Bald eagles at lake houston

[scooper77515]

I have seen a pair of bald eagles at magnolia gardens just south of the lake houston dam on the san jacinto river for years. But this last sunday, one appeared over the beach at skiers cove further north up the lake early in the day, approx 10 am.

Has anyone else seen them? They are very rare this far south.

I tried to get pics but the zoom isnt very good.

I have called tx fish and wildlife to report them, and they told me that they have been monitoring a mating pair for about 20 years but have not yet located the nest. They ask that we call and tell them if we find the nest (they think it is around the newport beach somewhere).

If you see them, try to get a good photo or two. I only had my cell phone this weekend... i will try to bring my 8.2 mp cam from now on.

 

[Rabid]

There is a large nest that is in a pasture next the river up along hw105. you can't miss it... its the only tree with a giant nest built out of tree limbs..not twigs.

 

[scooper77515]

Have you seen the birds, or just the nest?

I have seen them up over by my house flying around. This is about 15 miles north of where they think their nest is located.

For those of you not "in the know" Onalaska is on Lake Livingston, about 40 miles north of Lake Houston. It is in a much more wooded area with lots more wildlife.

Lake Houston is just outside of Houston, and is pretty well built up on 3 of 4 sides.

 

[Rabid]

I tried to google the nest. It was near the Trinity river on 105. You could not miss it. its not showing up...I wonder if the hurricane blew it down. It was the only tree in the pasture.

 

[scooper77515]

Do you mean 105 out by Tarkington? I used to drive that from my home in Dayton to school at College Station twice a week. That was several years ago. But it would make a nice afternoon drive on day this weekend...

If we do it i will take pics. Which side of road and how far from river?

 

[Rabid]

Eagle nest

Yes up near Tarkington. Here is the picture of where I seen it a couple of years ago. I pointed to it with an arrow. I have been wanting to go by there and see if it was still there. It was impressive to see. I looked it up on bing to get a better view.

 

[scooper77515]

My wife grew up in Dayton, and for some reason, I cannot convince her to take a road trip to Tarkington with me...

If I don't take the boat out tomorrow, I will try to get out that way. I know exactly where it is at.

 

[Rabid]

I’m rewiring the skiff as we speak. It was sitting down in Corpus for a couple of years and the connections are all corroded. Its been in the family for 15 years being moved around and we have nicknamed it the "Family Heirloom"

 

[scooper77515]

Well...we ended up out on the lake today, so no drive to 105.

It was a bit chilly, but fun! Got a bit of cruising in... :driving::auto:

 

[scooper77515]

Bald Eagle update!!!

Ok, a couple months ago, the weekend that the first cool front blew through, the lake was too choppy on the north wind, so I put in at the river below the dam. This is where I originally saw the first couple eagles.

I was hanging out at the Newport beach and I saw 2 eagles flying really high. Thinking they were my pair of bald eagles, i attempted to shoot them with my digital camera in movie mode. But there is no zoom in movie mode, so all you could see was two black dots flying around.

A few minutes later, they came down low enough to see them, flying at the tops of the trees looking for a place to land, I guess. Well, they looked like eagles, and were about eagle-size, but they were mottled and not what I have seen bald eagles look like in juvenile or adult phases. So I just assumed they were some other eagle species.

Last night, the wife and I were in our new back yard with a small fire going. One of those mottled eagles flew right over us, toward the back of my yard (we have 1/2 acre about 1/2 mile from the lake). This time he was only about 20 or 25 feet high, and about 75 feet away from me. He was clearly an eagle, wing span at least 5' across, flying the way eagles do.

So today, I pulled up the internet and googled "bald eagle juvenile" and found my critters!!!

This is the guy(s) we have been seeing. And I have one that hangs out literally in my back yard!!!:hurray:

 

[scooper77515]

Another funny story, again from last night. There was an owl in a tree in an empty lot behind ours. My wife heard him a couple nights ago and woke up. Last night, he flew by and landed in that tree, so my wife started "whoo-whoo"-ing at him. So he was whoo-ing back at her and decided to fly a little closer to take a better look at who was whoo-ing. Well he landed in this closer tree just outside of our fence, and all of a sudden we heard this screeching and loud ruckus, and the little owl takes off flying across our back yard and across the street, and hot on his tail is that juvenile bald eagle.

Apparently, the owl got into the eagle's tree and they had a little discussion about who's tree this was, before they took the fight elsewhere.

This is cool stuff!!! I could live like this, if I had to

 

[scooper77515]

He flew by again tonight at 5:15 straight up. He was a couple hundred feet further out this time, but still close enough to see him and see which tree he landed in.

I am thinking that this is part of his daily hunting routine, and I "HOPE" we see him everyday around this time.

 

[RFoster130]

Sounds really cool. Try to get some video of him.

 

[scooper77515]

I think I will do that. I gotta get my video camera. Not sure where it is, after moving. Hopefully in the boat.

 

[Rabid]

I stopped by he vet today which is close to the river. They told me there is several nests along the Trinity river. They have seen many Eagles flying around the Dayton/Clevland Area.

 

[scooper77515]

Damn! I was in Dayton just this Sunday, and forgot to drive out to see that nest!

 

[scooper77515]

Well, one of the adults flew over today, and the wife called me out to the back patio to take a video. I got one, but you cannot see anything but a black dot in the video screen. In person, you can see the white head and white tail, but on my crappy little camera/vid cam, you can only see a black dot up there.

But you can hear us hollering in the background about how cool it looks!

 

[scooper77515]

Update on Rabid's eagle nest...

...we finally got a nice day to take the drive, and were in town with family. On the way home, we dropped the convertible top down and took a nice drive. Went to the spot described by Rabid and verified with google earth picture he posted.

Sadly, the tree he is pointing at has been blown over. It is uprooted and laying on it's side. So if there was a nest in it, it probably blew over during hurricane Ike a couple years ago.

The other tree, on the fence line, is still standing.

Pic is from cell phone from side of road, but should verify that we were at the correct location and looking at the correct tree.

 

[scooper77515]

We haven't seen any of the eagles for a couple weeks, but while eating dinner, I saw a white head flying over. Took some video on my camera, but I doubt you can see what it is.

We will keep an eye out and try to catch it closer and take some pics.

This time, it was an adult, not an adolescent.

 

[scooper77515]

She/he came over again, and I got a couple videos with my portable camera, but you cannot tell what it is. But I got one good pic that you can clearly see the white tail and head.

 

[scooper77515]

Found this video of when I first saw the adolescent eagles on my desktop. Posted it to youtube. Sorry for horrible video quality. My little camera doesn't do good videos, and you really cannot tell if it is a vulture, eagle, or whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTlwrqYSV_k

 

[Rabid]

I found out there is some bald eagles that hang out on Pine Island out in Lake Livingston. I tried to get out there this weekend but the wind was cranking. That would be a good place to nest. They can feed off the stripers and white bass that school at the surface in the summer.

 

[scooper77515]

It WAS a windy mess this weekend, wasn't it?

We got out Sunday early morning, but it started to chop up early, so we headed back and were home by noon.

 

[scooper77515]

Eagle update

I have seen them a LOT lately.

Saw the two adolescents "wrestling" in midair about 50' up over the roadway median a few weeks ago. not sure what that was, but they would fly up, hit each other in midair, and tumble around while falling until they got to about 15' then separate and fly back up and do it again.

Then 2 weeks ago, we saw an adolescent fly over, and his head is starting to turn white. Still mottled and camo colored, but starting to lighten up.

And this weekend, the two adults flew over our yard about 40' above the ground. They caught a thermal and started to rise, so by the time I ran in and got my camera, they were high enough that they would look like black dots on my picture.

So, they are still around, and we are seeing them a bunch!

 

[Michael211_2000]

I have a friend who lives in Humble who's very into raptors... he showed me a large nest at the top of some radio transmission towers right next to the San Jacinto River where it passes under Hwy 59 between Humble and Kingwood. He said they were eagle nests, but that day we could not see the birds they must've been off somewhere hunting. I'm going to shoot my friend Karl a link to this thread, while not much into boating he does love birds he'd be interested in what ya'll been seeing!

- Michael