I mentioned in an earlier post that someone had dumped a deer carcass near the intersection of Fouche Gap Road and Lavender Trail, not far from our house. On Saturday our neighbor stopped to talk when I was walking the dogs. He said that a bald eagle had been feeding on the deer carcass. I didn’t see it when we went down the mountain, but when we came back up, it was feeding. I stopped as soon as I saw it and took some pictures. Unfortunately, all I had was my phone, which has a wide angle lens.
The eagle is the little speck that looks like it’s part of the shadows where the road curves back to the left. If you squint and take my word for it, you can see the bird standing on the carcass. Here’s a blowup that’s not much better.
I tried to get closer, but as soon as I moved, the eagle saw me and immediately flew up into a tree.
The image quality is not good, but it’s the best I could do with the phone. I cropped down as far as I could without losing too much detail. I took my little Canon with a short telephoto lens on my dog walks on Sunday and Monday but didn’t see the eagle. I’m afraid the deer carcass is so worked over now that the eagle may not come back.
This was almost certainly one of a pair that has been nesting on Berry College property for the last few years. Berry has a Web cam at the nesting site. According to Berry’s Web page, this is the “first documented nest in the modern history of Floyd County.” There are two eagle nests on the Berry campus, but it’s not clear whether there are two nesting pairs. One nest is close to the main entrance of the college, and the other is somewhere on Lavender Mountain in an inaccessible area. The inaccessible nest is probably only a few miles from our house.
One pair has laid, hatched and fledged eaglets from the accessible nest.
Berry College had planned to construct an athletic facility near where one nest is located but has moved the construction site away to avoid interfering with the eagles.
I have never seen a bald eagle in Georgia, so it was a real thrill to see this one. There is an eagle nest on an old bridge over the Tennessee River near Scottsboro, Alabama. I used to cross that bridge almost every week when I worked in Huntsville, and I am pretty sure I saw an eagle on that nest on one occasion. The only other time I have seen eagles is when Leah and I visited Alaska on our honeymoon in 2005.
How exciting! They are magnificent birds. I know about the Berry eagles through involvement with eagles here in Tidewater Virginia and the Wildlife Center of Virginia on the Blue Ridge.
Mark, may I suggest that, if it is not just too grisly, you move carcasses away from the road? Many an eagle, many another creature has been struck by an automobile while feeding roadside.
Still thinking about Zoe.
It’s always so wonderful to see an eagle. We haven’t seen one in years. When we lived on the Olympic Peninsula, we saw them everyday. It was always thrilling. I love that Berry College changed their plans to accommodate the eagles. With more nesting areas, there will be more eagles in your future! I can’t wait to see the pics!
Minnie — I had actually thought about the danger of a car hitting the eagle, especially after I saw it fly up from the carcass. It flew fairly low over the road. I think the carcass is so far gone at this point that the eagle may not feed there again. It would be a real mess to try to move it.
Thanks for the thoughts about Zoe. The not knowing is what is really bothering Leah.
Robin — From the way Berry College has handled the nesting eagles, they seem as excited about them as anyone. They had planned to move their new athletic facility a short distance from the nest, but apparently after some consultation and thinking about it, they decided to move it even further away. I haven’t always been enthusiastic about their stewardship, but I think they’re doing things the right way now.
This is so cool, Mark. Plus, given that you only had your cell phone camera, the shot of the eagle in the tree is just fine.
Scott — I was pretty happy with the image of the eagle in the tree, but I sure wish I had brought a camera with a longer lens. I usually prefer wide angle shots, but this one really begged for a closeup.