The Cape Bird Club

Western Cape Raptor Research Programme – Canute  the Black Eagle

2006 – Canute's beginings to fledging observations by Lucia Rodrigues

27/10/2006 – Lucia reports "I rushed off to check on much neglected (by me) Canute, I found him, fat (bulging crop) and happy, still enjoying the care of attentive parents.
He was flying around with them and by himself, mostly staying in the adjacent ravines. He is still very vocal. If you are in the area you are likely to hear him long before you see him.
I was very happy to see that the tag (white with black lettering BR01) on his left wing, was lying perfectly flat and presenting no hindrance in flight, nor when perched, on the occasions he roused his feathers".

07/10/2006 – Lucia reports "thought you might like an update on the antics of our Silvermine pair. I was fortunate to observe behaviour not frequently seen.
The north wester was blowing very strongly. I heard Canute calling before I even reached our lookout point.He was sitting about 20 metres below the nest. With his right side facing me, I was not able to see the tag.He looked fat and happy and the calling was only half hearted. Both adults flew in with prey I could not identify. They flew straight to a well used ledge just to the south of the nest. Tucked a little out of line of sight, I could however tell they were both feeding.
Unfortunately Canute managed to slip off his perch unnoticed by me, much to my annoyance.(with myself). After feeding both adults took to the wing, floated about lazily and taking turns disappearing to the south. 
The male suddenly reappeared carrying a large branch in one of his claws. It looked almost like half a bush. He proceeded to hold it as though surfing on the wind, dropped it, hung back watching it fall, then folded back his wings and plummeted after it, caught it, flew back up, surfed a bit, dropped it again and repeated the exercise. The third time he dropped it, he tired of the game and let it fall all the way to the ground.

Writing about it does not do the ritual he performed any justice. The times he held the branch with both claws with all the smaller branches trailing behind him, he really looked like he was surfing the wind. Other times when he held onto the end of the thick stump with one claw, his wings were held in a sharp V, neck arched down in a graceful curve with his beak almost touching the clenched claw, his tail horizontal like a strong rudder keeping him in perfect balance.
To put it plainly, I was gob smacked!
I really don't think (with my VAST experience of 2 years) that any other eagle can match the prowess of a Black Eagle in full flight.THEY ARE MAGNIFICENT!!

A reminder to all, with Canute flying about now, please keep a lookout for him. The patagial tag is white, with black letters BR01 and on top of the left wing.

09/09/2006 – Lucia reports " I found the nest empty and shortly afterwards spotted him sitting on the same grassy slope below the nest where I saw Bladen last season. He (not sure if he is a male) was 82 days old on Saturday and as I had not been to the nest since 1st September I cannot say for sure when he fledged. Last year Bladen fledged what we regarded as early at 79 days and Argo the year before that at 86 days.

26/08/2006 – Lucia reports " We ringed and tagged him. He was nearly 10 weeks old and we therefore did not let him out of the bag for fear that he would jump off the nest! That would have been a disaster as his flight feathers are not fully developed yet.
Once again I use "he" advisedly because "it" could also be a "she". At this stage we are not able to tell for sure what sex they are until they are fully grown and team up with another eagle. Careful note is taken of all measurements and over the years with enough info we will hopefully be able to define the telling characteristics".

photograph by Andrew Jenkins

Canute with wing tag on 26/08/2006.

20/08/2006 – Lucia reports " Canute is now 2 months old and if all goes well, he will be tagged and ringed in a day or two. I arrived at 12h45 today and it was practically windless, with only a very light westerly wind. There was no sign of prey on the nest and Canute lay very quietly, for the entire time I was there. Both adults arrived shortly after I got there. I noticed the male has a secondary feather missing on both wings. He gave a wonderful display of four slow somersaults, breathtaking as always, to watch. The female joined him and the two flew very far out over the sea. They split up and I watched one bird return very low over the water flying directly to and over two kyakers. I have seen this before. It's almost as though the bird sees something floating in an expanse of blue sea and flies towards it, to check it out. It flew off towards Chapmans Peak where a peregrine flew out and the two birds circled each other several times, the eagle always higher and no attempt was made by either bird to get any closer.  The eagle then flew over Noordhoek Peak and the second eagle appeared and I watched both disappear over the mountain towards St James. I checked the time and saw it was 14h16. I had been watching a Black Eagles fly continuously for 30 minutes!  And not once did I see a flap of a wing. (I was able to rest my elbows on my knees!).
I wondered if the purpose of all this seemingly aimless flying was not a border patrol? They must realise that their youngster will fledge soon and want to let all other hopeful's know that this territory is firmly occupied ! ?"

16/08/2006 – Peter Steyn reports "Five minutes after Otto Schmidt and I arrived, the female went onto nest and at 10h10 she left briefly, returning to nest at 10h15 with a large dassie which was presumably collected from the male who was flying with her. He was then attacked and dive - bombed by two Peregrines for all of five minutes in an unbelievably spectacular fashion, the high wind enhancing their aerobatics. Don't tell us that birds don't play! This was for the sheer fun of it.

photograph by Otto Schmidt

The female carrying a large rock dassie (Procavia capensis) to the nest.

Wisely, in view of the weather, female and eaglet were out of sight at back of nest and we can only assume she was feeding Canute. She left the nest at 11h10.  We were frozen and pushed into the rock face to keep from blowing away and at 11h30.having consumed all our sandwiches and coffee, and in the certainty of perishing from hypothermia, we aborted. On the way down we found an Orange-breasted Sunbird's nest near the path with chicks.

It's now 18h00 and the circulation has returned to my extremities".

02/08/2006 – When I went back to the nest yesterday, I could not see the second egg, but then Canute, a lot bigger now at 6 weeks and beginning to show feathers, might have been lying on it.

photograph by Lucia Rodrigues

Note the first egg in the nest cup with the pine twigs behind Canute.

19/06/2006 – Canute hatched exactly 44 days since the 2nd egg was laid. Peter Steyn had some influence in naming this years chick Canute after the king. We believe, the first egg, which can be seen lying on the nest behind him, to be either infertile or chick might have died for some reason before it hatched. I take a great deal of pleasure knowing that we are in fact looking at the chick that was conceived to play the role of the sacrificial Abel.The 1st egg lay in it's own little nest cup, with fresh twigs of pine until the 18th July.

photograph by Lucia Rodrigues

Canute at 11 days old being fed by his mom!

07/05/2006 – pictures taken by Anthony of the male Black Eagle flying onto the nest, just after the female had vacated it. The second egg had probably been laid the day before, I was at the nest the previous day in the morning and at that stage there was only one egg to be seen. He then proceeded to turn the eggs before settling down on them.

photographs by Anthony van Zyl

The male landing at the nest.                           The male turning the eggs.

As a matter of interest, this year, 2006, the eagles laid their eggs 2 weeks later than the previous two years of observation.

07/04/2006 – Lucia reports "I am delighted to say that our Silvermine Eagles are getting ready to breed again this season. About three weeks ago I noticed a fresh green twig of pine needles on the nest, which had up until then looked quite dead and flat. Subsequent visits have shown that the eagles are very busy flying to and from the nest, with small dry branches and greenery for the nest cup.

Yesterday Ann Koeslag and I took a visitor from Johannesburg to the nest site and we were very fortunate to see some impressive display flying by one of the eagles before both flew off towards Hout Bay. They are seen fairly regularly over Hout Bay and I believe that to be their boundary.

I have worked out, by watching where they fly for the past couple years, that their territory is about 50 square kms. That does not take Karbonkelberg into account, although I often see them flying across the bay towards the mountain".

If anyone sees him, please report it on the CapeBirdNet or Western Cape Raptor Research Programme, Fitzpatrick Institute, UCT or Lucia as below.

Lucia Rodrigues
cell       083 325 8881
email    signet@webafrica.org.za 

We would be most grateful.