Yesterday morning, Jackie had a nice hour and a half break sponsored by Shadow, who was happily covering daddy-duty. Jackie returned to the nest and calmly started her sweet twerpling to Shadow to express her desire to be back on the eggs. And Shadow started his usual arguing about it still being his turn…
…but wait…something got Jackie’s attention. She surveyed the area and yelled out a warning...okay, that seemed to do it. She went back to the sweet twerp…
…but, no…something interrupted the moment. She and Shadow both went on alert, yelling at whoever was around setting off their alarms…and the yelling continued, getting louder and louder.
They were both yelling at the top of their voices, emphasizing that they really, really meant what they were saying. Whoever was around had better get out of there immediately…
…but that ‘whoever’ was apparently not listening properly. Jackie suddenly flew off the nest, while Shadow stayed to make sure the eggs were kept safe.
And from cam2, we could see that Jackie quickly doubled back to head to a limb directly underneath the nest…where she flushed out a young eagle intruder!
The intruder was probably a Juvenile hatched in 2023 or a Sub-Adult hatched in 2022, based on its dark plumage with white wingpits. In any case, it was too young to be trying to take over a nest or cause trouble. It was likely just curious and visiting…
…but Jackie let it know in no uncertain terms that this is not the time or place for casual visits. And Shadow yelled support from the nest above. This is an active nest in nesting season and no visitors are permitted for any reason.
After the little kerfuffle, Jackie stayed under the nest for a few more minutes to make sure the intruder did not return, then she flew back up into the nest…
…where Shadow seemed to thank her, and Jackie immediately went back to her sweet twerpling. She moved closer and closer, whispering in his Shadow’s ear and nearly bowling him over in her encouragement for him to let her back onto the eggs.
Maybe as a reward for her quick, tough handling of the situation…or maybe because he was a little afraid of getting crushed under her larger size and weight…Shadow got up without argument and flew off, leaving their precious eggs in the care of his adoring mate. He was also probably anxious to go out onto guard duty to make sure everything stayed safe.
Completely calmly, Jackie climbed into the nest bowl ready to settle onto the eggs. A little bit of aerating the nest by breaking up the soft nest bowl fluff, and then her usual rocking back and forth to push the eggs fully up against her brood patch—the area she and Shadow both have on their chest where they lose feathers during nesting, so they can tuck the eggs right up next to their skin and their 105-degree body heat.
Jackie settled into fluff-duty, tucking the soft materials around herself into the nest bowl and all was well.
Good job, Jackie and Shadow! Maybe we can all ask Jackie to teach us how to shift gears so quickly to take care of a challenging situation and then immediately settle back down into sweet, loving, twerpling calmness.
Sandy

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