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ruffles · Guru

The eagles of Hornby Island

ruffles · Guru

Sammie

What is the life span of an eagle?
Are these eagles really 27 years old?
How does anyone know this? Are they banded?

meggie · Senior Member

Ruff, when you visit we can go to Hornby Island! biggrin

Actually, today as I was driving home, there was a huge bald eagle soaring overhead. It was hard to concentrate on the road.

KarenGA · Veteran Member

MANY, many years ago we were fishing at Lake Campbell on Anacortes Island in Washington state early one morning and I felt something brush my hair. Turned around in time to see a bald eagle fly away with a trout he had picked up about 3 feet off the back of the boat. Wow, what a close encounter.

There was a small island in the middle of the lake (an island on an island), and the eagles nested in a tall tree in the middle of it.

Another day, we watched an osprey swoop down to pick up a fish and as he flew away two eagles appeared from the island. It was an amazing dog fight with the two eagles harassing the osprey, one attacking from one side, they the other from the other side. After about 5 minutes of this the osprey had had enough and let go of the fist from about 100 feet. One eagle continued to chase him off while the other dove after the fish, caught it about 10 feet above the water and took it back to the nest on the island.

Was an amazing place to fish!!

ruffles · Guru

LOVE your stories KGA!!! *grin*

meggie....You certainly are beautifully persistent.

And yes, if I'm driving near the air force base and something fabulous takes off, I could end up in the ditch or up on top of the trunk of the car in front of me.

Sammie · Veteran Member

Yes, this pair has been going to the same nest since the 80s. Since it takes 5 years for them to get a white head and tail, Doug estimates them to be 27 years old. This nest is the reason I got into birding!

They can live beyond 30 in the wild so these two are getting up there. They aren't banded, I don't think eagles are banded or tagged in Canada. I just hope Phoenix doesn't poop on the close up cam like Hope did last year because they can't clean it while the nest is occupied. They had to get a tree guy to climb the tree last fall and he cleaned the cam.

ruffles · Guru

Hi Sammie,

I haven't had a chance to check the cam today. From the way you're talking it sounds as if the other egg still hasn't hatched. Bummer.

These birds are incredibly beautiful. I can't believe how amazingly gentle they are with Pheonix.

We used to have a cam on a peregrine falcon nest on the 21st floor of a tower building here. The nest was on a ledge directly in front of a window. The window became awfully dirty as the chicks matured. It wasn't pretty. Everyone was watching these falcons. It was wonderful. The falcons became our mascots.

Sammie · Veteran Member

The other egg didn't hatch. Phoenix is absolutely huge now, I think he's around the size of the adult and will be or may already be bigger.

ruffles · Guru

He's awesome!
He must be about ready to fledge.

Sammie · Veteran Member

I don't know if you heard but Phoenix died suddenly 2 days ago. They noticed he was breathing through his mouth and sneezing a day or so before that and that he wasn't attacking the parents when they brought food in. Doug arranged for a rescuer to come over but they couldn't get there immediately because of another eagle emergency and he died. They came over yesterday and the guy climbed the tree, 120 feet high and took Phoenix's body away.

It's been such a shock because usually by this stage, the only thing to worry about is a bad landing after fledging or the nest falling down, something that happened near my friend's house in Vancouver at Jericho Beach. But to have him just die like this was awful. They are doing a necropsy on him to determine what caused it, and they will also find out if he's male or female. I've always called him a male but they think that based on size he's a she.

ruffles · Guru

Oh noooooooo! This is awful. I didn't know. What a shame.

It is wonderful that someone is willing to climb that tree and retrieve Phoenix for testing. As unfortunate as this is, it speaks to the level of our committment for our fellow species.

Why did Phoenix get this 'cold' but not the parents?

This is sad. Darn.

Something similar happened at my daughter's place a couple of years ago. She had barn swallows build a nest on a ledge just under her front porch ceiling. The youngsters grew. It was great fun. She was sending photos with delightful pride. Then they died just like that! When she was able to check the nest, she said it was full of little bugs. The parents never came back.

Darn. What a bummer!

I've had some computer issues and some of the fun stuff has fallen by the wayside as a result.

Thanks for your note.