I am Yours and You are Mine

The eagles are back!  Or perhaps they never left.  Eagles are well equipped to live in the cold, but they migrate for food when lakes and streams are frozen over.  Except for the early November snow storm, it has been a mild and open winter.  Parts of the Sauk River are flowing, allowing the eagles to fish.  But this is the first time we have seen the pair since late summer.

The massive nest makes the leafless Hackberry tree look top-heavy.  The eagles first built this nest in 2004.  Each year more sticks are added to the nest before mating and egg laying.

Both eagles were in the nest when we arrived at the park, then the female flew out to a branch.  They watched us watching them.

The male calmly walked out of the nest and up a branch.

He hopped up on the branch beside his mate and shrieked.  The shrill call reinforces the bond between the pair and warns other eagles or predators that this nesting territory of one to two square miles belongs to them.

Eagle Park borders the Sauk River and the Rockville County Park and Nature Preserve we visited two weekends ago.  The granite boulders, dried seedpods, and coating of snow made a beautiful winterscape.

The bare stems of red-twigged dogwood were the only bright color that punctuated the winter brown and white–besides the azure blue sky.

One huge boulder was half covered in snow–a yin and yang of bright snow and dark rock.

The male and female eagles have identical coloring.  The female (on the left) is slightly larger in size and has a deeper beak (from top to bottom.)  The male has more of a scowl, as the bone over his eye protrudes further out.  We saw both of them last summer, but never together.

Mated eagles return to the same nest at generally the same time each year to resume courtship, mating, egg laying, and eaglet raising–an anniversary of sorts.

‘I am yours and you are mine.’  Together the eagles will incubate the eggs, defend the nest, hunt for food, feed the young, and raise another brood of eaglets.

These eagles have been together for many years–the size of their nest proclaims their longevity.  They seemed content to watch the Sunday afternoon visitors from their high vantage point.  Side by side, they surveyed their rocky estate and the other pair of creatures.  And once again they have committed themselves to one another–I am yours and you are mine!  Let’s do this one more time!  Happy Anniversary, Eagles!