More on Nesting

It rained all morning yesterday and the Chemeketans wisely decided to cancel their trip, which left me free to do anything I wanted.  In the afternoon the rain let up for a few hours and I got out to check specifically on the Warbling Vireo nest, the Pileated Woodpeckers, and the Bald Eagle Nest.  It took some time for me to find the Vireo’s nest even though I was staring at the exact tree.  Goes to show how well nests are camouflaged. When I did finally find it, it was empty but soon the Vireo appeared and I got a good look at the bird. They are very drab and could be taken for a Flycatcher except for the prominent white eyebrow. Next it was on to look for the Pileated Woodpeckers. They were a no-show, as were any other woodpeckers, but I reasoned that being cavity nesters it probably made a lot of sense to just stay put in their dry tree holes.  I did see Western Bluebirds which I had missed before and Tree Swallows at a nesting snag. The treat of the afternoon was the Bald Eagles.  There is so much going on in this photo. I recommend clicking on the photo to enlarge.  You can see the adult perched in the upper left hand corner, and below you will find the two juveniles, one out on a limb on the left side, and on the right side the other juvenile on the nest.  If you look closely to the right of the adult there is a Steller’s Jay. The jay was completely obsessed with harassing the adult eagle, attacking and carrying on with no deference to the huge size discrepancy.  Interesting enough, the eagle has to have already been there for a couple of months.

I am posting this from my mobile office, the motor home, at the Wood River Wetland waiting for the rain to clear.