Southborough Bald Eagles Mating

    I have taken a break from shooting the bald eagles in Sudbury and Foss Reservoir, mainly because it's hard to get close to them. They tend to stay perched out on the islands of the reservoirs, making themselves tiny in the frame, and almost not worth photographing. On February 1st, though, I was driving along route 9, on an errand to Cabela's and was about to pass the Southborough eagle's nest. I quickly peered over. One of them was on top of the other, in their mating position. I didn't have my camera on me. When I got back home, it was completely dark out. I went back to the nest the following afternoon, hoping to get a shot of them mating. I set up my tripod. I then had to wait for about an hour and a half before the male flew in. Unfortunately, my camera was out of focus for the landing...

                                               He sat on the nest for about fifteen minutes...

Both me and my friends thought it was alone in the nest, but as it turns out the female had been hidden, deep in the nest the entire time. She finally poked her head up to greet her mate...

I could tell the male looked excited, and he approached his mate, letting out a seagull-like courtship call. My camera was low on battery, so instead of filming the process, and using the energy draining live view mode, I decided to take photos, as the male climbed on top of the female, and did his thing...

        ...Then for the rest of the time I was there, the pair both stood together, awkwardly, on the nest.

We are in the peak of the bald eagle mating season right now. There is usually a two-week window of courtship in February, where the male will attempt to mate multiple times a day. Sometimes the female will accept his courtship, and lift her tail, but she will not lift her tail, allowing sperm to get passed to her. I'm actually not sure if the attempt I photographed above was successful. It's hard to tell. Sometimes, the male will gift a fish or other recent catch to the female, to impress her. In this case, the male did not have a fish.

Last spring, this nest failed. People speculate that this pair of eagles is getting too old to produce healthy eggs. The pair is estimated to be around 15 years old. Fingers crossed, they will be successful in having eaglets this year!