The first day of December was sunny but cold and windy. It would probably have been a good day to see eagles at local hawk watches but most of them, like the Scotts Mountain site, are now finished for the season. Hawk Mountain, however, normally goes until Dec. 15.
On my last Monday at Merrill Creek where the Scotts Mountain count takes place one of the bald eagles that nest there carried a stick across the water to the nest. In this part of the country bald eagles produce eggs as early as mid-February. And they often begin building new nests or repairing old ones as soon as the weather gets cold.