This morning, the day before Christmas, while feeding horses in the early morning darkness, I kept hearing what sounded like a calling eagle. Over and over. It was too dark to see anything on tops of the tall firs, so I was left to wonder until later, when I went back to milk goats and let the horses out for the day. It was definitely an eagle and I could see it from the goat barn ramp, still calling now and then. I took photos. It is directly above the peak of the machine shed roof in the photos below, lost in the sky until zoomed in.
And here it is zoomed in...
By the time I let the horses out, I could see the eagle from their paddock so I took photos from there, too.
At some point, I realized that there was a second eagle not too far from the first, to the right. It is, in fact, in the photo below, on the left side of the fir directly above the edge of the machine shed roof.
Both eagles are in the photo below, the first one at the far left atop the fir and the other one at the far right. How I missed that dot of white originally, I don't know.
Now it is centered in the photo.
Getting closer (and fuzzier)...
Those two eagles sat in their separate locations all morning. At noon, they were still there with one occasionally calling. (I never could tell which one or if they took turns.) At 2:30, when I checked again, I could no longer see the eagle on the right but the original eagle was still there. I watched it fly off in a circle over the horse field, then back to land in the same place.
We have had an eagle here off and on many times, but never to stick around for so long and never to call.
Two days ago (Saturday morning), friends saw two eagles flying over nearby Spirit Mountain, circling together with a talon out display that could have been a mating ritual? I'm guessing the two eagles here today are those two. Time will tell if they nest somewhere around. I'll be watching for an eagle carrying a big stick somewhere.
This Monday eagle visit has made for a fun day-before-Christmas happening.
