Eagles, Bird Watching, Wildlife Observation, Eagle Watching on the White River at His Place Resort

Mature Bald Eagle - "Rebekah"

Here we have a good picture of Rebekah, (casually looking back at the camera over her shoulder)

She & Isaac came back to the resort around Oct 28th, 2002. (They migrated around July 1st, 2002). We're glad to have them back.

Mature Bald Eagle - "Isaac"

Here is Rebekah's better half - Isaac. In this picture, Isaac is glaring at Rebekah. He has a fish in his talons, and doesn't really want to share with Rebekah at this particular moment...although she'll be expecting it later, if they have chicks...

Rebekah & Deborah

Shortly after the first picture you see on this page, Rebekah started "talking" to someone up in the sky. After she took off, we could finally see what all the fuss was about. We call the other eagle in this picture Deborah. At first, we thought Deborah was a Golden Eagle, but looking more closely, we're convinced she's an immature Bald Eagle. Because of the way they fly together, we are pretty convinced that Deborah is one of Rebekah's from a few years ago. The more you watch eagles, you realize that they really look different enough from one another where you can recognize them as individuals. In this picture, it really looks to me like these two are related. Their profiles, body shape & size, size of head, etc., have a lot of similarities. They displayed some pretty cool aerobatics for us while this picture was taken.

(FYI - Telling an immature Bald Eagle from an immature Golden Eagle is not easy. According to my field guide, there is never white on the belly or wing lining of an immature Golden. What looks like just a little bit of white on the wings in this picture makes us reasonably sure that Deborah is a Bald Eagle.)

And, if you're curious, here are a few "Eagle Facts" :-)

The following information was provided by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Bald eagles incubate their eggs for about 35 days. They begin incubation as soon as the first egg is laid.
The second egg usually appears within 36 to 72 hours after the first.
Occasionally a clutch of 3 eggs will be produced.

Chicks

Eagle chicks are fed a steady diet of fish, occasionally supplemented by water fowl (ducks, geese) or water birds (gulls, cormorants).
About 85% of a chick's diet will typically consist of fish such as carp, white sucker, shad, bullhead and sunfish. (although here on the White, they like trout!)
The adults capture and tear the fish into small strips, offering them to the chicks. The chicks snatch the food from the adult's beak and swallow it whole.
An eagle chick will eat as much as it can at a single feeding, storing food in its crop. The crop, an organ located near the base of the bird's neck, will enlarge as it fills, resembling a golf ball.

Hunting and Feeding

The male does most of the hunting and scavenging during the early weeks of the chick's life.
The female does the majority of the feeding and brooding
The male will often eat the head of the fish he catches and then bring the remainder to the nest.
The male will brood and feed the chick when the female is off the nest. She will leave to stretch, defecate, bathe, preen and hunt on her own.

Here is some other eagle information provided from our own AGFC Website:

In 1994, America's efforts to save endangered species reached a milestone with the announcement by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the bald eagle had recovered sufficiently to change its status from endangered to threatened in most of the nation. Bald eagle numbers in the lower 48 states climbed from 417 nesting pairs in 1963 to more than 4,400 pairs in 1994. In addition, 5,000 to 6,000 juvenile bald eagles live in the lower 48. Federal protection and tremendous public support led to this recovery -- through stricter law enforcement, protection of important habitat, reintroduction, a strong public education program and banning of DDT, a pesticide that interfered with normal eggshell production.

The first successful bald eagle nesting since 1930 was reported in Arkansas in 1982. In 1995, 18 pairs of Arkansas eagles successfully fledged young from the nest. An eagle hacking program started by the Game and Fish Commission in 1982 contributed to this resurgence. Young eagles from Minnesota and Wisconsin are brought to the state, raised in "hacking" facilities and released in hopes they will return to raise their young in Arkansas.

Arkansas ranks in the top 10 states in the number of winter bald eagle sightings. Over 1,000 bald eagles are counted each winter, nearly triple the 368 recorded in 1979.