> Did you ever find anyone who could confirm or deny that bald eagles: (a)
> have anything to do with annual snipping of ends of fir tree branches?

I don't know about this but it seems probable to me that bald eagles
sometimes kill the top of the tree they nest in through their fussing about
the trunk, feaking (is that a word) on the tree until the bark and cambium
layers are destroyed.

Many bald eagle nests are in trees with dead or broken tops. I often wondered
(back in the days when I flew nesting surveys) if the birds really
selected such trees (which is what "the literature" suggests). I saw
enough trees with recently-dead tops (dead from the position of the nest
up) to wonder if the eagles' activities might kill the top which is then
more vulnerable to breaking off during storms.

O.K., the question was about end snipping. Beats me.

> (b) have been known to destroy their nest ( 2 years in a row, my friend
> on south Lk Steilacoom swears) leaving 2 large fledglings huddling on a
> branch - kicked out of the house? Sounds weird to me - since they
> usually keep building nests year after year?

Fledgling bald eagles spend considerable time flapping their wings while
hanging on tight to branches of the nest. They hop about, up, down, attack
the sibling, pull at something in a vicious way... and, yes, I believe that
their activities often cause the nest to fall apart. Certainly, it is fairly
common for bald eagle nests to fall out of the tree when there are full-grown
fledglings present. Nests in smaller trees (frequently the case with our
more urban birds) are more vulnerable to this.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife