Quote by: Jean

4;06pm...........I can see I'm going to have to figure out a way to ID Liberty and Spirit. From this angle we can't see Liberty's notch.

Hi Jean!

How to tell the eagles apart while incubating when you can't see the notch area? Well, both eagles seem to bring their wings all the way back and most of the way closed when it's raining or when winds are blowing, so that's no help. However, when it's nicer weather, I notice that Liberty tends to have a more relaxed posture with her wings, often showing a great deal of her tail feathers. Spirit's posture tends to be more "tense" looking with the wings nearly straight back and only a little bit of the tail feathers showing. Spirit's wing posture appears much more like a "stoop" position exhibited by falcons and other predatory birds when they dive through the air. That's just a casual observation and may not work every time. If it does work, let me know!

Good morning Terri, Gary, Cococat, Jean, Karen and all. Wow it is so nice to see this cam back online! It's very windy at the nest today. Sorry but I have no idea which eagle is on the nest now. Highly impressed with the clear and clean view!

Good afternoon all. I think that was Spirit in the nest, Rita.

Here was the switch at 12:59 pm as Liberty came in and Spirit out at the end of the lunch hour!!! Spirit did a few not-so-desperate trills just before the switch!

Love your poem, Gary. Not sure who this is in the nest right now. Maybe Spirit since the wing feathers are straight back with few of the tail showing? What do you think?

Quote by: karenbills

Love your poem, Gary. Not sure who this is in the nest right now. Maybe Spirit since the wing feathers are straight back with few of the tail showing? What do you think?

Hi Karen ! Thanks for the compliment on my corny poem! I just felt moved by the terrible howling winds that I witnessed here last night.

Winds are still up around the nest today (though less than last night) so both eagles have had their wings straight back for the last 24 hours. This is Liberty in the nest right now unless there was a switch I didn't catch in the last 80 minutes. When Liberty came in at about 1pm PDT, you could see that she is much fuller and rounder through the back than Spirit right now (maybe due to a hunched posture too).

Quote by: CA Wildlife

Quote by: Jean

4;06pm...........I can see I'm going to have to figure out a way to ID Liberty and Spirit. From this angle we can't see Liberty's notch.

Hi Jean!

How to tell the eagles apart while incubating when you can't see the notch area? Well, both eagles seem to bring their wings all the way back and most of the way closed when it's raining or when winds are blowing, so that's no help. However, when it's nicer weather, I notice that Liberty tends to have a more relaxed posture with her wings, often showing a great deal of her tail feathers. Spirit's posture tends to be more "tense" looking with the wings nearly straight back and only a little bit of the tail feathers showing. Spirit's wing posture appears much more like a "stoop" position exhibited by falcons and other predatory birds when they dive through the air. That's just a casual observation and may not work every time. If it does work, let me know!

Thanks Gary! Now that you mention it, it does ring a bell..............it seems so long since we've viewed these eagles, I have forgotten little things. I do remember now that Spirit had that odd way of holding his wings when incubating the eggs.............he sort of held them up into the air and back...............so they looked quite stiff. Thanks for jogging my memory.

I found this s'cap from 2015 that I took of Spirit..........it is fairly good at showing how he holds his wings up and out.



Closer look:

3:26pm........I am confident that this is Liberty. She is looking around for Spirit.

Hi Everyone

Liberty calling out


Incredible clear view of Spirit flying in with a fish @ 1:00.
Liberty mantled it and Spirit got out of her way up to the 12:00 branch