I had a post last summer about discovering a heron rookery about three miles from us, which was pretty unexpected and exciting stuff for my husband and I. During that sane year we were also lucky enough to have a pair of eagles build a nest just up the road, and our list of fortuitous nature experiences again got just a little bit longer.

About three days ago we got another little surprise, one that involves both of these separate situations. We were running an errand and went up the road past the rookery site. I had just been telling myself as I left the house that I needed to grab the binocs because I wanted to check to see if there were any birds hanging around this year. I had counted close to 20 nests in the one big sycamore, and was eager to see if anything had changed. I then walked right out of the house and completely forgot the glasses. As we drove past the tree, I could see all the flimsy little heron nests so clearly now that the leaves were gone. But one of them was completely different...it was huge. This is something like a quarter mile off the road so, I was squinting at the nest, cursing my lack of field glasses, and trying to guess how big it really was. There seemed to be a bird on it, so I kinda wrote it off as spring improvements, although I am not absolutely sure that herons return to the same site. At this point I laughed and mentioned to my husband that it looked more like a dang eagle's nest than a heron's, and that must be one enthusiastic bird. We drove on, took care of business, and were coming past the tree again an hour or so later and I had him pull over and kill the engine. I wanted to listen to see if I could hear any loud croaking or sqwaking coming from the tree. Last year it was one non-stop racket from all the nesting herons. I was just thinking again how strange that one bigger nest was sitting next to all the other little flimsy platforms when the bird flew up from the middle of it. As soon as the bird turned, flapped a few times and got up above the tree top, I gasped, my god, it's an eagle. Of course, my husband snorted and said, no, it's probably just a turkey vulure or something....and then got quiet as the bird circled higher up and the sun hit that white head and tail. It came around again, this time right over the truck, and what a sight. The bright sun through the tail feathers made them seem almost a peach color. Just beautiful. Then we were both talking at once, discussing the whys, the hows, the whens of what we now knew.

So, we have a new development. Firstly, I have been asking around and nobody has seen anything of the eagles just up the road, and my own personal sighting was something like late December or early January. By now they would surely have been fixing up the old nest and even sitting on eggs. I can't be sure but odds are good that this eagle in the heron tree is one of the same pair. It is only a matter of two or three linear miles from the old nest to this other one. We did spot a juvenile last fall, but it will be some years before it will be a mature breeding adult.

Now, I don't know what the herons will think of this but I am thinking the rookery will be someplace else this year. I did read that some birds DO nest close to the nests of birds of prey, such as snowy owls, because these birds as a rule hunt away from the nest area and also because they tend to drive off other predators and therefore offer a bit of security. But I don't really know what to expect.

Assuming this is the same pair of eagles, I also wonder what made them decide to move. THe nest is still in great condition despite all the storms we had,and they were always coming and going with food to the nest so I am thinking they did have some success in brooding. Perhaps all the people pulling off with scopes and binocs to have a look was just too much activity for them, although there is likely no way of really knowing. Personally I don't think it was that much of a factor. The old nest was a distance off the road, and there were always people watching. If the human activity had been that much of a stress factor, one would think they would have never stayed as long as they did.

So....we shall have to wait and see what happens next. What a weird, weird development