Expected Fish, Got Stick

From this viewpoint, we thought he had a fish

I met my friend at Lake Jordan this morning to go see the eagles.  The wind was supposed to have been relatively calm and I guess compared to yesterday it was but it was a bit higher than expected.  When I arrived and walked down towards the lake, the eagles were flying.  By the time I got my camera set up, of course, the male had gone and the female was sitting on the nest.

As he approached, you could see it was a stick

We settled in waiting for some action.  The female was actively tending the young and ripping apart a fish.  The chicks then settled down for a nap.  We talked and watched a young blue heron flying about hoping for the return of the male.

After a couple of hours, the wind off the lake was about to do us in and hunger was calling.  We kept walking a bit aways from the water to a sunny spot and would warm and watch.  As it was now getting close to noon, we felt for certain he would be bring lunch at any time.

He offers up the prize stick

Soon we spotted him coming across the water.  At a distance, we could tell he was carrying something and assumed a fish.  In addition to the camera set up, I had set up the spotting scope so I could look closely at the going on's in the nest.  The wind was shaking the scope far too much for any decent pictures but I went ahead and attached the point and shoot camera ....just to try.  Sorry the close up is not any better.  Will try again on a less windy day.

The female obviously expecting food looks confused

When the male arrived at the nest, the female was scolding him a bit as if he was late arriving.  He proceeded to place his offering down.  I switched from my camera over to the scope to try and get a good look.  I absolutely had to let out a little giggle when I saw what he brought.

The female dispatches the male with a scolding

The look on the female's face is priceless.  You can almost hear her thinking of what the heck am I suppose to do with this?  Both chicks were up and moving now anticipating food.  Poor little eaglets!  The female quickly dispatched the male from the nest.  I hope the chicks make it.  For her to be such a good eagle mom, dad needs to start bringing home the bacon or fish in this case.

Chick is up and looking for food (there are two)