Pale Male and Octavia...EGG? The Beresford Pair? And the Rock River Juvenile Bald Eagles.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com

Palemale.com reports that Pale Male and Octavia my have an egg or eggs on the nest as Octavia has been sticking to it.  She did overnight according to report.

Another clue, you can see from the above that she is eating on the nest.

And a third clue, Octavia is looking quite tired.  Egg laying takes a lot out of a formel.

And from Sally of Kentucky,
Lincoln reports Octavia went to bed on the nest last night, Sunday night, and had spent most of the day on the nest and apparently ate there, from his pics. Her eyes look kind of half-open - I hope she is laying and not ill.  I don't know if the Beresford pair in the pics are Pale and Octavia; Lincoln surely didn't seem to think so, and Pale does have fine bars that show on his red tail, which do not show in the shots he posted as the male flies off. However, I will leave it to YOU, the CP expert, to figure it out and tell us :)

Oh no, Sally, not completely up to me.  We're all in this hawkwatching boat together. :)

As I inferred yesterday, urban Red-tails surprise us all the time.  We think we know how they will act and then...WOW, what just happened?

Plus I would be surprised if Pale Male and Octavia allowed another pair to nest on the Westside on the Beresford as that has been Pale's territory since he showed up oh,  these many years ago.

But, as I say, they have surprised me utterly before.

As to what Lincoln, thinks?  I try not to make any inferences about that.  When he comes out and says the pair in the pictures are a different pair,  I will believe him, without question.  Or if Stella sends in a report that Central Park hawkwatchers saw both pairs within a span of time which doesn't work because of location unless they are different pairs, that's fine with me too...but in the meantime....

I have received emails from other readers pertaining to this topic as well...

Mary of Belfast suggested that Lincoln might be joking as technically any pair at the Beresford could be called the "Beresford Pair", even if it were Pale and Octavia...

And Allen Parth of  California, Edie of Texas and Camilla of Alberta all thought perhaps Octavia might be copulating with a different male as per some people's suspicions last season about her copulating with Pale Male plus another tiercel downtown.

(By the way, has anyone read the scholarly paper yet about the three adult Red-tails all caring for one nest?  I wonder if they all three had a hand in possible biological parenthood of  the eyasses?)  

But in the meantime, there's EAGLES flying around  out there.  

I was on my way over to see the Edgerton Eagles, came round a bend near the Rock River and I was startled to see on the side of the road,  two juvenile Bald Eagles making lunch of a road kill opossum.  They both of course went across the river, one to the left and one to the right. 

 Lunch.

When I looked away at the opossum she took to her wings and started heading in the direction that her buddy had taken.

Though she hasn't much white on her head, there is certainly some color change to part of her tail and her beak has some yellow to it as well.

And off she went!  I checked on the way back and the juveniles did appear to have returned to their lunch in my absence as the carcass had been dragged around in the snow a bit.

Happy hawking!
D.B.