The wintering bald eagles have returned with initial sightings the last week in September along the Merrimack River in Lawrence near the North Andover border.  This was a busy location last year.  Over past two weeks, both adults and sub adults have been seen with regularity.  This image was captured on a cloudy morning and is being used to document these early off season sightings.  The winter show begins!

Made a productive roadtrip to Amesbury this morning looking for Bald Eagles mentioned in a Massbird post early in the month by Massbirder, and Amesbury resident, Kirk Elwell.  Found two adults in a tall pine tree just back from Main St. along the river.  A bit later one flew off and landed in a pine tree perch farther down river just east of Lowell’s Boat Shop.  Although overcast and dark lighting…nice views of these beauties!

While making a brief morning check along the Merrimack River, an adult Bald Eagle slowly flew upriver towards the Rt. 495 overpass on the Lawrence/North Andover line.  The eagle made a few large gentle loops and then headed off in a SW direction.  made every effort possible to capture underbody images to record the leg band but the lighting was not enough to make any certain leg band identification!

In the middle of a heavy snow day, accidentally discovered this adult perched on the north side of the Merrimack River.  To my surprise, just a short distance away, another adult was also perched.  It was difficult to capture a sharp image due to lots of small branches in the way along with heavy snowflakes that can impact the autofocus function.  It was also dark lighting conditions in the midst of the snowstorm!  What a treat to upload the photos and observe the GPS transmitter antenna on the back of this Eagle!!  No leg bands, which would allow for positive identification.

Another sunny morning visit along the Merrimack River on the North Andover side to look at one of the adults perched on an overhang!