Raleigh, North Carolina; July 8, 2019

An Urban Oasis

Blogger’s Note: I have no background in biology; I know I am guilty of anthropomorphism. But as a photographer I have studied animal behavior so I can take better pictures. I have watched animals – in this story almost daily for 6 months. I know I am blurring the distinction between animal instinct and human thinking and feeling. Perhaps you’ll agree with me at the end of these blog posts.

In downtown Raleigh, well actually mid-town Raleigh, Shelley Lake Park is an urban oasis of amazing richness. The two-mile paved greenway circling Shelley Lake provides access to a herd of deer, a blue heron rookery, owls, hawks, ducks, geese – and a nesting pair of eagles! I’ve spent seven months circling the lake, watching and photographing these eagles. This is their story in two blog posts and a sidebar – with an unknown ending that tugs on my heart.

I was shown the nest in early December. Eagles generally mate for life – at about age five – and return to the same nest year after year. An eagle pair nested here for the first time last year. People said they might be back this year so I was taken to the nest in hopes of catching a glimpse. We just happened to be in luck on this first trip. The Shelley Lake eagles had returned! We watched as the eagles made numerous trips bringing in new sticks and branches then weaving them into their old nest. I cursed my good luck / bad luck. Eagles – but no camera!

Unfortunately the eagles’ time schedule and a human’s time schedule don’t match. Many December visits – no eagles. The birds hunting and nest building trips always seemed to mean an empty nest. A camera – but no eagles.

Eagle Watching and Seeing Stories!

My luck seemed to change with the new year. I was seeing, and photographing, eagles! Now I wanted to learn all I could about them. My game began – was I seeing instinctual behavior or do eagles think and feel as we do?

In the evening sun, nest building essentially complete, the couple look over their domain. The male, on the left, is significantly smaller than the female. At times, I believe I can tell them apart. So I’ll tell my story as if I can – but I’ll try to tell the story in a fair, impartial, scientific manner. Well, maybe not!

Two eagles. Obviously the female is squawking at the male. I could hear her from my camera position!

Enough. Off he goes! Not sure why, but 20 minutes later …

He’s not hunting! He’s simply sitting in the sun.

Still, a couple of days later, they do make a handsome couple!

Then, a couple of days later – an interloper. I watched as our pair became increasingly agitated. Something – Oh! very hard to see until I went around to the other side of the nest. Another female! I expected a fight. Again I could hear the noise.

The calls continued. After an hour or so the male simply flew into the nest. The two females continued to just stand there. I waited almost three hours. The standoff persisted. It got so dark I had trouble getting back to my car. No more pictures …

The next day, the interloper was gone.

Mating time.

One day an eagle landed in the tree directly over my head. Looked down – directly into my big lens looking up.

Would you believe? There is an eagle in the nest! The nest is so big that an eagle disappears – while the other looks suspiciously. Is there an egg?!?!

The eagles had “watch” trees. From this tree, the eagle can see down toward the lake, and the nest itself, as well as any hawks or threats above. Often, an eagle will stop in the tree for awhile and then head to the nest.

Eagle watching is great fun! This eagle can sure shake a tail feather! (Sorry. I couldn’t resist. But I have no idea what’s going on here?!)

Here, the eagle was in the nest, got out and stood on the branch looking back …

And returned, just to stare before hopping back in.

To be continued!