The Bald Eagle Season Ends Too Soon~

Hi Everyone...what a very difficult time it is around the globe.  Wherever you are, whatever your lifestyle, I am certain that you have had a very rude awakening, just as we have here.  It is my hope and prayer that each of us will stay safe, strong and well.  For those in the USA, as has well been documented now, our leader did not take the threat seriously for weeks and now that he has, we are behind on very important moving parts that would have saved lives and made a strong enough statement that people would take this whole thing as dire as it is, as dire as it shall become.  

Huge wake up call for me personally was going to the market.  I have always used the Purell wipes that are offered at the entrances of many markets.  If they didn't have them at one entrance, I would go to the other entrance.  None there I would go to customer service and ask them to please refill containers.  Now that this Pandemic has arrived, I am like a wild woman ;)  I  carry my own sanitizing wipes and gel in the car and I will clean everything off, because at my age, and my already compromised lungs, I am at risk!    After getting in the store then became trying to find the things not that I no longer wanted , but the items that I need.  Those were suddenly the same items that everyone ahead of me needed too, because there was none.  We are finding that we can do without those needs and try and substitute things in their place.  Family, friends and neighbors have helped as they can themselves and we will all get through this sharing our love in ways that we always knew we had, but with much more care, and even more love now. 

  

~Bald Eagle season 2020~

It appears that after great anticipation following a very sad ending to the single eaglet falling from nest last April ending to the hope of this season having a grand celebration with new life, this season is tragically over. In these pictures taken last Friday at sunrise, things looked hopeful. It was day 35 for incubation and both birds were at nest. What happened after those pictures were taken is being pieces together and a summary compiled by myself and others who have been on the scene for the entire season to turn into my contact person who oversees all Bald Eagle nest sites for the state of Kentucky. We may never know exactly the moment things went bad enough that lead to both birds being gone at same time on Sunday afternoon.   We do have video footage made by a dear man by the name of Howard Greer that we call the "General" for our Prospect Bald Eagles Squad...all made up for the fun of it.  If you would be interested in seeing that video, I can send you the link.  It shows a 3 year old female juvenile fly in and then onto nest rim, she hopped into nest and stayed over 20 minutes, more than likely eating what was there.   Friday morning, March 20th all appeared well, and just like what we human kind are going through, things can change in a heartbeat. 

At any rate the season is complete for now.

On April 3, my sister Haze will have survived 11 months following a prognosis of 4 to 6 months without any treatment.  I cannot believe she is still with us...she is so very frail.  Due to the threat we are now under, I am no longer visiting inside her home, but instead visiting her through her front door.  Words just do not describe the pain in our hearts with this.  Please continue to lift us up and I shall do the same for all of you~

Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slideshow presentation after  you have read the narratives~

I am joining in the fun with Eileen at:

Saturday's Critter

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/

Anni at:

http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.com/ 

I'd Rather Be Birdin'

 Linking to I'd Rather B Birdin' 

   

Angie at:  

Mosaic Monday

https://tentoesinthewater.blogspot.com/

& 

Stewart for:

Wild Bird Wednesday

http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/

Sunrise on the bridge, day 35 of Bald Eagle hatch watch. 

Had to have time for myself...so many emotions these days~

I have said it before and I am not ashamed to say it again...I am in such awe when I see the nests created by the Bald Eagles. This pair so deserved to have a grand season following the loss of one young one out of two, two seasons ago and then losing the only survivor of two that was just a couple of weeks from branching... when it fell with most of the nest last season~ 

The images below were taken of the pair following the day that the intruder had come to nest.

The conclusion from Frankfort, our state capitol is that it's more than likely based on our efforts to piece together parts of this puzzle, that one of the pair...I am of the thinking the male is new to the pair and just had never done this before.  They spent too much time off of the nest and even if the incubation went well enough, when the intruder arrived, one did take chase and the intruder stayed away for a while.  When it got brazen enough to return, the adult pair did not attempt to steer it away until after damage was done~

The Ohio River floods often during the Spring showers~

Meet Willa. She is a beautiful one year old Rufous Hummingbird who arrived in Oldham County on, or around October 19th. Fortunately for her, she landed in a yard where a lovely landowner and her daughter have been preparing warm nectar for her all through the Winter months. More than likely she was born in Alaska and should have migrated to Mexico. How she got to Kentucky is anyone's guess. I had the pleasure of meeting them all February ending and I just fell in love with this precious one, so very far away from home. Thankful heart for Anna and Julie who are taking wonderful care of her. Hoping that when Willa decides to leave and return to her own kind, that she does well on her travels.  As of this writing she remains here. An expert is thinking that she should leave by mid-April...we shall see what she decides to do soon~ 

I introduced you to handsome Petey in my last post. Petey is a Wintering Western Tanager visitor in St. Matthews, KY since last November.  He happened to join my friend Lee and his wife Linda's yard and they have been caring for him ever since. He may decide that their home, is going to be his forever home. Such a handsome bird~

I took our recent 3 day visiting Eastern Gray Tree Frog out into the yard. I placed it in a couple of places, making sure it was just right and not near any squirrel dray. I felt pretty good about the final choice and I think the frog did too. After a few minutes, it hopped towards the creek, and jumped in, swam a few feet and came up on the other side I took a couple of pictures and turned and walked away. 
It was free to do now whatever Gray Tree Frogs enjoy~

One day on my way home, I took a back road near our place and was absolutely thrilled to see not one, but two male Northern Harriers hunting the land.  I was truly amazed at the perfect timing and got a few nice enough images, that I was quite pleased.  These birds migrate down here from the far regions of the far North.  We have seen them on our travels out West, and the Winter over visitors I have seen in the past was mostly females.  These birds are gorgeous and have a nick name called the Gray Ghost...the ease with which they flew, landed, and their colouration, I now know why~

It's that time of year when we can listen to the call of the Spring Peepers~

Along the walk path that leads to the Bald Eagles in Prospect there are a lot of other birds including a few beautiful American Kestrels~

About a 6 miles ride from the Bald Eagle nest site in Prospect there is another Bald Eagle nest.  It had been very easy access, pulling up across from it and just putting your window down.  The Spring canopy of green is now covering the view and so it will not be so easy to keep up with.  It appeared my last visit that they were doing well and about 7 to 10 days behind the other nest~

Since last November I have been drawn to this Bald Eagle site where there are also other different birds just about every time I go. This day after visiting my sister I captured these 4 Double Crested Cormorants. At first they flew away when they spotted me. As I was getting ready to leave, one of them returned, but this time it landed on a large piece of fast moving drift wood...then a second bird and a third landed. The third one landed on a different, smaller even faster moving piece of drift wood. The fourth one had a bit of trouble finding a place to land, but in the end they were all together again. I have also seen Pied-billed Grebes, Hooded Mergansers and a pair of River Otters

With the naked eye, I have very good vision. At first I thought that I was watching a helpless River Otter drowning. It was a terrible site and then after I watched it make it to shore, I realized... So let's just say there are probably going to be baby River Otters in coming weeks. The Otter ran up out of the water...how many have ever seen a River Otter out of water? I had not ever seen one! It was running so fast and then I spotted the larger male come out of the water on the far left of picture. Then he once again pursued her and jumped in the water to continue on with what they do~ 

Eastern Bluebird in our backyard~

Male American Cardinal at Cave Hill Cemetery~ 

 Gray Squirrel getting the last of the remaining Rose of Sharon seeds in the yard~

 Another one resting a couple of week ago down at my friend's house, before we placed ourselves in isolation~  

After taking a few things at my sister's front door, I went down one of the main roads from her neighborhood that leads to Cave Hill Cemetery.  I wanted to try and locate Barred Owls and never found them, but saw a female Opossum collecting leaves with her tail to fill her nest with~

A Pigeon flies with a twig in it's beak more than likely also nest building material~

I may have shared this before, but came upon it the other day.  It was a few photos that I took of Red-eared Sliders sunning on a log last January.  I took the images and placed them in this little creation...just because~

Take a good look at this image ;( Huge Sigh!

One early morning I taken the dogs out for their first outing around 5:00. I always notice the Moon and often times will bring out my cameras and shoot some pictures of it and also Venus when I can get them close together. The Moon was full and shadowed just enough to give it a great appearance. I grabbed the cameras. Just the day before I had changed the one camera from continuous shooting to single...UGH, or otherwise this story would have a totally different outcome. I shared this with my nephew Roy at the time and my exact words were SHOOTOHSHOOT! The few seconds that it takes to shoot one image to the next is all it took to miss a chance of a lifetime. As many times as I have done this in my many years of photography I have never once seen this happen before. A black subject was suddenly climbing right up my Moon shot and the only thing I got was the two contrails that you can faintly see across the moon shot and then as it lifted over the top of Moon, you can see slivers of it a little better. I PROMISE the jet plane was there and it is something I have seen over and over again this morning in my memory, and I just hate that I missed snagging it~

The Louisville Water Tower before sunrise a couple of weeks ago~