There's an eagle's nest a couple of blocks from here and Peter and I saw a fledgling in the nest yesterday, trying out his wings. Today, Peter called me out to witness what was probably the baby's first flight. Eaglet and parent flew about four or five blocks. The parent carried on a ways, followed by masses of harassing crows. Baby came to an uneasy stop on our neighbour's roof. Click on the picture to get a closer view!
posted by Susan @ 10:40 PM
3 Comments:
How lovely, Susan. We have put up a couple of wooden nesting boxes in our garden made by my surgeon which he sells for charity, and we had a family of blue tits in there all spring! The parent worked so hard to take food to the little ones all day, and they made a hell of a racket. One day, they were all gone. I really hope against hope that the babies all reached the stage where they could just fly off, and that blue tits are the type of bird that doesn't hang about at the nest but buggers off immediately to the trees to roost. I could not bear to think of any other scenario! But I do miss the little blighters.
We have a similar situation with the swallows who nest above our back deck every year, Maxine. The advance party seems to arrive around St. David's day every year (March 1, I think...). It's hard to say when the nesting begins, because they move in very quietly. By June or July the babies are very noisy in the nest and then one day they're suddenly gone and we don't see them again for another year.
Peter loves having all the birds around, and I would agree wholeheartedly but for the mess they make. I remember getting cranky about it one year and at that time Peter promised to clean off the decks daily. He's normally a very reliable man, but I'm the one cleaning the decks. Small price to pay though.
I don't mind the mess from the blue tits and the sparrows, that kind of size.
But those rock doves, darn it! We have an elderflower tree in our garden, and when the berries are ripe the rock doves eat them constantly. They then do a bit of your email address onto our deck -- deep purple, and lots of it. Ugh yuk!
I just wish those neighbours would get enthusiastic about another kind of pet -- mice maybe.
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