By Lawrence Meyer
September 2022
The last two summers the nesting pair of eagles that have been there since 2015 were not often seen in their familiar perches in the Hutchison Field trees along the river.
Did this mean the nest was abandoned?
Apparently not.
A good deal of luck converged to confirm over the past few days that the nest was used successfully the summer of 2022.
I was lucky first.
On September 8 about 9 a.m. stopped by and saw three eagles, all soaring high over the marsh, back and forth from Granite Ave to TTOR wood’s edge by the canoe launch.
I’m sure of the count as all 3 were together near TTOR woods. One was a mature for sure. One was immature, or possibly even a juvenile: had very ragged edge wing feathers and the gangly look of juvenile. The third I thought either a late immature or a mature. A cool wind was blowing and they were enjoying it.
Later that week I checked ebird and there it was reported another birder saw three at South Pond in Randolph, just an hour after I saw them.
That the three are traveling together and perching together suggested to me at least one is a female. Males don’t seem to like the company of stray immatures. This birder later added photos to her post and identified two as matures and one as a juvenile. But I can’t confirm this from the picture she posted. Behavior would suggest she is correct however, as a threesome traveling together is very most likely parents and the juvenile. This would confirm nesting at Neponset in 2022.
Larry has been keeping an eye on local eagles for years… check out these posts on young eagles seen soaring, plus eagles in Milton, and the eagles in 2018, more eagles in 2016, and back when he saw eagles, but no nests.
Photo credit: Eagle by DenSmith is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
