Boating & Outdoor Photos - A Sad Night

My wife and I heard a some load explosions and the power went out at our house a couple hours ago. We looked in the directions of the noise and saw some smoke coming from a power pole close to our front yard. We were devastated to see that one of the Juvenile Bald Eagles in the nest off of our front yard apparently had tried to take one of its first flights. It made the mistake of landing on the pole and getting electrocuted. We called Virginia Power and told them what happened. Joe of Virginia Power was here in thirty minutes and was real good about getting the Eagle down and the power back up. He called his office and reported in the Eagle death and was instructed to bag and ice the eagle down so that it could be studied.
The adults eagles were clearly distressed and flying over and back to the nest. Luckily I could see that there was still two eaglets in the nest. The last two pictures are ones I took of the Juvenile from last year. Hopefully no more of them will get near the power lines!

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/bald334.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/joevapower.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/baldeagle446.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/baldeagle889.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/eagletinnest.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/inflight229.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/babyeagle.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg115/JetSkiBrian/2012%20pictures/baldeagle80.jpg

Yikes!

nice pics again

It's typical for a nest of three to lose at least one eaglet, though perhaps in less dramatic ways.

Next time, send in the squirrels....

Truly a sad story ......... but I wonder how this could happen aren´t those power lines supposed to be isolated from ground?? the bird to die must have touched simultaneously the isolated line and a point in the pole which was not isolated, a truly difficult thing to happen ......... the innocent bird succumbed for no guilt .........

That is sad, My wife and I have been watching an eagle cam on line, and its pretty captivating just to watch them growing up in the nest. truly beautiful creatures.

On a different note........ Brian, was thumbing thru my Boatus magazine and saw you featured. Pretty cool rig you have . And you never have anyone bugging you to take em fishing :)

Bummer.

Thanks, the power company is looking into putting something up there to prevent it from happening again.

Wow!! Just WOW!!!

What Canarianfisher said. How'd he ground himself?

Brian, saw the article abt you on Boat US Trailer magazine. Good press. Congrats.

sorry about the eagle. that is sad.

i am however impressed that you live in an area rural enough to have eagles, yet were able to get the power company to arrive within 30 minutes of your call.

normally we wait a few hours before FPL can make it to my neighborhood in downtown Ft. Lauderdale

Bird Darwin award!

Called *Phase to Ground* . One limb touching the hot and the other touching a grounded component.
We had one just the other day land on or try to land on pole top with 3 Phase Primary Cutouts. He or she had a wet rag in their mouth, most likely headed for the nest. Landed on the top of the pole and the rag hung down enough to touch a hot phase. Knocked it off the pole, but it got up and flew away. Happy for the bird to live and for us not having to do a report to the gov.
Lots of squirrels meet their fate that way here in Florida also...