Twenty-five degrees with a steady cold wind is no one’s idea of spring, but despite this week’s wintry weather I found two welcome signs that the season is indeed getting ready to change: a pair of golden eagles building their nest and a small group of trumpeter swans taking a break on their way north.
I’ve had my eye on a bald eagle nest that a pair of eagles has used the past few years, wondering when and if the eagles will return and start tidying it up. It’s in an old dead tree on the Missouri River, in a beautiful canyon that I wrote about last spring. Today was cold and windy, but sunny, so we headed out to check on the eagles. There was no activity at the bald eagle nest, but a mile further downriver we saw two eagles in the distance, above the cliffs on the opposite side of the river.
Golden eagles — playing with each other, spinning, diving, and totally flirting.
We sat and watched, and they soon started flying back and forth along the cliff, sometimes carrying sticks. They were working on a nest!
The nest was high up in the cliffs. I caught one of the eagles as he flew along the cliff face, and realized that I’d also captured a picture of a old nest on the cliffside.
We knew the new nest would be high up in these cliffs,
but we couldn’t find it until we could follow one of the eagles to it. The eagle landed on the cliff face, but even with binoculars we couldn’t be sure that what appeared to be a nest wasn’t just a bush. I took a photo anyway, and when I zoomed in, we could see that we’d actually gotten a picture of the golden eagle sitting in the nest. How cool.
Now that I know where the nest is, I’ll be back in the coming months to see what happens with this eagle family.
And it wasn’t just nesting eagles signalling a new season. In a patch of ice-free water at the edge of a nearby lake, in the middle of a noisy flock of Canadian geese I discovered a small group of trumpeter swans resting on their way north. There will be more and more in the coming weeks, along with snow geese, and soon both meadowlarks and bluebirds will return as well. The geese panicked as I got close, but the swans just regally moved away…
Off the Beaten Path: Hikes, Backpacks, and Travels 
Wow, sounds like weather this wimpy Floridian might actually be able to tolerate. Maybe I can get out there earlier this year!
And it’s supposed to be in the 40s all this week, so you probably can get out earlier!
Sounds like an amazing day!
Thanks, it was pretty fun.
Beautiful post about some simply stunning birds. What fun to watch the eagles flirting and nest building, and I love your swan images. Weren’t they reflect models posing nicely for you 🙂 Did you use a really strong zoom lens?
Thanks. No, I didn’t need to zoom too much – they actually let me get nice and close. The eagles, on the other hand…
Perfect not reflect….grrr to predictive text !!
🙂
Loved reading this post. Reminded me of our time in Yellowstone. 🙂
I’m glad – thanks for reading!
So amazing. I could sit all day with a pair of binoculars and watch eagles build their nest. I saw trumpeter swans on my last trip to Yellowstone. Such a treat!
I’m so looking forward to going out to this spot every week or so to see what’s going on!
It looks like you are going to see spring before we do! Enjoy and I hope you will keep us posted on the eagles.
We might see spring sooner, but I’m not gonna count on it! I plan to keep posting about the eagles – hope they stick around.
Thanks for the great photos. I love trumpeter swans and it has been too long since I have seen them. Glad spring is on its way!
Thanks so much for the visit!
Excellent bird photos. How cool is that?
It is pretty cool, isn’t it?
So cool to see these eagles. We drove to a Mississippi River town here in southeastern Minnesota on Saturday in hopes of seeing eagles, but only spotted two. However, while there, a man and his wife who give guided boat tours to see the eagles, showed us a photo he took on January 22 with 450 eagles perched in trees at the park where we were scouting out eagles. It was unbelievable. Now if only I had seen that many eagles…
Wow! I would LOVE to see that many eagles together. But the search is always fun, too, isn’t it?
Excellent ‘catch of the day’!
Thank you!
Wow, looks like such an amazing place to visit.
It is – I highly recommend it!
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