We heard of an active eagle's nest at a park about 10 miles up the road from here. Today was the first chance we've had to investigate.
When we got out of the car, we were immediately met with the sounds of 2 or 3 Barred Owls and heard what I have never heard before....the "maniacal" sounds they make (as opposed to the familiar "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all") call!!! It is a sound that would send me running out of the woods on a dark night if I didn't know what it was! I'm putting a link here so you can click on the sound to hear for yourself. We tried very hard to spot them in the trees, they were SO close, but my guess is that once we started moving around, they flew off.
We headed down the trail towards the lake and started searching the shorelines for the nest. I only had a general idea of where it was and it took a little while to find...I was looking towards the wrong shore line! But at one point I turned around, and there it was! It was visible, but fairly far from where we were. We walked the shoreline in hopes of getting closer, but the trail stopped at some private property and we couldn't go further. I was warned there was no easy access by foot. We will check out a map of some of the other side roads closer to the point where the nest is located, and see if there are any trails. But the BEST way to see it would be from a boat! You can rent rowboats there, but friend Dave has a boat! Of course, it has to be tagged for this year, and there are different regulations for different bodies of water due to Zebra Mussel issues, but hey....there are options!!
Here is the view from the air...the bright green line on the right is where we walked. Towards the bottom of the picture on the point is a bright green spot where the nest is!
This is a picture of where the nest is. Just in front of the arrow. I know you can barely see it, but that's the best zoom I could get! We could see through the binos, an adult on the nest, and some movement. Can't say for sure if we saw one or two babies looking up. It didn't help, either, that the sun was not out and it was hazy.
But we saw some other cool things....a beaver lodge! No beavers seen, it could be an old one no longer in use.
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| Beaver Lodge |
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| An entrance hole |
We also saw, in the water, a crayfish skeleton. I must be slipping...it didn't even occur to me that I should get it for my collection! And sadly, that's a beer bottle next to it.
We also saw 3 adult Osprey! I was a bit surprised they were there! And we had 3 male Mallard ducks do a very close fly-by, and several Tree Swallows skimming over the water for bugs! We heard a Pileated Woodpecker across the water doing a territorial drumming, too.
Some scenery:
Besides the Eagles, the best thing was, we saw a Loon! And heard another call out!
Again, not a great picture, but you can tell what it is, at least! This is the very first time I have ever seen one in person...in "birder" language, it's a "lifer"!
Loons are migrating this time of year and I suppose the lake is a stop-over for them. Another one joined this one later, and then we heard the another one calling out from the other direction.
We kept searching the skies for the adult Eagles with no luck....that is, until we were heading back. One was soaring above us, too high to get a picture, but good view through the binos! It was a very good walk!
