Mother Eagle

Since my childhood, I have been enamored by our national bird, the Bald Eagle.  I have memories of seeing them in several zoos and notably, Busch Gardens. I watched the local WVEC Eagle Cam  from Norfolk Botanical Gardens for many years as an adult and I grieved with thousands of people worldwide when the nesting female Eagle was killed by an incoming flight at Norfolk International Airport in 2011.
Beginning in 2018, I was fortunate to be able to watch nesting Bald Eagle pairs at several local nests in Virginia Beach as a Virginia Master Naturalist volunteer for the Virginia Bird Breeding Atlas. The most visible one is located on Honey Bee Golf Course and can be viewed from a public residential street. These Bald Eagles are perhaps the most observed Bald Eagles in Virginia, thanks to social media and local media outlets. Sadly, this nest failed in 2018 when the eggs in the nest were destroyed and the female eagle was injured by an intruding Bald Eagle, while she was incubating. The eggs were just 2 weeks away from hatching.
I was told by my Bald Eagle mentor, Reese F. Lukei, Jr. of the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary, that a second clutch was possible, but it didn’t happen. I watch the pair at Honey Bee for about 6 weeks following the nest failure and although the male brought in a few sticks, they did not renest and eventually left the area for a time. But, it was during this time that I was able to identify the female from the male. This particular pair is quite identical!
The following year, 2019, the nest successfully fledged its first two eaglets! It was quite exciting to be a small part of this success story! The parents were great parents! It was this season that I really was able to focus on the Bald Eagle female, who I began to privately think of as “Mother Eagle.”
I believe that Mother Eagle approves the nest location and substrate. This nest had already been built by a previous resident male Bald Eagle (banded Bald Eagle “HK”), beginning in 2013 in a very large Loblolly Pine Tree, a typical site for eagle nests in Virginia. In my opinion, he never acquired a mate at that location and eggs were never laid there. That eagle was struck and killed by an automobile in 2017, leaving the nest vacant for a new pair to claim, which they did with weeks of HK’s death.
The key to identifying male from female eagles is size. The female in the Chesapeake Bay region is typically 1/3 larger than the male. This is called reverse sexual dimorphism. Additionally, their beak depth and talon length are longer. I’ve found if they are perched side by side, it is a lot easier to tell them apart!
My observations include the male bringing in most of the nest material while the female does the “arranging.” After eggs are laid, Mother Eagle does most, but not all of the incubating. She also stays on the newly hatched eaglets for about 2 weeks after hatching, as they don’t yet have enough feathers to stay warm. The male brings in food and I have seen them both do the feeding but also occasionally she has not allowed the male to feed, even blocking him from the nest! It’s clear who is in charge and it’s Mother Eagle!

Getting Up Close and Personal to a Bald Eagle

I have been fortunate to have been able to get fairly close to Bald Eagles when photographing/observing them locally. But, these eagles have all been perched in trees or above me in another type of substrate. It is quite obvious that they are well aware of my approach as they more often than not, eventually turn and face me. My wildlife lens is on the short range of the spectrum (300mm), so when I am within 50 yards, I am feeling pretty good. It is never my intent to alter their behavior whatsoever. So, when they make this turn to look at me, I discern that I am too close and I try to back away and get into some type of cover to conclude my observation or to photograph.
However, finding a Bald Eagle on the ground and acting normally is quite exciting! Exhilarating in fact! To me, they are out of their element as generally, they are either flying, on the hunt, or perched. So, when I observed one of the nesting pair that I document at Honey Bee Golf Course in VA Beach, on the ground, very late one afternoon, I was almost giddy with excitement. The golf course had closed for the day and the weather was cold and blustery. I could see the eagle, about 400 yards away, way out of range for my 300mm lens. So, I started to walk. I met an employee putting away the golf carts and asked permission to walk to course and he waved me ahead. I had a couple of friends meeting me so I contacted them to give them my location. There would be three of us “stalking” this eagle.
The ground was pretty soggy from previous rain, but the three of us maneuvered it fairly quickly.  We crossed a small bridge across the North Landing River and soon we were in the middle of a vacant fairway. The eagle was still about 100 yards from us and across a water hazard on the course. We closed the distance to about 50 yards, the big pond still separating us and the eagle. The eagle was eating a fish at the water’s edge. By then, I am sure it either saw or sensed our presence, but it finished the meal and began hopping away from us. We froze in position. It went almost up to the golf cart path with a row of houses behind it, and began looking at pine tree branches on the ground. It “mantled” over one. Mantling means it is concealing the object (usually prey) from another bird or potential predator. After a few minutes, it made its choice, and began the flight to take its prize back to the nest. We were still snapping as the Bald Eagle flew into the sunset.
This was the closest I have ever been to a wild, healthy Bald Eagle on the ground. I guess the eagle did not perceive us three humans as a threat. We did have a lot of water between us; perhaps it understood that we could not cross that obstacle. As for us, we were so thankful to have witnessed this Bald Eagle, up close and personal. And so grateful for being able to experience it as a group. Special experiences are more special if they are shared.

Angel Bird

The flash of white was dazzling! I was sitting by my breakfast table table window reading the Sunday paper (yes, we still subscribe) and drinking coffee. My bird feeding station is right outside this window and when I saw the flash, I glanced up and saw a dazzling white bird on the sunflower seed feeder. I knew immediately it was a rare bird, although I did not know the species immediately. The fact that it was white was the unique part. We have white birds in Virginia, but they are mainly, Egrets, Gulls, and Terns and this was obviously a songbird. I grabbed my camera on the way out the backdoor.
Of course, the white bird flew to a tree for shelter immediately. But, I possess the gift of patience and I settled into a deck chair to wait.
It was fortunately,  a short wait. A family of House Finches descended on the feeder within about 10 minutes. This is a common songbird species here. I have found them nesting in my hanging plants. House Finches generally nest in a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees. They also nest in or on buildings, using sites like vents, ledges, street lamps, ivy….and hanging planters! I watched them nonchalantly, until the white bird flew to join them. She landed on a perch and started begging the adult female House Finch for food. The female House Finch obliged and fed her!! So, that was white bird’s mother, I surmised. That made the white bird a House Finch! What a treat!!!
In about 15 minutes, the whole House Finch family was gone. I hoped they’d return but they didn’t, so I went inside to process my photos on my computer. It was then that I realized that the white bird was a leucistic bird rather than an albino. Leucistic means there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—which causes white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes. The white bird had all white feathers but the eyes were brown, like a classic House Finch. An albino would have shown pink or red eye color.
The next day, and then the following several days, the House Finch family including the white beauty, returned to my yard to feed. I was now referring to the leucistic House Finch as the “angel bird.” It seemed only fitting. It was white, like an angel and had angel like wings. It had appeared at a time in my life when I appreciated a small miracle. I spent countless hours in my yard, observing the House Finch family and their sweet angel bird.
When they didn’t return, I was very disappointed but happy that the entire family appeared happy and healthy during the short time they spent with me. I learned a lot about the House Finch, as a species. That it itself was a priceless experience.
But, the story does not end there. Months and now years later, I am still learning that the angel bird visited other yards in the neighborhood during the time I observed her and her family. She left an indelible impression on a lot of humans during her short visit here. We can learn a lot from our feathered friends. Godspeed, Angel Bird!