Baby Eagle 5, fledgling eagle in nest, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2009 by SkyWire7. All rights reserved.
feathers fly above
eagles on Summer Solstice
learn to leave the nest
Post Script: It’s Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in this part of the world. We didn’t have a formal Summer Solstice celebration this year. But on Friday, we walked a few blocks down the street from the inlet where our friends live and past Murphy the ferocious dog (Guardian at the Gate) to view this eagle’s nest. It does a heart good to see eagles thriving on such a populated lake near a booming city. Seeing a nest of this size and scale is humbling.
You can’t quite make it out, but there’s another baby eagle (a fledgling or eaglet) to the right, hiding behind a clump of leaves. We could see its ruffled feathers through the binoculars. (Did you know a group of eagles is called an aerie or convocation?) Liz got a few more great shots (link at photo above). Her Canon point-and-shoot has a closer telephoto than mine.
It’s also Father’s Day. And yesterday we walked for hours around the Stone Arch Festival of Arts on the Mississippi River across from the famous Gold Medal sign. All in all, a good weekend to kick off the beginning of Summer. Happy Father’s Day to Jim and to my brothers who are good fathers. Also to my Northern and Southern fathers — thank you for everything you have taught me. I’m thinking about you today.
Eagle’s Nest & Baby, Eagle’s Nest Wide Angle, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2009, photo © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Father’s Day, Summer Solstice, Sunday, June 21st, 2009
-related to posts: haiku 2 (one-a-day), 15 Hours, 36 Minutes Of Light, Diamonds & Light (Summer Solstice)
Aw, look at that. Adorable. I never knew an eagle’s nest was so crude, either. It’s kind of a mess, isn’t it?
Great shot of the eagle, skywire. And the sun on the tree is perfect.
Speaking of tree, that looks like a cottonwood or some sort of a poplar.
We had some young eagles here late summer before last. There must have been a nest, although we didn’t find one.
Thanks for the Father’s Day wish to Jim. I’ll let him know. We had a nice day. Brunch with Jim’s dad and then visiting over more food with mine. Ate like mad today.
Happy Solstice to you!
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BTW, we’ve had a strange June. Lots of cloud cover, some rain. It hasn’t felt like long stretches of daylight, I guess because of the clouds. Also, driving to northern California via Nevada, we had a lot of cloud cover. Even Nevada seemed cooler for the clouds. How has the Solstice weather been in your neck of the woods, QM?
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ybonesy, just getting home from an art opening in Calhoun Square. A friend has some paintings hanging there for about a month. It was a lot of fun but makes for a late night!
That tree the nest is in, I was wondering what it was. Maybe a cottonwood. I wish I knew my trees better. I don’t know what poplars look like from sight.
Isn’t that nest amazing? Yes, quite a mess. It’s small compared to some other eagle’s nests I’ve seen. The first one I ever saw was in a massive ponderosa pine in Montana. I couldn’t believe the size of it. It would be kind of cool to take a peek inside. I bet it’s even more of a mess…feathers and bird gunk and fish. 8)
They were pretty cute hopping around up there. You can see by the other photos that we are pretty far away. It’s way up in the top of the tree. And you’re right about the light…it was sunset and the light was just hitting the top of that tree. It’s such a thrill to see them. I just love raptors of any kind.
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Oh, the dryness…we’ve had a very dry Spring. And not many storms either. We are way below normal levels of rain. There was a lot of sun. Then suddenly a few weeks ago, the grayness and clouds rolled in. So more rain lately. Yesterday was perfect though. Sunny and breezy and humid. Well, I can do without the humidity. I don’t like it!
No big Solstice gathering this year, just visited with a couple of friends. And ended up not having a fire because it rained. So we walked down to see the eagles after the rain. It was extremely humid and wet in the woods by the lake. The eagles don’t seem to mind. No sign of their parents. Must have been off fishing for dinner.
Glad you had a good Father’s Day. Here I heard that many fathers here in the Twin Cities went to watch the implosion of one of our century-old metal bridges that had become unstable. They blew up the Lowry Bridge in my old neighborhood of Nordeast. There were tons of people there; I only saw the footage on TV. Have you ever had any bridges blown up in New Mexico that have become unstable?
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Great shots of eagle’s and their nests. They are huge, aren’t they?
We always head to the Mississippi River dams or Wisconsin River to see them in their winter habitat. I’ve never seen them nesting.
I knew they were called an aerie, but I’ve never heard of a convocation. Maybe the convocation title is for the babies that are graduating! (Bad joke-sorry!)
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What a gorgeous picture, that first one. I’ve never seen little eagles in their nest before. Gorgeous.
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Wow, amazing photo 🙂
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J, the little babies are amazing, aren’t they? I hope you do get to see the nesting eagles someday. Not something I’ve experienced all that much in my life either. But every time I do, it’s so humbling.
Simonne, thank you. And thanks for stopping by.
Bo, I like the bad joke 8) I know what you mean about the winter habitat of eagles. One of my favorite places to visit is down near Red Wing, MN where the eagles hang out near the open water to fish. I bet it’s similar to what you are seeing in Wisconsin.
Lake Pepin is a beautiful area down that way, too. It’s a natural lake formed by a widening of the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota. Have you been there before? Beautiful spot.
It reminds me of a lake I’ve passed on the way to Oregon from Montana. There’s a huge lake and opening up of the landscape but now the name escapes me. Have to think about it. Hmmm. I wonder if it’s the part of Oregon near Idaho.
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How cool is that photo!!! I was thinking about you & Liz & wondering how you would spend the Summer Soltice.
I arrived back home yesterday afternoon. Sunday was Fathers Day & also my Mom’s Birthday, so I stayed instead of heading back Sunday. Thank you for your kind words re: my Aunt. It was a difficult time for my family.
Brant’s cruise to Mexico was diverted to the Bahama’s & he got some great photos with his new camera. He’ll be here today so I’ll share these baby Eagles with him. he’ll be thrilled!
Oh, the peanuts turned into a disaster. They take soooo….long to boil & J set the alarm clock to get up & add water to them, but forgot to turn it on. They went bone dry & sent smoke throughout the house. At least we know our smoke detectors work! D
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Love that first photo, QM! I’ve never seen a little eagle in its nest. Sweet.
Speaking of nests, did you know that Chicago has a big flock of feral parrots that live in the trees near the U of Chicago, in Washington Park? They live in communal nests, sort of like a birdy condo made of sticks. The whole nest chatters and squawks. If you’re ever in the area, it’s worth checking out. These birds are also called quaker parrots- they’re about the size of cockatiels but green. (I owned one for 8 years, gave him to a better home a few weeks ago) This flock – and the others, in San Francisco and NY’s Central Park – are probably descendants of tame birds. I am amazed that they manage to survive Chicago winters!!
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We saw news of the Lowry Bridge implosion on TV…made national coverage. That must have been amazing but also a bit sad. Looked like a cool old bridge.
I’ve never seen bridges blown up in NM. Never seen anything imploded, in fact. How did they control where all the debris on that bridge went? Didn’t just allow it to fall into the water, did they?
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jude, I saw a documentary about the feral parrots in Washington Park. Did you ever see that? BTW, I can’t remember now how exactly they survive the cold in winter. Maybe there are good Samaritans who help build shelters?
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Jude & yb, I did not know about the feral quaker parrots in Washington Park. Chicago seems way too cold for a bird like that, doesn’t it? Do you miss your parrot, Jude? yb, we’ll have to check out that documentary. Even though we are close to Chicago, I don’t get over there all that often. Used to when I had friends there. But they moved to Los Angeles.
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diddy, Father’s Day was your Mom’s birthday, too? And a funeral and Summer Solstice? Wow, way too much going on! I’m glad you are back safe and sound.
How did Brant like the photo of the eagles? Hope you got to show them to him. Liz and I were just watching a show about Minnesota State Parks and they were talking about banding baby eagles. This guy climbed a tall, tall pine with these cleats on the bottom of his shoes and bagged the little ones so they could band them. I mean, it was high up there!
One of the park rangers was talking about how in the 1970’s when they started banding eagles and other endangered species, there were only 10 eagle’s nests left in the area. We have come a long way. Thank goodness there are people who fight to preserve the animals and habitat on this planet.
In Itasca State Park, another man, I think his name was Brower, saw that all the old growth white and red pines were being cut down for lumber. He knew they’d be gone if he didn’t work to set the land aside. He was right. Now we have a beautiful park, partly due to his vision. Liz and I took a trip there a few years ago and saw the tallest white and red pines in the state (maybe in many states).
Sorry about the boiled peanuts. I guess you’ll have to wait until you get back Down South again. 😦
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ybonesy, wow, the Lowry Bridge made national coverage. It was a cool old bridge. Ironically, Liz and I were photographing another similar bridge near St. Anthony the day before. It’s a stretch of metal bridge that they decided to preserve. I either didn’t know or had forgotten about the Lowry Bridge until it was too late to go see it. I wish Liz had remembered sooner! We would probably have gone over and watched.
It did look like they let it all fall into the Mississippi River. I’m not sure if they had nets or what down there. I didn’t follow the coverage after seeing the initial blast on the news. The last time I went over the Lowry Bridge was on the Honda Rebel motorcycle not long after I learned to ride. Scared the crap out of me. The metal grids would catch on the single tires and pull them to and fro. It was an eerie feeling.
I need to research more and see what happened with all of it. Or maybe there’s a YouTube video. There were tons of people there. There is something kind of sad about seeing a 100-year-old bridge be destroyed like that. Liz and I recently watched a program about all the buildings that Minneapolis has destroyed over the years, failing to preserve the history. I mean tons of them. I kind of wish they could have saved the Lowry Bridge. But it wasn’t to be.
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QM, Brant says the eagles nest with the baby is cool! His guess was that it was a baby chickadee. Way off.
My Aunt’s funeral was Saturday, but yes, my Mom’s birthday is the 21’st, so it fell on Fathers Day this year. I probably gained 5 lbs. that day as we had to seperate meals at my brothers homes. My sister-in-law made Sunshine Shrimp from my recipe & everyone loved it. Yum! D
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Ah, the Sunshine Shrimp recipe! That sounds good. Maybe we’ll make that over the July 4th weekend. I can see how Brant thought the bird in the photo was smaller than an eagle. The perspective is crazy in the close-up. Comparing Liz’s close-up shot with the images at the bottom of the post of how far away we were really drives home how high up the eagles are and the size of that nest! I’ve always been amazed at how HUGE their nests are.
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Hi QM, I’m in northern Wisconsin and we have an eaglet on the island nest in our small lake. It is quite amazing to witness the adult’s attentive care of their big baby!
Great photo! I don’t have a good enough lens to get a close-up at the top of the white pine.
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breathepeace, great to hear from you. I wondered if you had made it to Wisconsin yet. Cool about the eaglet on your island. I have only watched the adult eagles care for their babies on video-cams that naturalist set up to monitor some eagle’s nests. I can’t remember the name of it, but one documentary that Liz and I watched was fantastic. One eagle mate died and the photographer/videographer followed the eagles all through the next season to see that he’d picked up a new eagle mate, quite a bit younger. Amazing to watch Nature in action. I love it. I have seen Loons on one of the Minnesota lakes. And a loon’s nest on a lake in New Hampshire one year. Cute little baby loons. Birth, life, death. All right there.
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