It does sound like the eagles are holding on your pond and land! Hopefully, they do have a successful nest in your forest. I think all of the eaglets would be out of the nest by July 4th in your area. You could sneak back in your forest and look for the nest after that, if you are so inclined.
We have had a pair of great horned owls for years, but I have never seen any young. I put up a deer feeder and game camera in a new spot last fall. I got good pics of an immature great horned owl sitting on top of the feeder. That one made me feel good and the kids laughed because he definitely reacted to the camera and has one shot looking right into the lens.
I currently have three tiny ponds (0.1 acres or less), and all need to be mucked out before stocking anything in the largest two. That is in the plans for when I get heavy equipment on location for excavating the new ponds!
Right now I only get to fish the creek with my kids.
I did check the creek last weekend while working at the farm. It is running about a foot deep. I did not see a single game fish or minnow.
We do have a few pools in the creek on our stretch. In the summer when the creek is only running 1" deep, they are full of fish.
The creek has to be warmer than the ponds in my area since it is mostly fed by subsurface water flows (at 52F). However, I never see any fish in March. I assume it is because the fish are currently spread over 100% of the water and in the summer they are concentrated in 3% of the water.
I think we caught 6 different species last year. My son even caught a white crappie. I guess they do well in reservoirs over 50 acres AND in streams 1" deep!
Our creek project for this year is to trap and identify all of the minnows and shiners in the stream. I will definitely need the PB experts for that.
