Didi wrote:

> Yesterday, we saw a lone bald eagle in a tree near the nest in the
deciduous
> tree in the Arboretum. (From 520, you can see this nest and the one in
the
> evergreen tree in the Broadmoor golf course.) We were in the Arboretum
for
> more than an hour and the eagle remained in the same spot during that
time.
> Does anyone know if the either of these nests was used last year?
>
Sure, I can answer that: the nest on the Golf Course has never fledged
young. One year the adults were feeding a (presumed) young, but it
disappeared/died before it was big enough to be seen over the edge of the
nest.
In 1999 apparently the birds started building the nest to the north, just
outside the Golf Course, in the cottonwood. This is a peculiar-looking eagle
nest, built out of many small sticks. More the size sticks used by
Red-tails. My personal theory is that this is due to the dense canopy and
the problems the eagles would have maneuvering large (up to ten feet)
sticks.
During the 2000 season the pair raised & fledged two young from the nest in
the cottonwood. The evergreen on the Golf Course is a favorite perching
spot.

Cheers,
Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com