Transcript
Bounce. The whole nest shook. Now, understand, this nest was about five feet in diameter. Yep, five feet. Bounce, bounce. The whole nest shook again.
The pair of bald eagle youngsters were trying to figure out just how to get enough exercise to take those enormous wings to the strength they needed to fly. I call it trampolining. When the babies get to this point, they jump up and down and up and down inside the nest. They get tired of that, they push each other aside. Not a lot of room in there. These babies now have wings the length of the adult wings. That’s running seven to sometimes eight feet, depending upon if you’re a girl, and they’re eight feet. Yeah. Bounce, bounce. They were doing strengthening exercises.
Sometimes they would push each other aside. One eaglet would slam into the other one and push it to the far side of the nest so it would have room to bounce, bounce. Well, you know, that didn’t last long. No. Because there was a whole world out there, and going straight up and down and bouncing, that just wasn’t going to cut it. No.
So sometimes one of the babies would line up to one side of the nest, take a run and go bounce, bounce, just like on a trampoline. Get to the other end, throw on the brakes and turn around and bounce, bounce back across. Wore me out watching them. So they did that for a number of days. Like I said, I call it trampolining. Just looked just like a couple of human kids up and down on a trampoline.
Well, those wings were long. The nest was getting shorter. Yeah. So what do they do next? Well, an eaglet will start looking up above him, eyeing the branches that crowd over the top of the nest. And on one of those runs, bounce, run up. That baby leaps for that lowest limb, hangs on for dear life, is scared but proud.
Now, this baby has done what is known as branching. And this baby is actually using the nest now as a safety net. So if it misses that branch above it, it’ll tumble back down into the nest and be okay.
Well, now we got a baby up on the lowest branch. And the other baby said, “Whoa, wait a minute. What are you doing up there? I want to be up there with you. Yes, I do.” Well, here we go again. Competition is fierce in the bald eagle world.
So that first baby decides to jump back down into the nest and try that leap to the branch again. So it more or less tumbles, falls back into the nest, looks around, thinks real hard about it, takes a short run inside of that nest and leaps for that lowest branch again. Oh, well, now this leap was much more assured. This baby had accomplished something. Now he was above his sibling.
That didn’t last long. Only took a couple of days for that other baby to figure out how to go branching too. So now when I came to look at the nest, if I didn’t see any heads in the nest, I didn’t see any bodies, I didn’t see any wings in the nest, I had to search in all the branches up above the nest to see where the babies were.
They really didn’t want to spend time down in the nest except when a parent should appear with a fish. At which point babies would come tumbling out of the overhead branches down into the nest. And everybody fought for that fish. I told you they were aggressive.
Well, this branching exercise sometimes lasted ten days, sometimes a little longer. Just depended upon the babies. You could see them up there in the branches and you could see them looking out and about. And eagles have supreme eyesight not long after they hatch. So now they’re up there in the tree over the nest, but they can see the parent coming.
And then they realize there’s a whole world out there. A whole world that stretches away from the branch, away from the tree, stretches way across the lake. Oh, to travel that way. And you can see the baby thinking about it. How do I get way out there?
Well, it’s not long before a baby is down in the nest and looking across from one side of that about six-foot-diameter nest out to the openness beyond the edge of the nest. And the wind is ruffling some. That wind tickles them, teases them, says, “Come on, try it. Just try it.”
And that baby will gather himself up, stretch up, flap out his wings, take a running absolute dash for the opposite side of the nest and launch out. Gone. No safety net. Flying. We call it fledging. That baby had fledged.
And all of a sudden, baby realizes, I need to find somewhere to land very quickly because now I’ve got all this open air above me, below me and all around me. I’ve never seen a fledge that didn’t actually end in kind of a controlled crash landing.
But the parents have been pretty good about making the nest. So there are trees around that the babies can land on, especially on that first flight. So here that baby is, gets himself right on top of that branch, grabs a hold of it, shakes that whole tree it’s landed in. And they always turn around and look back at the nest they have just left.
And they pull themselves together and that arrogant bald eagle look appears on their face. And they look at their sibling that’s still in the nest. And they say, “Well, look at what I just did. I can fly.”
And the baby that’s still in the nest, that little eaglet is thinking, “Well, darn it all, why am I still here? I think I’ll try it too.” And it backs up to the opposite rim, and it takes a run and it gets to the other rim and it stops. Does it quite have the courage yet to make that last leap?
Well, you know, that kind of living in a now very small world is not going to last long. And it doesn’t usually. Within a couple of days, sometimes four or five days, that second baby is also taking that run and that leap out into the air. And it also does a crash landing into the nearest oak tree, grabs a branch, holds on, realizes it’s safe, and then it too gathers itself up and stands up straight and tall and proud.
Huh? Two babies out. Two new eagles loose in the world. Two new eagles, sure it’s their world and they’re not gonna share it.
And that shows up pretty darn quick because here comes the parent into the nest with a fish. Both babies make a beeline back to the nest. Everybody piles in, and suddenly there’s two babies and a parent and a fish in that nest, and, oh, to heck with flying. I’m gonna stay here and I’m gonna to get that fish and its going to be mine.
And that’s how it is in the bald eagle world. Starts off with a bounce and ends up with two new youngsters out and about and there for me and you to enjoy as they learn just how it is that bald eagles take to the air and own it.
Thank you for coming through the open door with me and listening to the traffic as it goes by as I talk about the joy, the excitement of watching bald eagles fledge, leave the nest the first time. Take care. Be safe.
