Photos of the Duke Farms Eagles Away from the Nest

The new Eagle Cam is pretty cool, but the one thing that no cam can do is to show the eagles away from the nest tree. Because the eagles nest in a remote section of the Duke Farms property that is off-limits to the public and basically inaccessible, photographing them is usually a matter of happenstance and/or patience. I have tried and failed many times trying to photograph them along the Raritan River near the Duke Farms property. I did manage to take the two decent photos of the eagles flying to a tree in a Duke Farms field during the annual Christmas Bird Count on Jan. 2 of this year. They were almost a mile from the nest, and were later seen at dusk flying toward the nest. In the photo at left, the slightly smaller (and banded) male is on the right. Recently, I heard from Jill P. Brown of nearby Raritan, who, it turns out, has taken many photos of the eagles along the Raritan River. This blog will post some of her photos tomorrow (Wednesday).

Eagle questions? E-mail Jim at celeryfarm@mail.com Some may be used in future posts.

Jim Wright writes The Bird Watcher column for The Record. He is the author of four photography-driven books about natural areas, including the New Jersey Meadowlands, and Pennsylvanias Hawk Mountain.