Under Construction…by Brad Marks

Greetings from the west! Most of you know by now that Linda and I are still out in the field and will be for several more weeks. This trip is turning out to be far better than last year’s winter trip out here and I must say southeast Arizona is really growing on us. As far as birding goes, some descriptions come to mind, productive, educational, strenuous and did I already mention exhausting!?! Best part is my brother Ron had the opportunity to meet us out here recently and we had a couple of solid days looking for our feathered friends in the desert scrub. Ended up missing some target birds (mostly for Ron), but a day of birding is always a good day regardless of the haul…and speaking of hauling, Brad is going to take us on another journey, this time all the way to Alaska for some timber hauling. Take care everyone, I’ll continue to check in from time to time when I have time and more importantly – connectivity.

Take it away Brad…

There we were, unloading ourselves from a small tour bus in Alaska.  Jan and I signed up for a guided Wildlife Tour at Icy Strait Point near Hoonah, Alaska.  Our tour guide, Amy, was a local who loved nature.  We could tell because we could hardly keep up with her stories and sightings of wildlife, even after just leaving the pick-up point.  Her family had been on the island for five generations.  She was also a volunteer EMT which was helpful in case any tourists went down hard during the tour.

Our first stop was a parking lot on the other side of the small island at the ferry terminal near the village of Hoonah.  As the group exited the bus (I was sitting in the way-back), Amy had us stay to the side to avoid being run over by the other tourist mini-buses.  No desire to put those EMT skills to use so early in the day.

Jan, of course, was more interested in the wildlife across the road from the parking lot and walked into the middle of the lot by a large light pole.

I had wandered to the edge of the water looking for seabirds that we might not find at home.  Then I heard a familiar sound and looked around to see where it was coming from.  The sound was of a DSLR at a high frame rate grabbing photos as fast as the shutter could recycle and release.  It was a Nikon camera, one of mine, but not the one I was holding.  The noise was coming from the camera Jan was using.  I quickly tried to see what she had spotted and was taking photos of.  Then I saw it.

…and now you have seen it! Hit the jump to read more about this Alaskan resident.

I expected to see Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in Alaska, but not quite as close to a busy road as this one.  I certainly didn’t expect to see one sitting on the ground in the forest.  This is not a +1 for us, but I never miss a chance to see a Bald Eagle in action.  In fact, Bald Eagles are often featured on Wildlife Intrigued, such as here, and here, and here too.  Can’t forget this one, or this one, or even this one.  The Wildlife Intrigued archives are full of Bald Eagle stories and perspectives, like Part 2 and Part 3, not sure what happened to Part 1.  I’m sure I missed a few Bald Eagle stories from over 16 years of posts.

This particular Eagle was far less than 100 feet away from us, standing on a small rise next to the road at the edge of the forest.  Jan kept the camera clicking as tour guide Amy was setting up the spotting scope for the rest of the tour to see the Bald Eagle up close and personal.  Once I located the Eagle, I brought my camera to bear (no not that kind, that’s another story from this tour – stay tuned).

At first, I wondered what the eagle was doing sitting on the ground.  Maybe it had a small rodent trapped for a meal.  I saw it hop above the ground a few times as if it was testing its ability to carry the meal. 

Having seen a few Bald Eagles in the past.  This one looked rather small to me, I think it was a male.  Female Bald Eagles are larger than the males, by about 25-30 percent.  Males can weight 6-8 pounds, while females weigh between 10-15 pounds.  My first impression was that it was new to whatever it was trying to do and was unsure of its ability to fly with a heavy or unstable load.

That’s about when the action began.  I saw the Bald Eagle make one large hop and start flapping for all it was worth.

It began flying straight at Jan standing alone in the parking lot.  A Bald Eagle is a very large bird.  To have one, weighing about the same as a gallon on milk, flying directly at you can be intimidating.  Male Bald Eagles can have a wingspan up to 6 feet, while a female wingspan can be up to 7 feet.  For size comparison, a Bald Eagle’s head appears to be almost a large as a human’s head, but it’s mostly feathers.

Not seeing the large stick at first, I thought it saw Jan and her camera as a threat and it was going to defend its territory.  Amy didn’t seem concerned because she probably saw this behavior all the time, living on the island year-round. 

After a few power strokes of its wings, it veered to our left and flew along the forest edge, slowly gaining altitude.  The tour guide was having a hard time keeping her spotting scope lined up and eventually just started telling everyone what the group was looking at. 

A short distance after the trees was a large rock face.  My camera was having a hard time focusing on the bird and not the rocks.  Jan was able to see that the eagle was carrying a rather large stick, or almost a branch, from a pine tree.

The Eagle quickly disappeared around the face of the cliff into the woods.  I could see it flying behind the large pine trees but couldn’t get a photo through the branches.  I did see it stop on the far side of the trees, I’m guessing to drop off the stick/branch with its mate in the large nest lower in the tree.

When the Eagle reappeared, the stick was gone and presumably in its proper place in the nest.  The Bald Eagle flew in a large circle and landed a bit higher in the same tree checking out its surroundings.  The tree was about 100 yards away and up against a very bright morning sky.

August is near the end of the nest building and breeding season for Bald Eagles in Alaska.  The stick may have been a courtship stick for the next mating season.  Maybe this pair was just late and was going through the courtship rituals in August.  Whatever happened to a box of chocolates or flowers?  More than likely, this was the beginning of nest maintenance for winter habitat.  The waters around the island are open much of the winter and full of fish, a great place to hang around for the cold season.  Our guide, Amy, told us that if the male in a bonded pair dies, the female will find another mate and build a new nest on top of the old one (worst case) or higher up in the same tree (best case) if possible.

It was time to hop back into the mini-bus for the rest of our tour.  Stay tuned for more stories and photos from our Alaska Adventure.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more Bald Eagle photos, please visit here.

Credits: Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.  Thanks to Jan for many of the photos in this article.