Eagle Banding

We joined Ben today for baby eagle banding at Clinton Lake. Ben climbed up 100 ft trees, sat in the nests (they are enormous!), put the babies in a bag one-by-one and lowered then down where the KDWP and Army corp folks took measurements and banded the birds. Then they placed them back in the bags and raised them back to Ben where he put them back into the nests. 

These particular babies were very close to the age where they will start flying. The male baby got very nervous when Ben got to the nest and jumped out! We watched him glide and then take his very first flight as he flapped his wings and flew into the trees. He wasn't totally ready to the fly and landed on the ground eventually. The other folks ran into the woods and were able to find him and bring him back to safety. Thankfully, the eagle didn't break any wings on his way down. 

Mike said that it had been about 20 years since he saw a baby jump out of the nest. We felt pretty lucky to be able to see this beautiful bird's first flight. 

Linkan and Palmer were totally fascinated with the eagles and asked lots of great questions that the KDWP guys enjoyed answering. They both got to pet both babies as they were banded. They got to choose the band color too! They thought they were pretty special!

Ben worked real hard a did a great job handling the birds. It was a really fun afternoon. :-)