Subject: Green Lake (Seattle) Bald Eagles
Date: Feb 28 13:02:46 1999
From: Martin J. Muller - martinmuller at email.msn.com


Fellow birders,

Spent about 2 1/2 hours watching the Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
in Lower Woodland Park (adjacent to Green Lake Park in Seattle's north end).
I've found that watching from the Aqua Theater (using a scope) gives a
fairly good view of the nest tree and a large part of the lake (hunting). An
added bonus is that my action doesn't attract undue attention nor do I run
the risk of disturbing the birds during this, the most critical time.

The nest is taking shape nicely. The nest measures (estimated assuming 3
feet (1 m) height for standing eagle) 3-4 feet (1-1.2 m) deep, 8-10 feet
(2.4-3 m) diameter. It's starting to look like a real eagle nest. Both
adults fit comfortably. Winds of the last days/weeks appear unable to
dislodge the structure. Encouraging.

When I arrived (09:45) the female was eating a fish. Both made some nest
material deliveries. The male at one time flew to an evergreen to the north,
snipped off a side-branch from the one he was standing on using his bill,
transferred the branch to his talons in mid-flight before arriving at the
nest. Later the male flew out over the lake and returned to the nest with a
6-8" fish in his talons.

At about 11:45 both adults (again) took off to the SW, presumably into
Woodland Park Zoo, but possibly beyond. A few very skittish crows (Corvus
sp.) arrived shortly after at the nest. Three picked up small pieces of
left-over fish and flew off with it. One worked on a larger piece of fish,
alternating pecking and glancing around. Clean-up crew.

Unlike some territories (as reported by Patricia Thompson of Fish and
Wildlife in an article titled: "Crows may cause abandonment and failure of
urban Bald Eagle nests" WOSNews 57, 1998) the eagles here are not seriously
disturbed by crows. Both crows and gulls (Larus spp.) sound the alarm when
the eagles fly around, or are perched in trees other than the nest trees.
The crows occasionally will dive-bomb the eagles, but again, nothing too
serious. The eagles do chase gulls to relieve them of anything interesting
the gulls may be carrying in their bill. In turn the gulls will follow the
eagles closely after the eagles make a catch. It looks like the crows and
gulls in this area are well-habituated to eagle presence (they've had over
ten years).

Looks like the eagles are poised to give nesting here a serious try.

More later.

Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com