If the bald eagles near my home could talk, this is the conversation they could’ve had

“Would you mind giving me a little space, you are breathing my air,” an older sibling grumbled to a younger one as it tried snuggling up. “I need enough room to stretch, plus your breath smells horrible.”

The imagined conversation was between two fledgling two-month-old Bald eagles perched above their nest near my home. They are just learning to fly and up to this week their five- to six-foot flights from the nest to a limb was good enough, but on Wednesday evening it was not good enough.

Each one of them flew four times from a limb to the nest and back to a limb before the most mature or older one braved a flight to a snag about 30 feet away. The landing was not perfect, but adequate. Twenty minutes later, the snuggler worked its way to the top branches of the nest tree before attempting the flight.

The take-off was good but with its immature flight wing feathers, it couldn’t get any lift as it started losing altitude as it approached its sibling. It locked onto a small branch with its talons but was too heavy and the branch broke, causing the bird to crash into the other one. Miraculously, both birds were able to stay on the limb as they used their wings for balance.

In their baby eagle voices, they argued, like many human siblings do, while I could hear their parents up the Teton River yelling at them. They finally quieted down until it appeared that the older one wanted to fly back to the nest, but it had a problem or two. Both of the birds were facing away from the nest and every time it tried to get enough distance to spread its wings to turn around to face the nest, the other one would move close to it.

Finally, it braved its balance and got turned on the branch and shakily flew back to the nest, causing the other one to become nervous and it started crying at the top of its voice. The parents got vocal — I don’t think eagles raise spoiled brats — and remained hidden upriver. Meanwhile, Macho preened its flight feathers before braving a flight to another tree.

After four hours watching the two eaglets and as the sun was setting, the mom made a fly-over, landing downriver from the nest. As I left, the one was still crying, facing away from the nest while the flier was back in the nest hoping for an evening meal. Early the next morning, both babies were safely back in the nest, ready for another day to practice their wings out.

This adult pair have raised between one to three young eagles in this nest that has finally been built in a strong, live cottonwood. Prior to that, the pair had three nests either fall from rotten trees or had the trees blow over, destroying eggs or newly hatched broods.

Mature cottonwoods along area rivers are important for the nesting of many species of birds, especially Bald eagles. While watching these eagles that evening, I saw starlings, Bullock orioles, robins, Yellow warblers, Mourning doves, Mallard ducks, Red-naped sapsuckers, Eastern kingbirds, Red-winged blackbirds, American goldfinch, Great-blue herons and House wrens raising their young in nearby trees. In fact, the wrens have a nest inside the bottom of the eagle nest.

For the next three weeks, the eaglets will continue to learn how to use their wings and will soon be flying as well as their parents. I will have a lot of fun and giggles as I watch them progress.