wooohoooo this is a great sight to see for my poor tired eclipsed out eyes!

Thanks so much Debs for the info on Goldie and Merritt from OWL. I'll be talking to them today and I'll ask if it's ok to bring those two shots they have on the site over here.

Mary!! first off it's soooo good to see you and secondly what a great help you will be here! That is so cool that you actually watched a Golden nest! I think those pics you posted are most valuable for us to be able to see the parents and the young! I have to come back when I'm not so tired and study those legs and that beak on the cuties. They sure look much thicker than our Bald's do. I really hope you stay around and give opinions on others as they're posted since you have close up experience.

Hi Doug! thanks about the thread. I was mulling it over and over and over for a while then I just thought "get off the pot" and fired an email off to Judyb. I think it's a great place for people to bring their questionable juveniles. I still don't know about Linda's, that one will be going to the expert and yes it sure is a beauty! Well they all will be going to the experts but I have little doubt about Scott's. Now yours on the other hand seeing those naked legs and the white around the head now has me thinking Bald. But it too will go off for confirmation. Gee I have no idea what's in that nest Doug but they eat mammals so could be anything! I'll go back and look again cause I was rushed.

ETA: holy moly Doug!! I didn't even see that but you're right! Surely it can't be an adult they'd not carry that would they? It has to be a juvenile and the collar is clearly visible. Boy the people who tracked that were in for a shock! :blink:

Mary if you have other shots of the juveniles standing up fire away ok?

I think that's enough juveniles for round one for the experts. Any further juveniles posted will be put into round two.

Man this is great and I hope more and more people bring suspects and experiences here!

Lori...I do have a few other pictures of the young'uns on that Golden nest which I will post shortly. Most of my pics from that year are unfortunately on my last computer which isn't hooked up. I might talk Mr. PE into setting it up long enough for me to retrieve all my older eagle pics!! Doncha just love those legs in that one shot??

Hi Mary ....oh gee that would be good if you can get your man to do that! Tell him we're all on bended knee begging Those legs are gorgeous! I think I'd love watching the nest but like my African Eagles I don't think I could stand the first few days where the oldest does what it does to the other(s). At least with our Bald's they try but we know they aren't always successful thank heavens or we'd not have had sweet Tiny

I just hung up from a very nice conversation with Bev at OWL and she said I most certainly could post their pics so here they are. I told her about this thread and she thought it was a great idea to learn about them

Merritt left Goldie right



Goldie



When I look at that shot of Goldie I think of how thin the head shape is as someone else already mentioned. Now that is the one thing I know I've seen in some juveniles on either Doug's or Linda's thread or both. Maybe it was even on Scotts but I know I've seen juvies and thought to myself "that head looks different"

This is looking good - great idea, Lori!

Quote by: PacNorWest

BTW Lori, What the heck are those creatures in the Golden Nest? Some look like they have tracking collars ?? Juvenile coyotes?

Doug, if you're asking about the picture from the Institute for Wildlife Studies, my recollection is that one of the reasons IWS set up the program to reintroduce bald eagles to the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California is that once the bald eagles disappeared (at least partly due to DDT and other chemicals that were dumped into the water, or that flowed in as runoff from agriculture, back in the 1950s, I think) - golden eagles moved to the islands and took over. The islands are home to the highly endangered island fox - and while I'm not sure why, the golden eagles preyed on them, and the bald eagles didn't.

I think there was also a secondary challenge to the foxes - some disease brought to the mainland, I think. But relocating the golden eagles off the islands and setting up a strong population of bald eagles (which apparently discourages golden eagles from trying to move into an area) has been helping the fox population recover.

I'm afraid I don't have time to look up all the facts and post something more definitive - but I would expect some of the foxes might have been tracked - I know there's tracking going on now.

Hi Judy * Thanks for your answer to my question. There are three with collars in the photo. They look fairly intact. Weird that they would bring them to the nest, but not eat them. Thanks again. Cheers!

Thanks very much Judy and thanks again for opening the thread for me. That was a really interesting read about the island fox and how the Bald's leave them alone and the Golden did not! Doug's right there's THREE in there and a possible 4th beside the chick partly eaten so that's a real blow to that program

Hi Doug, man alive that's unreal huh? your post had me looking again and I couldn't believe it. Why oh why would the parents bring 'that' much food to just one chick? That's crazy :blink:

So I'm back here to collect the three juvies and send them off to the FWS for ID's. I think we have 2 Bald's and 1 Golden in this batch so we'll see what I hear back

wooooooohooooooooooo this is exciting!! I already heard back from the FWS and here's the email along with bonus notes!! So Linda and Doug are both Bald's as we expected and Scott yours is a Golden as we expected! When I sent the photos off I named them according to their owner, that's why you'll see your names in the response. Good thinkin' huh?

Hi Lori,

Your identifications are correct in all cases - congratulations! In the case of "Doug's eagle," note the clearly-visible unfeathered shanks in the first photo and the scattered white in the wings in the third photo. In the case of "Linda's", note the extensive pale belly - you would never see this on a Golden. Finally, in the case of "Scott's", note how the white on this juvenile Golden is restricted to the base of the tail and two patches at the base of the primaries - not scattered around the wing. This is especially clear in Scott's third photo, which makes a good comparison with Doug's third photo.

Now back out we all go to get more juveniles and I hope other people get some too!

Many, many thanks to my contact who is the Senior Forensic Scientist/Ornithologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory