May 3, 2020

I motored my pontoon boat out of the slip at the Richmond Yacht Basin and into the flood waters. The morning was bright with full sun that had already risen above the trees. The browns, blues and greens popped, like big elements of a painting ... almost a color overload. Hundreds of hues so prominent in every field of view dominated by the muddy brown James, just two days removed from another moderate flood … nearly 14 feet at the Westham Gage. The green of the vines, shrubs and trees back lit by the bright blue sky, so vibrant and alive. And by mid-morning, as the clouds overtook the blue sky and dulled some of the colors, others began to pop as we came closer to the shorelines with deeper water. The ferns came to life. It was awesome.

Overall, the eagles were quiet and no news on the breeding front, which is also good news. The four pair of resident eagles are still raising young as all made flights back to the nest. Soon, the eaglets will be taking their first flight (fledging) with the expected date of the first eaglet to fledge around May 20. The two nests that can be seen from the river both had eaglets visible on them. Barb & Treble’s nest, is easily seen and were both on the nest, with their two, large offspring. One adult perched on a limb outside of the nest while the other three were in the nest, each one feeding, probably on some type of carrion brought back to the nest from a field, or a catfish or shad brought in from the river.

The eagle/osprey encounters were few. I did watch Varina & Enon as they perched high in their territory, keeping a keen eye on the osprey hunting for fish. As soon as one would catch a fish, one of the eagles was off for the chase. The first two attempts, the eagles failed in stealing the fish. They caused the osprey to drop their catch in the river at the first close encounter/attack. On the third attempt, the eagles gave the osprey a head start. I’ve seen eagles give the osprey head starts before, but today I wondered if the eagles know which osprey is which. For example, if Bob Jr. or Lilly, the pair of osprey upriver of Varina & Enon are fishing downriver and catch one, perhaps Varina & Enon (eagles) are waiting for Bob Jr. or Lilly (osprey) to fly upriver, back toward their nest, passing closer to the perched eagles, making the flight to steal the fish a much shorter distance. 

I believe the eagles know each osprey that nest close by. Somehow they can distinguish the differences between the osprey, and pehaps it's as simple as looking them in the eye. I can only think of one eagle territory in Jefferson’s Reach that has more than three osprey nests within it … Virginia & James. With that thought, an eagle would really only have to recognize four to six osprey when are working the river, hunting the shallows for fish. At times, there are other osprey moving up and down the river, but overall, I believe they recognize each of the nearby nesting osprey. Eagles are smart, have incredible eye sight and they remember. 

Speaking of the osprey, that nest I spoke about last week … the one precariously balanced/built on the outskirts of a sycamore tree has fallen. They were incubating eggs, and it’s the second year in a row, their nest has fallen, only this time it was much earlier in the incubation period and while they have already started to rebuid (nearly in the same spot again!), perhaps they will have time for another clutch.

Curiously, these osprey need names. Whomever reads this should submit names for these osprey below and we can get them named for next week. The naming of birds always happens on the boat, but this seems like a fine time to change that up. No other changes in the other osprey in Jefferson's Reach nests, except the one still being built last week now seems to be finished. There did not appear to be an osprey incubating eggs yet, so perhaps next week …

Other notes on the river include seeing the minor bees along the south facing bluffs starting to emerge. This colony I’ve watched for years has thousands of bees ready to emerge in late April and early May, but this particular morning only a few were active. The temperature was warm, so I expect if they had emerged, they would have been active, so perhaps the colony as a whole is just a little late as compared to last year. Next week should be a different story, especially if the morning is a warm one. I like to motor the Discovery Barge II slowly, pull up to the bluff, turn off the motor and listen. The hum of 1000’s of minor bees buzzing along the bluff and the sound bouncing off the hard pack sand/silt is amazingly loud, especially when you cup your ears and face them. The male minor bee lives for about four weeks as an adult while the females will live up to six weeks.  By July 4, they are long gone until next year, late April and May of 2021.

The Prothonotary Warblers were quite active this week. These tiny birds sure pack a punch with the loud calls they exude. We spotted some high in the trees as well, and a couple along the bank, some in pockets of light such as the one in the photo to the right. Click here to be transferred to the Audubon Field Guide website and listen to the sound of a Prothonotary Warbler. Scroll down the page, on the right side you will find 'Songs and Calls'. Click those calss. 

The great blue heron eggs are starting to hatch and many heron are starting to spend a little more time in their feeding territories. I saw Charlize the Heron fly into her feeding territory to feed on small shad. Charlize is an interesting bird as she will let you get close. The photo (upper right) is her after going into the water to get a fish to eat. Once they eat, often times, they’ll drink some river water, then ‘rouse’.  Rousing is when a bird fluffs its feathers out, shakes the water off and then settles back to normal feather placement. The stop action of these birds during a rousing moment can be quite fun to view.

All in all, it was a quiet morning on the river. Even without the usual activity level, there is always so much more going on within the ecosystem. Add in some of the amazing "Jefferson's Reach" history, well, that is one fine morning full of things to think and talk about. Until next week ….

Capt. Mike

Bald Eagle Update:  April 20, 2020

Driving through Varina on the way to my pontoon boat, the Discovery Barge II, I peeked down at my console and noticed the 33 degree air temperature outside. “Wow” I thought. "Sure didn’t feel that cold walking to the truck thirty minutes ago." As we passed the James River at Kingsland Reach Marina, Lynda, my wife, and I got a good view of the river and a fog bank as thick as catfish chowder sat just upriver of Kingsland Reach, like a huge wall. My mind skipped over the dangerous combination of boats and fog, and wondered to the awesome photography possiblities …. the sunrise, purple martins, great blue heron, the beautiful James River’s banks and that wall of tiny water droplets. The elements were there.

The osprey are in various phases of breeding. While most are incubating eggs, some are still building nests. The few pair still constructing their nests are close to full, and watching them fly with branches and sticks is something to behold and remains one of many favorite things to see on the river. Osprey have minds like an architect, as they build. As construction moves forward, a particular shaped branch is needed and one that only the osprey knows. Sometimes, it’s a straight, single piece while other times, it’s a large piece with lots of small branches. My favorite is the branch with a forked end. When an osprey approaches the nest with this shaped branch, they hover, and slowly drop down, turning the branch and inserting the single pointed end directly into a space between other branches in the nest. It’s so exact, or at least seems to be, as portrayed in the image of the osprey approaching its nest. Almost every osprey nest will last the season, while many last several seasons. Occasionally you'll find a pair of osprey that are determined to build in a bad location. One pair on Jones Neck have yet to chose a good location. It's their third year on the river, and eventually, they will learn what type of base it will take for a solid nest. I’ll get a photo of the nest that seems to be hovering on very thing branches. It fell last year just before the eggs hatched, and they rebuilt in the exact same spot. This year, hopefully, the nest makes it, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Bald Eagle Update, April 13, 2020.

With the current state of Covid-19 interrupting the world, and Discover the James' Bald Eagle Tours coming to a screeching halt, the present seems like a good time to write. No more excuses. It's been far too long since I had (made) the time to write about the resident eagles of Jefferson's Reach, a stretch of river on the James that holds eight pair of eagles. To be specific, Jefferson's Reach starts at a large sycamore tree on Hatcher Island and ends at a large sycamore tree on the east side of Jones Neck. They are both the tallest trees in their respective areas and each marks the edge of an eagle's territory.

I motored my pontoon boat, the Discovery Barge II, slowly through Jefferson’s Reach, seeking out each pair and watching their flight patterns, activity and actions hoping to determine the success or failure of each pair's breeding season.  For some, it was easy to see their success, or failure, while others were a little harder to determine. Given the incredible comeback of the bald eagle on the James River and how much harder it is to have successful breeding seasons year after year, I’d say the eagles of Jefferson’s Reach are right on par. The abundance of mature bald eagles looking for territories is making it increasingly difficult for the current resident eagles as these ‘intruders’ or ‘interlopers’ are causing problems by either crushing eggs, killing chicks, or keeping the adults away from the nest too long for other forces to that cause failure such as storms and cold temperatures. In the photo above and to the right, Barb & Treble's two offspring perch on the nest. They are hard to see, so look close.

The resident eagle's eggs hatch in March which coincides with the return of the anadromous fish that migrate into the James. Anadromous fish live in saltwater and migrate up into freshwater rivers to spawn. Hickory shad, American shad, herring and alewife fill the river system by the millions and the food supply for many birds is multiplied. While eagles are scavengers and will eat just about anything, their primary diet is fish. Another welcoming change (for osprey lover’s as well as the eagles) at this time is the return of the migratory osprey who begin to arrive in early March. By now, mid-April, all the osprey are back at their nesting sites, some with full nests built high and strong on channel markers and trees along the river bank.  Many, but not all osprey, are already incubating eggs. April is a time when the osprey and bald eagles are at full odds.  The eagles are keenly watching the osprey hunting and will leave their perch as soon as an osprey is successful in their hunt. An eagle will chase down an osprey with a fish and one of three things will happen.  The eagle will take the fish, the osprey will get away with the fish, or the osprey will drop the fish and neither will feed on it. Additionally, the osprey are hyper territorial since they have just laid their eggs, meaning the interactions between these two raptors is at the highest right now and will probably remain this way for weeks to come.  

Out of the eight pair of eagles in Jefferson’s Reach, two pair have failed.  Nesting success or failure is noted by the overall activity of each pair in their territory and whether or not they are returning to the nest over long periods of observation.  Dark Beak, a resident male, seemed poised to finally have a successful breeding season in 2020 after three years of fighting to keep his small territory viable. Last spring he lost his mate, butd last fall, Dark Beak accepted a new mate after an amazing two-week courtship. A female came into his territory and ultimately won the trust (and heart) of Dark Beak as the two spent time in separate trees, each day becoming closer until  they were both perched side by side, wings touching, on a large sycamore branch.  Soon after their courtship they built a nest, and on December 24, his new mate was named Merry in the spirit of the season.  Today, Dark Beak & Merry are inseparable as seen in the photo above.

During Dark Beak's three years on the river, he never built a nest until after accepting Merry last fall. They started construction of a nest at the end of November, 2019, but gave up on that initial location and began construction of another nest on a nearby tree. Neither location seemed like the best choice as both were on the outer branches of a large tree. Not ideal, but some eagles choose to build on the outer branches as opposed to constructing closer to the trunk and the connecting larger, more stable branches.

As I motored my pontoon boat around the bend, and into their territory, I peered towards the thin neck of land between the river and swamp, hoping to see a white head sticking out from the nest. I kept looking but the nest was gone. It had fallen completely out of the tree. In mid March, Dark Beak & Merry had not yet laid eggs and I was beginning to wonder if they would at all this year.  Perhaps they did, but it would have been on the later side of laying. Either way, they will not be raising eaglets this year ….  hopefully 2021 will be their inaugural success. As of April 12, 2020, they had not started construction of another nest, or at least not within the visible range of the river.

The other pair showing signs of a failed breeding season is Varina & Enon, another incredible pair of resident eagles. The female, Varina, has been solid like a rock over the course of the eleven years I've been observig her.  Enon is her second mate over that time. Both have been perching far from their nest, with no return trips to the nest, indicating a failed breeding season. On my last three visits to see them, over the last month, they did not have activity at the nest and for the second year in a row, it seems they did not even lay eggs.  2019 & 2020 marks the first time this pair had two successive failed seasons. Three years ago, in 2018, Varina & Enon were the only pair in Jefferson’s Reach to have a successful breeding season and they fledged two eagles from the nest.   Every other pair of resident eagles in Jefferson’s Reach failed, creating the worst breeding season of the eleven I’ve observed. 2018’s poor reproduction was more than likely due to three winter storms that tore through the area at the time the eagle’s eggs were hatching, a most critical and venerable time for the hatchlings. Varina & Enon’s nest is big and old and is still nestled in a pine tree about a half-mile from the river. 

Four pair of eagles showing definite signs of success are Bandit & Trey, Henry & Duchess, Barb & Treble and Baba & Pops. They are all making forays back to their nests at regular intervals, and most of the time, only one eagle is present on the river (meaning the other is probably on the nest).  Occasionally both eagles are perched on the river hunting for food, while keeping a sharp eye out for intruders as well as an eye on their nests. I was surprised at the size of the eaglets on the nest. They were bigger than I would have thought, but then again, they grow so fast. In the photo, you can see the size of the Barb & Treble’s eaglets as they rise high on the nest. The only other nest where I could observe eaglets on the nest were the newest pair of eagles, Henry & Duchess. I believe they have two offspring on the nest as well. In the photo to the left, Henry was flying back to the nest with a small shad but decided to eat it in flight!