Member Jim Dubois has been following the lifecycle of a male eagle, dubbed Beethoven, whose chick this season has been making slow progress. The following is his account of a recent evening.

Don’t babysit for eagles. They won’t pay you. I’ve been worried about this chick’s progress and future, and the parents have been too. They’ve been extremely attentive, and have both been spending a great deal of time at the nest. Tonight, I guess they felt they needed a break, and went off fishing. When I arrived at the nest, all that was there was the chick and a babysitter.

To my surprise, the babysitter turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon.

Suddenly though, the Peregrine seemed to see something unsettling, and it left in a bit of a hurry.

A shadow passed over me, and Mrs. Beethoven appeared out of nowhere, at full throttle.

She banked around in front of the nest tree, hard on the Peregrine’s tail, and although she had no chance of catching it, chased it through the trees and out of sight.

The chase finished, and the babysitter gone, she landed on nearly the same spot, and gave her best “And stay outa here!” scream.

She gave a somewhat subdued chick a reproachful glance, almost as if saying, “Now what did I tell you when I left?”

A quick scratch for the mom, and a stretch from the chick, and the pair settled in for the night.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the mom was so upset, and I think it’s because the chick was up past its bedtime. It couldn’t have been for inattentiveness, the babysitter was watching the little one like a hawk.

Thanks for sharing this great story, Jim! It made me smile, and I hope it does the same for our readers.

If you want to see more of Jim’s photography, check out his website at www.theineleganteagle.com.