Preparing for the new arrivals

Bald eagle nesting season has arrived in eastern Nebraska. Nearby residents told me this morning that there are eggs in the nest (perhaps a drone flew overhead). Personally, I stay over 100 meters away so as not to disturb them. These two adults take shifts occupying the nest; I've seen one bringing additional nesting material to it over the last three days. Most of the time just one adult is in the nest, hunkered down so that I can just see its head above the rim of the nest (incubating eggs?) while the other is out hunting, and forging for more nesting material. When returning to the nest it has clumps of tall grasses in its claws streaming behind it. Note the bit of fluffy feather between them; one was grooming in the morning sunshine.

A vintage Olympus E-520 DSLR, Celestron 4SE Optical Tube Assembly, 1325mm, ISO 800, 1/1000th second F/13, Manfrotto tripod

Cropped, sharpened and brightened.