Two days ago, Jackie watched from the nest as Shadow whizzed past, in hot pursuit of two bothersome ravens. Then he popped into the nest with a new stick still in his talons. He went to work immediately on the furniture rearrangements and Jackie jumped in to help. Shadow was fine with the assistance, until she got a bit kissy and he snapped back at her—it seems like all the molting may be making him a bit grumpy.
As Shadow continued working, Jackie stayed out of his way, watching around the neighborhood and showing off her own tiny molting feathers. Since Shadow still seemed a tad grouchy, Jackie did only minor complaining as those raven neighbors kept up their dialogue in the background.
Later, when Jackie brought back her own stick, Shadow helped her properly place it—as is required by his ongoing ‘OCDedness.’ Both Jackie and Shadow worked on the nest bowl, watched the neighborhood and sometimes tossed in a few beaky kisses for good measure, as the wind continued bringing in more dense clouds and cold.
Eventually, Shadow had to get back to work on those stinker sticks near the side entrance that just never seem to sit right or stay in place. Jackie pitched in and made the big sticks a joint effort. At this point, Shadow seemed to be making his beaky kisses include a little less ‘grump.’ That side deck needed a lot of corrections and the apparent thrill of all the nest work got him back to his usual teasy self—several times he continued nipping Jackie’s wing or tail until he got a loving reaction from her….
…and the work continued into the evening, with both Jackie and Shadow set on getting that nest upgraded.
Please remember our Outdoor Adventure Days and Bald Eagle party coming up June 24-25. Check out our ecotourism website and Facebook page for details--www.bigbearecotourism.org and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... . (For questions, contact us a [email protected] )
In the meantime, enjoy Jackie and Shadow’s ongoing summer visits to the nest!
Sandy
FriendsofBigBearValley.org https://friendsofbigbearvalley.org/