We had a great experince while at Grand Lake St Marys this past week. There is an eagle nest just off of State Route 127 that we always stop at to photograph. We actually drove up to the lake with the goal of photographing the parents at this nest.
When we arrived we had a hard time seeing anything in the nest. The first photo is what we finally were able to capture. One parent, in the nest.
We didn't leave .. and I am so glad we didn't. After about ten minutes there was four eagles flying around us. As they started circling the area, we didn't notice right away, but there was three juvenile eagles, and one mature eagle. The mature eagle was one of the parents, and this one landed in the nest. The juvenile eagles landed in a couple trees near the nest.
The last photo is of both parents in the nsst. They swapped parent duties. I only shared two photos of juvenile eagles in the trees. I am not sure why, but I had trouble getting a good focus on the younger eagles. We are guessing these are from from a previous nesting season, maybe last year. It is about four to five years before eagles mature, the white appears in their head and they find a mate.
After the swap, the one parent and two of the juvenile eagles flow off. One of the juveniles and the parent in the nest were left there until the next shift change.
What an amazing experince.
~ Rick
