Recently I saw my first photograph published for the world to see. Well, other than the hundreds published here on this blog. This time it was in our local weekly – the Parksville-Qualicum Beach News. I’m famous! I call it my Five Seconds of Fame which I calculate is about the time it takes to turn the pages of this paper.

Here’s how it happened.

I was walking by my next door neighbour’s house recently on my way to the forest, camera bag slung across my shoulder and binoculars (my walking necklace) around my neck. Tom was working in his front yard, I stopped to chat and he told me about a project he’s been involved in these past months.

He has been monitoring the local nests of large birds, part of an island-wide citizen scientist project of observing and counting Eagles and Great Blue Herons coordinated by the BC Ministry of Water, Land & Resource Stewardship. Here in Qualicum Beach there are four eagle nests, one of which is in our forest. I know about that one, I’ve been watching it for years. I’ve seen the adult pairs sitting up on the snags, know the tree the nest is in, have heard the youngsters’ distinctive cries when they get older but still haven’t fledged. On the bottom of the tree, you can find the feeding debris – lots and lots of bones and feathers, as well as white eagle poop on the leaves of the understory bushes. But the nest is very high and from the bottom it’s impossible to actually see it.

This year however, the eagles have not returned to that nest but instead have moved over to a new nest on the other side of the forest by the golf course. Of the four eagle nests Tom has been monitoring two are active this year.

The second one I also knew about but again these nests are very very high up and from the bottom of the tree you can see nothing. Tom started to explain how to actually see them from another angle a street away, but then gave up trying to explain it in words. “Get in the car, I’ll show you.” And away we went.

The first nest I took a shot of one eaglet in view. Tom said there were two, so the other one likely was sitting down out of view. It was far away and at the far reaches of the long lens I carry with me but I got the shot.

Later I returned to the second nest he’d shown me how to access with another longer lens and was excited to get the shot of these two eagle youngsters looking out towards the beach, waiting for a parent to return with lunch. Young eagles retain the brown colouring until they are about 4 years old, which is when their heads transition in colour to that distinctive Bald Eagle white.

Tom was thrilled I was able to photograph the nests as part of the project’s requirements was to enclose pictures of the monitored nests. He’d been doing his best with a phone camera but these nests are really high and far away.

And of course I was also thrilled to finally get the opportunity to witness the nests and photograph them. Hundreds of shots to get just the right one.

A day or two later Tom texted me to tell me that he’d become aware of a Great Blue Heron nest in another part of town. So once again we piled into the car to see what we could see.

We were standing in a wooded area, looking up, way up to where we could make out the nest. As we were looking through the binocs, trying to see what was actually in the nest, a juvenile eagle flew through the trees right beside us and landed on the top of a low tree nearby. Oh oh. For the first time I was actually telling the eagle to get lost. These chicks are eagle lunch.

I took a lot of pictures of the nest. As I said, it was very high in the tree, a lot of branches were obscuring it, the birds were moving and I couldn’t see clearly through the lens exactly what I was looking at. Tom and I thought at first we were looking at one adult and one chick. I returned again later in the day when the light had changed and clicked away again.

When I got home and uploaded hundreds of shots and was able to see more clearly what I had, I found to my delight that what we’d been looking at was actually 3 heron chicks. And Mom (or Dad) was perched on a branch not far away below.

Tom sent the nest photo in to the local paper to share the sight with all who happen upon it.

When I was watching the heron nest, I noticed that there was a lot of activity in it – a lot of wing flapping as the chicks were testing them out and exercising them. It looked like they were soon to fledge and we were hoping that they’d soon be ready to leave.

A week or so later Tom, who was continuing to monitor the nests, got in touch with bad news. Remember that eagle hanging around? Well, two of the chicks didn’t make it out. Lunch.

Sad. But. Nature is Nature.