Bald eagle with a gosling in its talons over the James in downtown RVA. Credit: Chris Johnson

This one is too amazing not to share. What an incredible reminder of the struggle for life that plays out all around us while we go about our daily routine. Photographer Chris Johnson took this from the Floodwall earlier today in downtown Richmond. He said a juvenile eagle was chasing the adult around, and he couldn’t figure out why until he got home and started editing the pics. You be the judge, but it looks to me like that’s a gosling in the eagle’s talons. Thanks, Chris!

It’s been a while since our last bald eagle update. The good news is that our resident eagle stalker/photog extraordinaire, Chris Johnson, has been keeping tabs on Richmond’s population of eagles — adult, juvenile and still in the nest. Check out this series of pics, all shot in the past week:

This juvenile eagle likes to hang out on an island upstream of the Mayo Bridge. Credit: Chris Johnson

A mother or father eagle keeps watch over the eaglet in the nest on Cooper’s Island. It won’t be long before this baby tests its wings. Credit: Chris Johnson

Last week, two adult eagles did battle in the skies over downtown RVA. Territorial skirmish? Credit: Chris Johnson

Here’s a pic I haven’t seen anywhere else. If you follow this site, you’re aware of the work of local photographer Chris Johnson. He’s all over Instagram as vintage_rva. This week he rented an ultra-powerful zoom lens to see what kind of #RVA bald eagle action it would allow him to see.

How’s this for up close and personal?

The Cooper’s Island nest with either the mother or father and a chick. Credit: Chris Johnson

The Cooper’s Island bald eagle nest upstream of Nickel Bridge. At this size the chicks are difficult to see. Credit: Chris Johnson

Local photographer Chris Johnson is as adept with the camera on his drone as he is with the one in his hand. Here are some shots taken from above the Cooper’s Island bald eagle nest (just upstream of the Nickel Bridge). In case you’re worried, Johnson emailed with Bryan Watts of the Center for Conservation Biology about flying a drone close(ish) to bald eagles. Watts said the key was to give them their space, as they can be easily spooked. Johnson did that and came away with these really cool shots.

This is the same picture, only zoomed in and cropped. Here you can make out two grey, fuzzy chicks — one at 9 o’clock, the other (harder to see) at 6 o’clock. Credit: Chris Johnson

Osprey with a fish downtown. Credit: Chris Johnson

After seeing the bald eagle article in Wednesday’s Times-Dispatch, local photographer Chris Johnson headed out in search of the avian predators on the James River. He didn’t find them on the nest on Cooper’s Island just upstream of Nickel Bridge, so he went down to the Floodwall in Manchester to see what was going on there. Meanwhile, I walked from my house to the Copper’s Island nest observation area in the 5100 block of Riverside Drive south of the James. Johnson hadn’t found them there, but I did. One came flying in from downstream just as Judy Self was arriving.

Self is an eagle lover who I met at this spot looking for eagles three years prior. She had her powerful spotting scope, and soon a crowd had gathered to ogle the bird (and then birds when a second one arrived). Even Ralph White was there.

After a few minutes, I received a text from Johnson downtown. “Just got a close range eagle/osprey fight!”

A bald eagle harasses the osprey until it drops the fish. Credit: Chris Johnson

Those are the pics you see here. Johnson said that an eagle went after an osprey that had nabbed what looks like a shad. Eventually, the eagle won the battle and the osprey dropped the fish. All that was happening near the Floodwall while we were watching two eagles tend to either eggs or chicks a couple of miles up river.

How cool is the James River in Richmond?

Four years ago I covered the daily comings and goings of a pair of bald eagles on an island in the James River not too far from my house. Cooper’s Island is just upstream (and visible from) the Nickel Bridge. There’s also a great view of it from the 5100 block of Riverside Drive. That year, 2011, I watched as another eagle attacked the nest and drove those eagles out of the area.

T-D photog Dean Hoffmeyer snapped this photo of the Cooper’s Island eagle on March 17. What a shot!

Now, after three years where no nesting attempts were made, it appears a pair is back on Cooper’s Island.

Rex Springston reported in today’s Times-Dispatch (and Dean Hoffmeyer captured some great pictures) of eagles in one of two towering pine trees on the island. Springston quoted bird scientist Bryan Watts, of the Center for Conservation Biology, as saying that it was obvious the nest had been rebuilt after three years of neglect, and he could see eggs that should have hatched by now.

Additionally, Watts confirmed to Springston what I reported here a couple of weeks ago: There’s a third eagle nest in the city of Richmond between the Stony Point Fashion Park and the James River near the Willey Bridge.

This is all really cool news for lovers of America’s defining avian symbol. Check back here regularly for more updates. I plan on heading out there today with local photographer Chris Johnson to see if we can capture the eagles in action.

Bald eagles are busy fixing up their nests this time of year. Credit: Chris Johnson

It’s bird season on the James River in Richmond, and that makes us here at RO excited because it means we can feature the work of one of our favorite photographers: Chris Johnson. If you’re on Instagram, maybe you already follow him at @vintage_rva.

Last week, Johnson went down to Pony Pasture in search of the eagles that nest on Williams Island. It seemed like he was going to strike out, he said, until an older couple pointed one out on an island across from the Pony Pasture boat ramp.

He also found a pileated woodpecker in the Pony Pasture woods.

Soon, Johnson aid, it will be on to ospreys and herons closer to downtown. So check back in every week for more of his work.

That crown of red on a pileated woodpecker always brightens up the winter woods. Credit: Chris Johnson

Two weeks ago, I posted pictures taken by a reader of a bald eagle seen in Bryan Park. Not only did that reader snap a couple of shots of the bird in Young’s Pond, but she said it swooped into her backyard nearby to nab a squirrel that was raiding her bird feeder. That’s a pretty handy predator to have around (assuming you don’t like squirrels at your bird feeder).

After writing about the Bryan Park eagle, I decided to take the kids and dogs out to Bryan Park to look for the bird. We didn’t have any luck, but I did receive a number of emails from readers who had seen it.

Liz Metzfield sent in the picture below. “I looped around and parked about 20 feet from him,” she wrote. “I didn’t get out of my car cause I didn’t want to spook him, but he didn’t seem to care at all about all the cars driving by.”

Liz Metzfield took this picture on Lakeside Ave. just two weeks ago.

Given that the pic was taken on Lakeside Avenue, I’m assuming it’s the same bird that the original reader saw in nearby Bryan Park.

Then local architect Guylaine DesRosiers wrote to say that she and her husband first saw a couple of bald eagles “flying around Bellevue neighborhood while (we) were decorating our Christmas tree outside…We actually saw them flying in circle in the area north of Azalea Avenue and East of Chamberlayne Ave.”

So, if you find yourself in the Bryan Park/Bellevue/Lakeside area, keep your eyes on the sky. One or two bald eagles could be up their looking for a meal.

And in related news, another reader, Lauren Phipps, wrote that “another pair of eagles are working on building a new nest near Stony Point. The nest is within the city limits on the southeast bank of Bosher’s Dam,” she wrote, adding that “I believe they have another, older nest on the north bank just above the dam but they appear to be getting ready to move.”

(The above video was taken by Phipps from her nearby office.)

So, it’s possible (but not officially confirmed) we could have gone from having one nesting pair on Williams Island, to now having three nesting pairs of bald eagles in city limits. Very cool.

Maybe you know about the pair of bald eagles that has nested in Windsor Farms and now on Williams Island for over a decade. Virginia and James, as the Times-Dispatch readers named them (the T-D set up a cam above the nest three years ago), seem to be doing fine. Local photographer and friend of the program Chris Johnson saw them just the other day when he was flying his drone above Williams Island.

Other eagles have attempted to nest on Cooper’s Island near the Nickel Bridge in recent years, but they never produced viable offspring.

Now, it looks like another nesting attempt is being made in city limits, and — surprise! — it’s not on the James River. Reader Denise Wade sent me this picture just the other day. She took it in Bryan Park on Upper Youngs Pond. She added that the bird appears to be working on a nest adjacent to the pond.

I’m heading to the park today to check it out and hopefully get some pictures. It’s still early in the nest-building/chick-making season, but how cool would it be if Richmond is soon home to two bald eagle nests? If you happen to live near Bryan Park and see the eagle at work, shoot me an email (andy@richmondoutside.com) and let me know what you saw.

If you’re a James River Park System user, you might already know about the Friends of the James River Park and the regular newsletter they send out. It’s full of valuable information and volunteer opportunities for park lovers. I wanted to highlight the lead item in their most recent newsletter because it offers some updates on a topic I’ve covered before.

Volunteers from the James River Hikers at the new Texas Beach boardwalk in the JRPS. Credit: Dennis Bussey

Back in early September, I wrote about the sky-high usage numbers that park Superintendent Nathan Burrell found when he pulled the data from the newly-installed infrared and electronic counters. “Up through July,” Burrell said at the time, “we were at 500,000+ visitors. That’s May through July. And we only have counters at seven locations right now.”

Well, now the Friends of the JRP newsletter is reporting that the park saw “795,117 visitors from May 2014 until the end of October 2014.” Extrapolating from that now rather large data set suggests that by May 2015 the JRPS will see well over 1 million users and probably closer to 1.5 million.

Here’s some perspective: In February the Times-Dispatch reported that Maymont was the “most-visited place in the Richmond area,” with 527,153 visitors in 2013. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was second with 479,907 visitors. Rounding out the top five were the Children’s Museum of Richmond with 393,529 visitors; Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with 339,139 visitors; and Henrico’s Three Lakes Nature Center and Aquarium with 304,621 visitors.

The Washington Redskins training camp brought in 164,789 visitors this year. Needless to say, the Redskins, with their tax breaks and sweetheart deals, don’t offer the city what the JRPS does in one or two summer months.

The James River Park has always been a popular place. We now know how popular.

And keep this in mind too, as I wrote in September, “The JRPS with it’s 1 million or more visitors a year is maintained by four full-time employees (including Burrell), two seasonal employees and one part-timer.” Note to the mayor and city council: That’s crazy!

And the Friends’ newsletter also reports that the park “provides a huge economic benefit to the City. Using the $16 per day per user estimate for park economic impact numbers from the 2014 edition of the Virginia Outdoors Plan, JRPS right now, provides a $12,721,872 economic impact directly to the City and local businesses.”