AEF NEFL ~ THE VISITOR LIES IN THE NEST NEXT TO GABBY & BRINGS HER A BIG STICK! 😲 2.5.24

While Beau was away from the nest, the visitor with the bad feet and necrotic toe is back at the nest! This is the same eagle that Gabby mated with in December! This eagle flies in to nest while Gabby is incubating the egg and he lies right next to her! This visitor clearly remembers Gabby and now he sees her incubating an egg. It seems to me this eagle is mature and may have had a mate and/or eggs or chicks in the past as he seems so comfortable and experienced on nest. He rolls the egg and he stayed with Gabby on the nest just like a mate would do. He also brought in a HUGE stick and had quite the time placing it while Gabby vocalized showing that he knows how to build a nest. His feet do look worse than they did in December -an eagles life is a fight for survival each day and he clearly has been in several fights. I think if Beau was not in the picture, Gabby would have continued to mate with him and he would become the resident male. After the visitor flew off, Beau arrived about a half hour later very vocal and he was looking all around -it is possible he saw this visitor in a nearby tree. Beau did incubate the egg this afternoon - kind of a bittersweet ending to their season together. If this was any other eagle I can't imagine Gabby allowing it to stay on the nest let alone lie down next to her! Strange happenings this season - I am sure we will see more unusual things to come. Thank you for watching! Video captured & edited by Lady Hawk Courtesy of AEF NEFL American Eagle Foundation Eagles .org