Eagle Debate/Argument

At Great Swamp, there is a bird viewing area that gives you a good view of an area of swampland (which didn't have much going on), and has a Bald Eagle nest in a tree on the opposite side of the shore. It's quite a distance, even with binoculars. (I'm sure a good spotting scope would handle the distance though.)

When I went there a couple weeks ago, a couple people were listening to and (to some degree) watching a Bald Eagle confrontation. We could easily hear an eagle vocalizing. The narrative I was told was that the vocalizing was from an eagle on its nest. And there was a juvenile eagle in a nearby tree. It's unclear what the motivation of the juvenile eagle was, but the parent was obviously concerned that the juvenile could be a threat to her eaglets. You probably can't tell that that's a Bald Eagle, though the large nest probably infers one.

April 14, 2021: Bald Eagle nest at Great Swamp

And here's the juvenile Bald Eagle perched nearby. You can make out this eagle better.

April 14, 2021: Juvenile Bald Eagle at Great Swamp

A leading theory was that the adult on the nest was calling for its mate to chase away the intruder while it guarded the nest, but it's also possibly this was the eagle equivalent of scolding or trash talking directed towards the juvenile.

The juvenile should be too young to be challenging for rights to the nest. One possibility is that this was an eagle that was born in the nest and hoped to see its old home again. Or it's possible that it's just a young eagle committing the eagle faux pas of intruding on a nesting territory.



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