It doesn’t get much better than a beautiful, spring morning in Colorado and throwing in these majestic creatures is like icing on the cake. From my visit to this nest a few weeks ago.

The adults were extremely active keeping my shutter finger busy. Here, the female heads off after delivering a stick to the nest. Yes, even for them, home repair and maintenance is a never-ending task. 😉 

Have a fantastic Freedom Friday and a great weekend!

Another capture from last weekend’s visit with my bald eagle friends.

Here, mom returns to the nest with a nice fish for everyone to enjoy. While she fed the little one, dad stood by tall and proud, keeping guard.

It is such a privilege to spend time with this trio this spring and I am looking forward to more visits in the coming weeks. The eaglet shouldn’t fledge until toward the end of June / first part of July.

My goodness this is one handsome fellow, eh?

This past weekend I spent a lot of time with him, his mate and his little one and they put on a great show for me. The morning started out slow with both parents across the river from the nest and the little one hunkered down.

Soon though, things began to pick up. Two fish deliveries, some nest building, the eaglet testing its wings and a couple of fabulous flybys including this one.

It is so awesome to see this pair having a successful season after last year’s failure. It will be another six weeks or so before the young one fledges so I am expecting to get in a lot more time with them documenting the family.

Have a fantastic Freedom Friday and weekend!

So, so much fun yesterday morning checking in on my bald eagle family. They put on quite a show but the most fun part? Watching the little one test out its wings.

The eaglet is likely about two months away from actually being able to fly but leading up to that moment there is lots of practice. When it would get a bit breezy, the little one would take advantage, flapping its wings furiously, seeing how well it could do.

Dad was doing his job, keeping close watch, making sure his kid didn’t get into any trouble. Junior has gotten quite big but is “only” about a half to two thirds as big as his parents. He / she will be fully grown (size-wise) before taking flight.

With the sun just barely peeking over the horizon, this gorgeous eagle was returning to its roost with a very small breakfast. If you look close, you can see the tiny fish it had snagged.

This image was taken back in the middle of February when a couple dozen of our national emblem was hanging out at a series of ponds along the South Platte River north of Denver, Colorado. They were only there for a few days but it was absolutely awesome to get to spend time with them.

I’m not one to get all crazy with the Earth Day stuff but I do believe we need to be good stewards of the land and the creatures we share the planet with.

It was humans that nearly drove this magnificant creature into extinction and that serves to highlight how irresponsible action on our part can have wide-ranging effects. Conversely, when we realized what we were doing, we changed course and now bald eagles are thriving and a prime example of success in conservation.

We owe it to them and our children to be responsible guardians of this planet.

This past weekend I was surprised at the number of eagles I found on northeast of Denver. By now, they are usually getting pretty scarce as they head north for the summer but this year they seem to be lingering. I happened across this pair of young ones as they just couldn’t seem to get along. This sequence played out multiple times as 

Mom’s know just what their kids need and fish was on the menu for them on this morning. That sounds much better than the prairie dog or rabbit alternatives for sure. 😀 

Following a ‘changing of the guard’, this female bald eagle must have needed a bit of alone time as she disappeared for an hour and a half this past weekend. Dad did a good job keeping watch while she was gone and when mom did return, she brought food for the family.

Well look at this! I spent my morning at my favorite bald eagle nest and while I got some nice shots of dad and mom, I hadn’t seen any little ones.

Every now and then I thought I saw movement in the nest but no confirmation. After three hours I was getting ready to pack up and head out when suddenly, this little bobblehead appeared! So darned cute! It only stayed up for a minute or two but I was glad to have the confirmation of a little one.

I do suspect there might be another because, as you can tell, while this one was looking up, mom appeared to be tending to something in the back of the nest. I’ll be anxious to watch this eaglet grow in the coming months. 

A visit this past weekend to a bald eagle nest I keep close watch on. All looked good and while I cannot be sure, I do suspect there might be eaglets in there.

Three times over the five hours I was there, mama got up, stood on the rim of her nest, and would dunk her head into the nest bowl as if she was feeding something. Another week or two I am hoping to see some little bobbleheads popping up.

Before this picture was taken, dad was hanging out on the opposite side of the river as he oftentimes does. He returned with a load of grass for the nest and after checking on his family, headed off again. He gave me an absolutely fantastic launch series.

This darn bald eagle photobombed my picture of a Swift Air plane taking off at Denver International Airport. 😀