I found a few articles on the subject of courtship and bonding.Even though most of them talk of Eagles in Northern area's such as British Columbia, Tennessee and Virginia. I did find one from FWC ( Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ) I think it gives us a basic idea of what to look for or what we might have already seen with Harriet and PB/FV and didn't realize it. Links will be at the end of this post.........
Yes, some of the information is old ,what I mean by old is it's over 10yrs old and a lot should or is being updated since Eagle cams have come along. This is just what I have found so far. I'm sure there are more resources out there. I just wanted to give everyone a start... I myself have never seen the Courtship Ritual and would love to. I have seen the other behavior with Ozzie and Harriet. And I do have a lot of "Eagle Porn " as my Daughter calls it in photo's and video from the SWFLEC that I took. These links give you some good information.
Yes I know ..our nesting season doesn't "officially " start until Oct 1 but I think the "getting to know you " has already begun with Harriet and PB/FV. The courtship/ bonding very well could have started way back when PB/FV first arrived after Ozzie was injured. Even tho Harriet ran him off, PB/FV came back every time. He protected the area from others and E 6 from the Juvie's not once but several times. PB/FV went after one that tried to knock E6 out of the right pond tree. PB came out from nowhere and was on that Juvie so fast and chased him out of the area. He and Harriet chased off and intruder that came to the nest to steal the fish from E6. Yes he followed Harriet everywhere but he also got to know the territory better. In his own way,PB/FV even taught E6 lessons that he needed to know. Protect your food, nest area. E6 got to see all of this. Sure E6 didn't care for PB/FV being there, but what did he do?? E6 tried to run him off in his own way. I watched E6 fly at PB/FV while he was in the right pond tree. OMG I was so worried E6 was going to get hurt but PB/FV left the branch he was on ,E6 landed and was very vocale . PB/FV flew around and it looked like he was going for E6 but landed a branch up form E6 ... This scared not only me but E6 too. E6 left for the nest tree in a hurry. Squeeeing all the way..LOL
So these are just a few things I think about when watching Harriet and PB/FV... PB/FV has proving himself as far as a protector now we wait and see how he does in the other area's... Sure I saw Harriet not to happy with him when E6 was still around. So she should have been. Harriet wasn't foolish enough either to completely run PB/FV off . She needed the help and protection of a male around. Two fight/ protect better than one.
I guess what I am trying to say, is that I am looking at Harriet and PB/FV and thinking of the things I have seen Ozzie and Harriet doing. and thinking I see the same things with Harriet and PB/FV. Vocalizing to one another, sitting by each other, sometimes sleeping next to each other, preening together, the disagreements on the placement of sticks, watching where one goes when they leave. The only thing ,well one of the things I don't see them doing like Ozzie and Harriet did last year at this time is working on the nest. O&H were very busy on the nest last summer. Ozzie was bring in some hugh rails. By the time SWFLEC was ready to put the cams back up , I told Andy , when he came to let me ,Kathy and DeAnna know they were putting the cams in that day, and not to take photo's.. that you all might have to move the cam up this yr. He said why? We told him because Ozzie had built up the sides of the nest so much that the cam might not fit where it was the year before. They did have to move it up a bit . The other thing I haven't seen yet is "bonding" the practice mating as I will call it for now. As far as we know they haven't done that yet. It should start some time next month. Someone told me they saw it last year in August but I can't confirm that. I can confirm that in Sept of last year Ozzie and Harriet did "bond". Sept 9th , Sept 19th and Sept 23. So will this happen next with Harriet and PB ??? Only time will tell.
So am I convincing myself I see what I see..No Am I right in what I see going on..... I could be. Only Harriet and PB/FV know for sure. Trust the Eagles everyone says ... So that's what I am doing. Trusting the Eagles in what they are doing..... Moving forward.
http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/bald-eagle/information/biology/
http://www.hancockwildlife.org/article.php/AMatingBehavior
http://www.eagles.org/vu-study/biology/reproduction.php
http://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2014/02/do-bald-eagles-mate-in-flight.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAwcoFoAk_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt7ysu3MSbs
http://www.munseysbearcamp.com/eagle.html
http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/index.php?s=news&p=article_34
