Month: March 2018

Wednesday as I passed the Langdon pavilion I spotted two large birds overhead. Jumped out of the car as fast as I could to grab a shot if possible. As the larger bird soared close enough to capture (albeit still pretty far away) I grabbed this image.

From the dappling brown spots on his/her belly I’m guessing this is still a pretty young Bald Eagle. And there’s a possibility this is the bird I nicknamed Baby Huey a couple of years ago, when he was fully developed but his white head and tail hadn’t appeared. (This doesn’t happen until they’re 3 1/2 to 4 years old, I’m told.

I called him Baby Huey because he was all alone soaring above the bike trail that summer when I first spotted him. And every other bird in the area seemed to want to chase him and pick on him. He was constantly escaping into a tall Pine to hide out. Gangs of gulls, a couple of Ospreys and even a Great Blue Heron all seemed determined to have at him.

So – I ask – Baby Huey, is that you?

The other bird stayed too high to photograph. But as far as I could tell it was certainly another Bald Eagle, and a young one, because it’s colors had not changed.

So … we shall see …

Today! March 3, 2018, I knew that Osprey season had officially started (at least for me).

Jerri and I drove into the parking lot at Battery Worth and I had no sooner taken the camera out of the car than THIS happened!

Yep. That’s Big Mama — upside down, defending her territory. I’m not sure if her antagonist is a male or a female. But she was having none of it.

Best I can tell, this is another female, challenging her for her traditional nest site, even before she gets started on repairs and rebuilding after a really hard winter — lots of wind and rain since she left for somewhere South last August.

But she’s back. At least I think this is the same bird I followed last year. I’ll have to compare some shots from that bunch and look carefully at her chest markings before I can be sure.

A couple of hours later we went back there and I was told that she had just “coupled” with a mate. Damn! Sorry I missed that. But, oh well. I’ve photographed it before. If he’s right, and they really did mate, she’ll be very busy getting that wreck of a nest in shape before the kids stat arriving. And the boyfriend had better start pitching in. Big Mama does NOT tolerate malingerers and goof-offs! He needs to take lessons from this guy.

So, like I said — Osprey season is here. I’ll be keeping a close eye on Big Mama’s nest as well as a few others I generally keep track of, so — stay tuned.

Oh, and by the way, if you see something here you’d like to have a print of please contact me at jmmcdade@mac.com.