Climb to an eagle nest

Hello all,

I thought you might like hearing about an interesting climb I had recently. I'm fairly new to the world of tree climbing, and this was my first climb that wasn't purely recreational. I need to give a little background first, though...

It started with a phone call a few weeks ago from my friend Shelly, who works as a biologist for the Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Olympic Penninsula here in Washington state. Among other things, she's responsible for handling issues relating to bald eagles, a species listed as threatened in Washington. She told me that she had just gotten a call from a fish biologist who works for the Forest Service and is studying bull trout, another threatened species in Washington. In order to study their movements, he has implanted radio transmitters in several fish. The signal they had been receiving from one of the transmitters indicated that the fish hadn't moved for a week or so. When they went out with a hand-held receiver and got a more precise fix, they concluded that the fish in question ended up in an eagle nest at the top of a Douglas-fir. So, since Shelly knew that I'd been learning tree climbing, she asked if I'd be interested in climbing up to the nest and trying to recover the transmitter. Would anyone on this forum have had to think even a moment before answering that one? Heck yeah, I'll do it!

The doug fir is located on the northern part of the Olympic Penninsula, and its top is broken off just about 100 feet off the ground. Access to the tree was about as easy as they come - it is located at the edge of a newly plowed field. I used a pistol crossbow to set a static line up maybe 60' or so. Above that, I switched to 1/2" arborist rope with a double split-tail, and did maybe 5 DRT pitches to get myself right under the nest.

The nest was at the very tip-top of the tree, resting on top of the uppermost set of branches, quite a bit off-center from the trunk. I was able to anchor directly to one of the big branches just under the nest. Then I looped a webbing sling around another one of the branches that directly supported the nest itself, and clipped a biner to that and used it as a 2nd anchor (there wasn't enough space between the nest and the branch to attach the rope directly, and I didn't want to disturb the nest). Then I was able to stand up on the branch system and lean into the side of the nest, tight to my anchors. I was worried about having to stand above my anchors, but it turned out that it was a really solid position. There were some great views up there! The Strait of Juan de Fuca was a half mile to the north, the Olympic mountains maybe 10 miles to the south, and farmland all around.

The nest is about 5' in diameter and maybe 3' thick. It's only about 5-6 years old, and so is basically a big platform - not much concavity. I guess older nests can be a few feet deep. Within a couple minutes of getting myself hoisted up there, I spotted the antenna of the transmitter sticking out of the debris just a foot or so away. The transmitter itself is a cylinder about 3/4" in diameter and 1 1/2" long, with a wire antenna about a foot long. It was so lucky that it was that close - if it had been on the far side of the nest, I don't know how I would have gotten it (or even seen it). So I grabbed it, snapped a bunch of pictures, and gathered up a bunch of body parts (Shelly wanted to see what they'd been eating - mainly seagulls, but also some ducks, salmon, flounder and obviously, bull trout). I'd hauled up the end of my static line, so I reset that just under the nest, and it just barely touched the ground (it's about 207' long). I rappelled down in one shot, and that was it - what a blast!

The photo is a rather bad mosaic of two photos I took at the top, looking north across the nest at the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We've currently got plans to climb near an active roost to hopefully spy on a bald eagle. We were worried about climbing near it's nest for fear of being attacked, so we chose a popular hunting roost he seems to use.

You must have a solid set of guts my friend. That thing could have come home and plucked your brains out.

Great story, great pics. Keep up the good work. All climbers should make friends with reasearchers to get these kinds of oppurtunities.

Climb Safe!
Icabod

I guess I should have mentioned that it isn't nesting season now, which made it a good time to retrieve the transmitter. Eagles are known to work on their nests year 'round, but generally don't spend a whole lot of time around them outside of nesting season (that's my understanding, at least).

I don't know that I'd want to climb close to a nest during nesting season (though I know some nest surveys are done that way). Even though they seem to be getting more tolerant of human activities, they are still very sensitive to disturbance while nesting, especially in rural areas...

Yeah,

I guess I'd be a little sensitive too, if everytime I grabbed a chicken dinner some crazy farmer took a pot shot at me with a shotgun.

I still have to say great job. I might have to challenge my climb partner to change our plans...then again maybe not.

We are interested in establishing a network of treeclimbing-friendly "officials" in Washington State. Our hope is to convince them that our techniques are safe and eco-system friendly. We are located in Anacortes, WA., on Fidalgo Island. Any help would be greatly appreciated and we will be happy to forward names and numbers, too. It looks like you have made a good contact and your experience should make it easier in the future to access the giants.