This is Sandy Hevener in Blue Grass VA/Highland County. I'm involved in
an ongoing eagle survey here. You need not apologize for the "poor
quality" images- they are quite good enough to distinguish the species
and very useful for people learning the difference between immature
balds and adult golden eagles. If you had truly seen golden eagle(s) in
Virginia this time year, particularly in your area, it would cause quite
a roar... Officially they migrate to Virginia for the winter and don't
nest south of NY on this side of the Mississippi .
Here in Highland between Jan. 13 and April 15, 2006, observers reported
124 eagle sightings on 91 occasions. Of these 68 were bald (54 adults &
14 immature) and 53 golden (23 adults & 30 immature.) Obviously, because
of the time-frame, we do not know how many individual birds this
represents. We did document two bald eagle nests with eaglets- the first
on April 9 and the second on April 29, after the initial period of the
ongoing survey. Thanks to Charlottesville birder and nature photographer
Brenda Tekin photos of these are here:
www.bathhighlandbird.org
The site contains the full data, photos of adult & immature bald and
golden eagles and map with sightings. We call this project "Eagle
Watch." These are the first nests documented in Highland and based on
sighting clusters we are reasonably sure there are several more.
On May 29 a resident (Keith Carson) scoped two immature golden eagles in
the area that had a very high concentration of golden eagle sightings
during the winter. He only had his scope and not camera, but was quite
sure they weren't immature bald eagles. He and his wife (Polly Newlen)
reported seeing two immature GOEA circling high with a couple of
buzzards above Snowy Mt. A dead coyote was hanging on a fence up a
hollow behind another resident's house (Goog Colaw) and the birds were
cautiously flying over it. Another resident (Pen Goodall) reported
seeing a single golden eagle in an area seven miles SW of this on May 25
& June 10, but didn't have a camera either time. He says he's seen a
golden in the same spot for several summers.
If you are out this way and see (or photograph!) eagles please write
down the location, day, time, species, age and describe what the
eagle(s) did- flew in circle, perched in sycamore tree, flew north
carrying a stick, etc. Send the information along with your contact
information (for verification purposes) to:
hevener@xxxxxxx
or call me at (540) 474-5605
Sandy Hevener
General Delivery
Blue Grass, VA 24413
Thomas M Blair wrote:
Va Birders,
I've been off the list for quite some time and just re-joined. I wanted to report that this past Sunday, we were at our local bird watching area and sighted two Golden Eagles. We were at Cumberland Marsh. It's a little-known Nature Conservancy preserve here in New Kent County.
I had seen these birds in the area earlier in the year, but they were very far away. We normally only see Bald Eagles, so it was quite exciting.The preserve is quite accessible, parking is right near an observation platform overlooking the Pamunkey river. It's a beautiful and secluded area with a lot of bird species. A deer nearly ran smack into us while on one of the trails. There are wheat fields surrounding the preserve in which we saw many species of birds, and a few rabbits as well. Earlier in the spring there were lots of Greater Yellowlegs in the fields and along the shore, as well as many Canada Geese.
Here is a link with directions to the preserve.
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/virginia/preserves/art1232.html
We have kayaked the area in the past and heard rather than saw, hundreds of Sora in the wild rice along the riverbanks. (I've yet to get a picture of one). We discovered two perching limbs for the Eagles, noted by the many droppings on the ground and feathers as well. We'll try again next weekend. I did manage to capture a few images of the Golden Eagles, but the quality leaves a lot to be desired. My 400mm lens didn't have enough reach. Here's a link to the images.. My apologies for the poor quality..
http://www.pbase.com/tomlyn/raptors
If you are in the Richmond area, we hope you'll take a short drive to New Kent County and give it a try.
Lynda Blair
