From the Aerie

By Dara Miles

BCC Raptor Program Director

Welcome to the BCC’s….bird blog? Yep, from time to time we will be writing about the birds who temporarily take over your crags (and the people who watch them).

The Golden Eagles are back at Eagle Rock in Boulder Canyon, and they’re tending to an egg or two, so the crag and its approach trails are closed to climbing until July. Eagle Rock has been the preferred nest site for this nesting pair for several years running, and they have successfully fledged several eaglets from this nest.

Although it’s a big nest—about 10 feet wide--we use a spotting scope and a fixed camera with a telephoto lens to see what’s happening up there. Our biologist, Rob Roy Ramey, confirmed incubation in early March, and that allowed rangers to re-open Blob, East Blob, Bitty Buttress and Security Risk Crags to climbing on March 19.

The male and female eagles share the incubation duties. The female does most of the nest-sitting, keeping the eggs warm while the male hunts and brings food. But the female will occasionally hunt for herself, leaving the male in charge of the nest.

Golden Eagle incubation takes 40-45 days, so we’ll start looking for a chick (or chicks) around mid-April. That’s when the observation gets really interesting, and the photos, if we’re lucky enough to get them--are much cuter. Stay tuned for fluffy white things!