the Way of the Turtle

NO EAGLES BUT - EAGLETS!
1.5 Mile Walk at Cayuga-Seneca Canal Lock 1
Sunday, May 3, 2009

While Ann was at the Braddock Bay Birds of Prey days last weekend, she heard several folks talk about an eagle nest near Lock 1 at Montezuma. A bit of on-line research led to these photos (which unfortunately didn't give much description as to the location of the nest) and Cayuga-Seneca Canal Lock 1, just a bit southeast of Montezuma NWR at the northern tip of Cayuga Lake. Armed with a map from Rich & Sue Freeman's Take a Paddle - Finger Lakes, I decided to stop at Lock CS-1 on the way home and see if I could locate the nest.

The lock was easy to find, parking less so - apparently everyone and his brother (and sister) goes there to fish on a warm sunny spring day. The nest was also easy to spot - atop an electrical tower across the water, near a dam which I assume controls water levels in the lake and canal.

A head was peaking up over the edge of the nest, but it was too small and too brown to be an adult eagle, so it must have been one of the eaglets. I hung around for a while taking pictures and hoping one of the adults would show up, but no luck. After helping a kid free his fishing line from some branches, I decided to go for a short walk along a rough trail overlooking the river and see what I could see... which turned out to be not too much.

When I got back to the lock, there were two eaglets visible, but still no adults... I hung around for a bit longer, then decided to call it a day and headed back to the car for a brief visit to Montezuma (I was right there, after all) before getting back on the Thruway for Albany.

JMH