I ventured back out on the Red Cedar River on the weekend to try to track down the Bald Eagles nesting in the swampy area around Potter Park. On Saturday I only saw one of the eagles sitting on the nest, but it never left the nest and its mate never arrived after three hours of waiting. On Sunday I found one of the eagles perched on a dead tree nearby its nest. It sat there for quite a while and preened itself. Eventually, it flew off toward Potter Park, but circled back around very quickly when a Great Blue Heron flew by the eagles' nest. The eagle chased the heron a bit and the heron finally got the message and flew away. This answered my question about whether the herons would return to their rookery this spring and cohabit the area with eagles. It appears that the two species do not share very well!
Your pictures are amazing! We have been watching the Eagles this spring also. What a treat to have them so accessible for viewing.... just hope people will respect them by NOT kayaking under the nest as this disturbs the birds and could jeopardize the integrity of the nest. BTW the Blue Heron rookery is now re-established in the wooded area near Aurelius Rd. parking for the river trail. We observed several pair of herons nesting there on 4/12.
ReplyDeleteI keep my kayak quite a distance away from the nest and let my lenses do the work. Thankfully, there is often an eagle perched a good distance from the nest and I can photograph them from there. I think the big issue with river users is that many are oblivious to the eagles' nest. It is fairly close to the main channel of the river and you could pass under it not knowing it is there.
DeleteThanks David for your excellent photos of the Potter Park eagles! It's so exciting having them in our city!
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