Notes, birds, nature, meanderings.

Musings about birds, nature, and our meanderings on the Central Oregon Coast

Friday, January 13, 2012

Eagles in Love

We have a beautiful pair of resident adult BALD EAGLES in the Siletz Bay area.  The pair caught my eye yesterday morning while driving south from Lincoln City.  I stopped at a turnout and watched as they courted one another.


One landed on a branch, followed closely by the other who was flapping its wings and chattering.










He seemed to be showing off (I don't know which was which, but it seemed that the first was the female and it was the male who was flapping and yapping).



Finally he threw his head back and yipped, then settled down, inching slowly down the branch closer to the other eagle.








I've seen them numerous times but didn't realize they were the same individuals until I read more about Bald Eagles mating and nesting in this study BALD EAGLES (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) NESTING IN OREGON AND ALONG THE LOWER COLUMBIA RIVER, 1978-2007, kindly sent to my by co-author and researcher Frank Isaacs.

When I left them, they were seated shoulder-to-shoulder, staring out at the bay. 

How cool is that!?!

3 comments:

  1. How cool is that - completly cool. Love the story and the photos that go along. I have eagles by 'my' wetland in S. Beach, hope to see them doing something like this. Did see, the other day, one swooping over the water, he didn't catch anything but was glorious.

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  2. Great series of behavior photos... I love watching them interact with each other- so interesting!

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  3. @Patsy, maybe we'll run into you sometime when we're down your way - love having the eagles around where we live - I can never get enough of them! @Jen, thanks Jen - the pix are dark but I was glad they didn't just end up silhouettes with the sun so bright.

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