Looking For Eagles

Looking for Eagles Bell8 Earl Plato
My eagle appetite had been filled at least for a while. On a summer Friday the four of us Canadians headed over the international border to ‘eagle’ country. Our destination was the Iroquois National Refuge north of the village of Alabama, N.Y. I didn’t want this to be a wild goose eagle) trip” so I called Head Ranger Gerhart and she confirmed that they had three eaglets alive and well. We arrived at the Center about 10 a.m. We entered the Refuge off Casey Road. As we entered the building there was a set scope focused on the giant eagle nest. You could see little eaglets peering over the edge. Inside was a TV monitor showing three eaglets. Note: two fixed TV cameras are attached to two trees beside the eagle nest. The actual nesting site was near the edge of the swamp to the north of the center. The largest of the three kept getting in the way of the camera. The two smaller eaglets sat in the bottom of the nest. No parents in sight. They were undoubtedly out hunting for food for their young ones. We were told that the father eagle was born and bred at Iroquois Refuge. He was fifteen years old and his mate about seven years old from an unknown location. They hatched one egg. Two more fertilized eggs from another center were introduced to the nest about two weeks later they too successfully hatched. That accounts for the discrepancy in size of the young eaglets. We estimated the size of the nest. I am six feet tall Ranger Gerhart said that it measured over seven feet across!
We left the center map in hand. We stopped at the Cayuga Lookout and saw the male eagle. A local resident was there with his scope set up. He invited us o have a look. Magnificent sight.! FTHER EAGLE? The resident said so. We continued on to the Mallard Lookout. No mallards at this time but there were two ospreys (fish hawks) fishing in he swamp below us. We saw the nearest osprey grab a fish and fly to a stand of dead trees. The second osprey followed the mate and landed on a branch above the other. Quite a beautiful sight. Time to head back across the Peace bridge. It was a great raptor day, eh.