Just HK: December 16, 2014

I arrived at 9:23AM and found HK in a tree by the pro shop. He flew 25 minutes minutes later.

 And was relocated on a branch in the nest tree.

 HK hopped into nest and began moving sticks around (nestorations).

His job complete, he sat for a few minutes.

 Then, flew back to the Osprey nest....waiting for Sterling, who I never observed today.

December 12: HK, Sterling, and a juvie

The morning started out great! I spotted an eagle from the car descending rapidly in the nest vicinity. On a hunch, I drove to the nest and HK was sitting there.

He didn't stay long and left abruptly, which is pretty usual.

 I sat on the S. Independence bridge and spotted two eagles in flight. One was carrying a fish.

I don't know where they went, but eventually HK returned to a tower to preen and look around.

He left and after an hour or so, a juvenile eagle flew over.

About 20 minutes later, HK returned to the area. I left shortly thereafter.

Sterling and the intruder continued. December 11, 2014

I was only able to stop by Honey Bee briefly today.  I located the juvenile eagle from yesterday just as he was landing on the cell tower. He is a beautiful Bald Eagle.

I drove around for about 45 minutes hoping to locate HK and/or Sterling. I was able to locate Sterling on another tower and she took flight as I tried to get in position. But she did provide me with a great fly by just before sunset.

Sterling and an intruder eagle lock talons

I had seen this "talon lock" maneuver several times in the past several years, but they had been at a considerable distance. This time, the drama unfolded in front of me. I believe that Sterling was attempting to chase this intruder away.
I had been watching a new, younger (about 4+ years old) eagle fly in and out of the Osprey nest. Suddenly, a second, mature eagle appeared. This eagle turned out to be Sterling (right).

 I generally don't publish large quantities, but the experience was quite extraordinary! The shots are in sequence, as the action unfolded. As you scroll through the photos, Sterling's band on her right leg is visible on most of them. The younger eagle still has some dark tail and head feathers.

 The last photo is almost eye level as they tumbled towards the street (Sterling on top). This is when I got very scared that they were going to crash. I started running, but they disengaged at the last moment and flew in opposite directions, with Sterling landing about 1/4 mile away.

HK after Thanksgiving

The long Thanksgiving weekend was a blur with coming and going to friends and family. Two of my adult children were here as well.
I got a short time with HK on Monday afternoon when I located him right away on the feeding tree. I made my way down through the marsh and for once he was pretty obliging. I found a nice big log to sit on and only took about 20 photos as he was just sitting there. I stayed about an hour just watching him look around. I could post a bunch of the same pose but this is pretty much what they all looked like.