Surprising Bald Eagle Behavior

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US, and the weather here in Northern Virginia is gorgeous: cold, sunny, just as I like it for visits to Occoquan Bay NWR. I arrived just as the gate opened.

Since getting my new 500mm lens, I've tried photographing some birds that I've previously ignored.

This is the time of year when the resident eagle couples reclaim their nests and repair them for the coming nesting season. There are two nests at OBNWR and both of them had eagles nearby when I visited this morning. The nest near the shore had an eagle in the tree, eating something bloody. But the other tree was the location for a much more interesting encounter.

This second nest is away from the shore, right next to a road.

Bald Eagle Nest

Unlike the other nest, it's possible to walk right up to and under this tree and the nest in it. From several hundred yards away, I looked at it through my camera and it appeared that maybe I could just make out a white head in the nest. I walked toward the nest and the eagles did what they always do when I approach: they flew away. I lost sight of them. Oh well, I walked right up to the tree. And I was stunned when one of them came back. I only just managed to get my camera up and in focus to track it as it flew, with a stick, into the nest right in front of me.

Bald Eagle With Stick for Nest

And it promptly flew away again. I spotted its mate in a tree in the distance, and I decided to hang around, hoping for another stick delivery. No joy. I decided to try to approach the one that I had spotted earlier. It flew away. Then I looked back at the nest to discover that the one I gave up on while waiting for stick delivery had sneaked into the nest while I was stalking its mate, and it flew away again. Both of them landed in a tree away from the road (where it's against the rules to get off the road). And another photographer came along, so the game was over. These birds were so close that I heard their wings flapping.