Last Sunday Kirk and I spent the afternoon hiking the Wabash looking for the Bald Eagle nest that Huntington Reservoir Park employees told us about. We headed in the completely wrong direction from the bridge at first, but the wrong turn was well worth it. About a half mi. or so from the bridge we saw a large nest in the trees. When we got closer it was obvious that it was a heron nest and there wasn't just one, there were approx. 20 nests clustered together in the treetops. Neither of us had ever seen a heron rookery before and we sat by the river and watched the baby herons being fed. They were voracious and there was much to-ing and fro-ing by the adults who were raucously welcomed by their offspring. It was getting toward evening and the wind was really picking up with a forecast for rain so we headed back to the car. Just as we were climbing over the guardrail, Kirk's spotted a large raptor's silhouette in one of the tallest trees along the riverbank on the other side of the road. When we trained the binoculars on it we could clearly see its white head and the curved beak. We spent the next hour watching the lone eagle perch above the nest and then towards dusk it took to the air and gave us a wide winged soaring spectacle. It gave me such a feeling of hope to see our national icon returned to its natural habitat right in my proverbial backyard.Monday, May 5, 2008
Bald Eagle nest in Huntington
Last Sunday Kirk and I spent the afternoon hiking the Wabash looking for the Bald Eagle nest that Huntington Reservoir Park employees told us about. We headed in the completely wrong direction from the bridge at first, but the wrong turn was well worth it. About a half mi. or so from the bridge we saw a large nest in the trees. When we got closer it was obvious that it was a heron nest and there wasn't just one, there were approx. 20 nests clustered together in the treetops. Neither of us had ever seen a heron rookery before and we sat by the river and watched the baby herons being fed. They were voracious and there was much to-ing and fro-ing by the adults who were raucously welcomed by their offspring. It was getting toward evening and the wind was really picking up with a forecast for rain so we headed back to the car. Just as we were climbing over the guardrail, Kirk's spotted a large raptor's silhouette in one of the tallest trees along the riverbank on the other side of the road. When we trained the binoculars on it we could clearly see its white head and the curved beak. We spent the next hour watching the lone eagle perch above the nest and then towards dusk it took to the air and gave us a wide winged soaring spectacle. It gave me such a feeling of hope to see our national icon returned to its natural habitat right in my proverbial backyard.
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3 comments:
Hi Julie!
That is awesome about the eagle! I have yet to go find a nest but I have them pass over the house from time to time! It always takes my breath away!
Hope you've had good riding weather...we've had our days but it's still trying to act like spring here!
hey i just wanted to let you know. im a local in huntington and we just heard that the baby died. they think it got tangled up in power lines or something like that. its trajic! and most mother birds become really depressed when their babies die. so yeah. i just wanted to update you on that.
I heard the same thing, but I also heard that sometimes birds get busy and make another offspring if they lose one, the person who I was talking to was talking about robins, but I was just going to pretend that it could be true about eagles too.
I'd also heard that there were some local youngsters who were down at the river harassing the eagles with fire crackers and throwing stones at the nest. I'm hoping that's not true either.
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