Doc Ellen

Adult bald eagle in a large stick nest high in a pine tree at Jordan Lake, North Carolina, leaning forward as it feeds three eaglets hidden low in the nest bowl, with pine branches and needles surrounding the nest.

First Nest has TRIPLETS! Mom Kate was feeding a chick when we arrived - see the chick just below her throat area. The other 2 chicks are dark heads above the nest brim (look for their beaks), one of them almost under Kate's tail, the other one to the right of the main tree trunk. Jordan Lake🦉

A bald eagle nest high in a pine tree at Jordan Lake. Two downy white chicks about two weeks old sit among large sticks. One chick is upright at the front rim of the nest with dark eyes visible. The second chick is partially hidden to the left under a thin horizontal branch, appearing as a small white fuzzy ball.

First Nest: 2 bald eagle chicks! They are about 2 weeks old. You can easily see one chick, fluffy white fuzzball with 2 very dark eyes at the rim of the nest. The 2nd chick is harder to see. Look to left of chick at the rim and see a white fuzzy tennis ball under a long horizontal thin branch. 🦉

A brown and black tabby cat curled tightly into a spiral, sleeping in a plush gray blanket, resembling a nautilus shell.

Grayced the Cat ...
Doc Ellen was so sad about not being able to go watch the big eagles because of the very awful weather that I thought I would make myself into a nautilus shell and help her remember days of yore with warm tropical seas.

Brown tabby cat with green eyes sits indoors in warm light, looking slightly upward with alert ears and prominent white whiskers.

Studio assistant, checking in…
Yes, it is cold out…
but if you hurry, Doc Ellen, to get breakfast made,
you’ll warm up — and my tummy will be much happier.

Priorities, people. 🐾☕️

Pair of red-headed woodpeckers perched together on a dead tree snag in winter, their red heads bright against the muted cold landscape.

Two red-headed woodpeckers holding their home snag through bitter cold. Watching them together makes me hopeful that spring — and courtship — is not far off.

Jordan Lake, North Carolina. 🦉

Male bald eagle (dad) resting in a large stick nest high in a pine tree, surrounded by green pine needles and winter branches.

I’m grateful to WRAL and Scott Mason, the Tarheel Traveler, for the opportunity to talk about the Jordan Lake Bald Eagles and EagleFest, alongside Elaine Wittry, Natural Resource Specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.🦉
The clip is here if you’d like to watch: www.wral.com/video/tar-he...

Poster about winter hydration for animals, showing a horse being offered warm water and birds in a water bowl, with text advising warm water for horses, livestock, pets, and birds during cold weather.

Worth repeating as winter settles in.
Warm water matters — for horses, livestock, pets, and wildlife.🦉

Bald eagle in incubation posture, settled low in a large pine nest. Only the top of the head is visible among sticks and pine needles. A scatter of white gull feathers is on the far right edge of the nest.

First Nest 2026 — Incubation has started.
Dad Bard is settled deep in the nest bowl; look closely and you can see his head in that steady incubation posture. The bright patch at the far right is gull feathers — breakfast clues left on the nest.🦉

note that the nest is considerably deeper (parents add to the top of the nest every year and during any needed repairs) and that a lot of the original nest has fallen out and you can now see the anchoring tree branches. Home reconstruction is never ending for breeding bald eagles!🦉
#BaldEagle

Note that it is wide, straddling the main branches, but is relatively shallow, top to bottom (no bald eagle in the nest). The 2nd photo was made during the 2024-2025 breeding season and Mom Kate is in the nest ...

First Nest Bald Eagles: As I was getting journals and itinerary ready for this breeding season, it occurred to me that perhaps you would like to see the changes in the nest itself. The 1st photo was taken in the first breeding season 2011-2012.

when I wrote this in 2018, I had no idea at all that seven years later, our country would be even more divided, more fearful, and, regretfully, with very little contentment or peace to be found

That's mom in the 1st photo and dad in the 2nd one. Eventually Captain Doug and I saw the reason for their outlook… another adult bald eagle way up high, perhaps thinking about, oh I don't know, trying to lay claim to the nest? 🦉

Bald eagles keep an eye on their nest all year. This pair will not get into the whole breeding sequence until later in the year. However, parents must guard their nest. As you can see they are very alert… 🦉

What a delightful surprise this afternoon at Jordan Lake: Captain Doug and I found the parents of the Heron Point bald eagle nest sitting side by side ... its about time for this pair to start thinking about the next generation! 🦉

The eagle hovered then leaned over on its right wing, bent around the tree and was gone. FYI the flight sequence occurred in less than two seconds. 🦉

The eagle was intent upon something way up in the sky. The eagle shifted it's glance and perched thinking. Suddenly it exploded almost straight up off of the branch and into the air. Captain Doug and I both said at the same time "I haven't never seen an eagle launch straight up like that". 🦉

Oh, but how can it be that this was the last day of summer? Will I still be able to find my favorite sun patch in the kitchen tomorrow?

This bald eagle absolutely ignored Captain Doug and I. I wondered what had her attention. Leaning back, I looked up and up. All I could see was sky and a few clouds. It was obvious, because of her attention heavenward, that there was something that I, mere human, just could not bring into sight. 🦉

Placing the fluff in their beaks it becomes a wash cloth to help clean all the fishy leftovers from their feathers. Here you can see some of that fluff at the end of the beak of this great egret. 🦉

Egrets and herons, on their middle toes, have a special edge that acts like a comb. They use this pectinate edge to reach up into the special soft feathers on their chest and gather up some of the extra fine fluff that lingers there. 🦉

Yes, their diet is filled with decomposing carcasses and that is okay with me. Join me in my thanks to these marvelous birds such as this black vulture at Jordan Lake.

September 6, 2025 is International Vulture Awareness Day. I certainly wouldn't want to live in a world without vultures scattered within it. They do such an excellent job of helping our environment stay clean. Vultures help to control a lot of otherwise harmful debris. 🦉

The first photo is the left side of the face. The in-flight photo shows you the right side of the face. I think the plumage patterns in the three-year-olds going towards four-year-olds are some of the most spectacular looks on an immature bald eagle.

Captain Doug and I were out cruising the lake last week. We found a young bald eagle surveying the shoreline. We could see that it was at least three years old - heading towards four. 🦉

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Today's Art: “Grayced eye reflection”

Labor Day Journey Broccoli seeds from hardware store, cash register ran by fingers gnarled. Farmer plowed garden rows with venerable tractor of sturdy parts made by willing labor in factories coast-to-coast. We…

docellensjourney.com/2025/08/31/l...
Come, join my Labor Day Memories!

This is the hollering juvenile female osprey that was in my post a while ago. I just got back to scanning that day's work. We can all see why she was screaming. The chunk of fish tightly grasped in her right talons was what she was protecting! BTW average wingspan of an osprey is 5-6ft. 🦉