November is an extra-busy time for America’s national symbol and Georgia’s most majestic bird, the bald eagle. Eagles are getting ready for their nesting season — one of the few Georgia species that nest during the coldest part of winter.
Georgia’s eagles are courting, mating and building new nests or shoring up old ones as they prepare for the next generation. By the end of this month, the females will be laying an average of two eggs each in their huge, bulky nests, usually in the tops of tall pines and cypress trees near open water. While we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve, eagles will be incubating their eggs or tending to newly hatched eaglets.
Eagles generally mate for life, but, perhaps to renew their bonds, they often undergo elaborate pre-mating rituals involving vocalizations and breathtaking acrobatic flight displays. The most noted such act may be the so-called “cartwheel display,” in which an eagle pair flies to great altitude, locks talons and tumbles, or cartwheels, back toward earth. At the last moment, the pair separates and pulls out of the tumble.
In another annual bond-renewal activity, eagle pairs also will add new sticks and branches to their massive nests, which may be used for many years. An eagle’s nest, the largest nest of any North American bird, may be 15 feet across, weigh more than a ton and be more than 60 feet off the ground.
The nests usually are next to large bodies of water because fish are a bald eagle’s primary food. Eagles, though, readily will eat carrion and other food if it is available. And they are not above robbery: They will quickly chase down an osprey or gull carrying a fish and, using their powerful beaks and talons, snatch the morsel away from the hapless bird. The midair robberies often result in spectacular aerial maneuvers.
Georgia wildlife biologists are hoping for another good bald eagle nesting season. Last season, nearly a third of Georgia’s 159 counties had nesting eagles, despite a harsh winter. Biologists counted 118 successful nests and 187 fledged young. As usual, many of the first-year young headed north during the summer. Some, though, will return and join the others that live here year-round.
The bald eagle’s comeback from near extinction in the 1960s is a remarkable success story. Since an intensive eagle restoration program began in the 1980s, Georgia’s eagle numbers have steadily increased across the state.
In the sky: Although the Taurid meteor shower has reached its peak, it will continue through the weekend. Look to the east from about midnight until dawn.
The moon was new this morning and thus won’t be visible tonight. But look for a thin crescent moon low in the west just after dark on Monday, said astronomer David Dundee with Tellus Science Museum. Mercury and Mars set in the west less than an hour after sunset. Mars appears near the moon Sunday night. Venus is low in the east just before dawn. Jupiter is high in the east at sunset. Saturn is not easily seen right now.
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