Thursday evening Doug got a call that there was an eaglet hanging out on the beach to the right of where Nest #15 used to be.
The eaglet tended to come to the deck of the people staying there, & hang out in the morning & evening, & then disappear for the day.
The man*s son was feeding the eaglet fishing bait anchovies.
The man was worried about the eaglet, & called Doug.
Doug went to check it out the next day, but the eaglet was nowhere to be seen when he arrived.
The man also called me & left a message, so i called him back.
He had called MARS, & described the eaglet, & MARS had told him to capture the eaglet & bring him in.
The man was quite concerned.
So i asked if i could come over & try to capture the eaglet.
The man agreed that i could.
i think he was relieved.
With my heart in my throat, beating way too fast, i headed over there with the capture gear.
The home is right on the water, on a small bank, & there is a deck all around.
i searched the deck first.
No eaglet.
i went down to the beach to look for him.
No sign of him.
An adult eagle flew from my right to my left & landed in the top of a tree.
A-ha!
Now the eaglet will announce himself.
But he didn*t.
i started to walk that way, down the beach.
Then i heard an eaglet calling.
i kept walking, & finally spotted him, standing on a stump on the beach right in front of the bank.
i made my way towards him.
He was watching me, but otherwise did not react to my approach.
i would go closer, with my head down & eyes averted, then i would stop & slowly look up.
If the eaglet was not reacting, then i would do that again.
i got to within three feet of the eaglet!
He didn*t seem to mind at all!
He was looking at me, then looking around.
He*d look at me with one eye, then the other, then with both eyes.
At one point a parent landed in the tree above his head, & he started calling out a storm.
It was as though i wasn*t even there.
i got a good look at him.
He looked in good shape, bright eyes, feathers in good condition, he even had a full crop.
i saw no parasites moving on his feathers.
i walked back up the beach to get the capture gear.
i was terrified of not doing it right, & kept practicing it in my head.
My mouth was dry with fear.
i decided to go back empty handed & observe some more.
i approached using the same method.
The eaglet was gone!
The i realized he had somehow changed position to the upturned root of a stump.
i got to within three feet of him & sat down.
He looked at me, & me at him.
At this point i realized that in my terror, i had forgotten to bring my camera!
i could*ve gotten such a nice video of him sitting there, only feet away.
i observed him again for five or ten minutes.
i decided i wasn*t convinced that he needed to be captured, so went back to my van & drove to a friend*s to borrow their phone & call Maj at MARS.
i learned that having a full crop is not necessarily a good sign.
There can be problems that make a crop full, or because the crop is full, & cannot empty.
i also learned that in capture, an eaglet may throw up what is in their crop & breathe it in.
Not good.
So Maj said to give it two hours, then go back & observe again.
In the meantime, she would make her way to Hornby & observe the eaglet herself.
Yay!
The big guns!
i am off the hook.
So, i went back to my work.
Two hours later, i got a call from the man who had captured Niner.
He was on the island, & had offered to save Maj a trip.
He & i would observe the eaglet again, & he would decide whether the eaglet needed capturing or not.
If so, he would bring the eaglet in to MARS, as he has done before.
So, off we went to look for the eaglet.
Well, no sign of the eaglet on the deck, so we went to the beach.
No sign of the eaglet on the beach, where he was before, either.
The adult was still in that same tree.
i looked everywhere around where the eaglet had been.
i even found fresh poop.
But no eaglet.
i heard eaglet calls!
They were coming from back on the land, & higher up.
i wasn*t sure i was hearing what i thought i was hearing.
But then i heard it again.
So i headed towards the sound.
The sound took me back to the house, & then down the driveway we came in on.
The sound got louder, the further down the driveway i walked.
i finally got to where the sound was the loudest.
In the forest, with a solid floor of ferns & stinging nettle, was where the sound was coming from.
i found Mike & said bring the car.
Then we headed into the forest.
The eaglet calling was getting louder & closer.
i was sure we would find him on the ground amoungst the huge ferns, or perched in a short tree.
Sometimes the calling seemed to come from higher in the air.
At one point the sound was coming from right between where Mike & i were standing.
We were sure we found the eaglet.
But then the calling stopped, & we could not find him or hear him again.
But there was a big fir tree there, & there were many poop shots on the greenery at it*s base.
Had we found the Nest Tree?
It seemed we had.
Was the eaglet back in the Nest?
Or was this a second eaglet?
At this point, i do not know.
i am hoping that the people who are staying at the house now will call us if they see the eaglet again.
