Eagle Family

Earlier this Spring, my friend, Stephanie, showed me a bald eagle's nest down at the Northeast Fishery Center in Lamar, PA. I think Stephanie and I went down a couple of times and I only saw the nest -- the eggs were impossible to see from the ground. Since Stephanie and her family live close to the fish hatchery, they walked down one afternoon and she snapped a couple of pictures of their newest neighbors! (Thanks for letting me steal your pictures, Steph!)

Big nest with the mama eagle kind of popping up. 

Biggest nest I've ever seen!

Naturally, I told Pap and Grandma about the nest because they love to watch birds and it is so exciting to have a little eagle family so close to home. Apparently it has been years since Pap and Grandma have seen an eagle in this area. They went down to the hatchery once to try to find the nest, but were unsuccessful because of my bad directions!

Well, the eggs hatched several weeks ago and there are TWO baby eagles! Pap, Grandma, and I have gone to the hatchery several times and really only saw a little movement from the babies in the nest and no signs of mom or dad. But, yesterday afternoon we hit the jackpot! We saw the babies moving in the nest and both mom and dad perched on nearby branches! It was amazing! Each time we go, it is on a whim while we're on our way home and we are always unprepared. Here's the crappy shot I got on my iPhone.

iPhone fail. See the spot of white on the middle tree? That's the daddy eagle's head.

There were several other people there just bird watching and snapping pictures of the eagle family and I noticed a man that had a big, fancy camera. I thought maybe he was from the local paper or a professional photographer, but he was just a fan of the eagle family who happened to have an awesome camera. He had a folder of beautiful images of the eagles and other animals he had captured while spending time down at the fish hatchery. 

Sometimes I have a stroke of genius and I happened to just ask the man if he would be willing to e-mail me some shots of the birds. Thankfully, he said, "Sure. Do you have a piece of paper and a pen you could write your e-mail address on for me?" What a nice guy, right? His name is Butch Keen and he lives in the area. He could have easily said no, but I got lucky and asked a generous guy who was willing to share his pictures! Here are the beautiful shots he e-mailed me last night. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

The two babies in the nest.

Mama eagle. Her head has some brown in it because she's still young.

Daddy eagle. So beautiful and majestic.