Eagles Revisited

As you may know I’m big on several subjects these days, two of them being trout fishing and birding. On a fishing outing, I recently reported an encounter with a pair of nesting eagles. They had settled in on a stretch of one of my favorite spots - the South Branch of the Root River, near Forestville State Park. Here is the report in case you missed it.
http://baron-troutbirder.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html
Early this week I returned to the scene of the first encounter. Although I’m mostly a "catch and release guy", on this occasion Mrs T. had requested the fixings for a trout dinner. I’m always ready to take that request in hand. The Root is especially great fishing for larger brown trout now that the DNR has implemented a "slot" regimen for the stream. This means any trout caught between 12 & 16 inches must be released. That policy encourages the growth of trout larger than sixteen inches, of whom only one can be kept, of a limit of five fish. That day though, I caught only one trout under 12 inches and the rest were in the prohibited range.
I finally gave up and headed back to my truck, stopping to rest on the bank of the river, near the site of the eagles nest. Looking up I couldn't see the nest anywhere, although the leaves of the cottonwood may have obscured it. What I did see was an eagle perched at the very top of a dead tree nearby.

"How was the fishing for you today Eagle,?" I asked tentatively.
Eagle softly: "Squawk, squawk, cluck, cluck, peep."
"Whoa. I didn’t know Eagles sounded like that! I don’t mean to cut in on your territory but I’m sure there are plenty of trout to go around. Had two biggies on today and couldn’t bring them in."
Eagle: Screech Screech Screech.
Ok Ok Relax. I’m on my way home. Maybe you didn’t have good luck today either?
Eagle: "peep peep"
"Hey I know the feeling. Oh well we’ll get em next time. By the way where’s the Misses?".
There was no response to that one, so I started heading back, to stop briefly underneath the big cottonwood. I couldn’t find the nest anywhere in the tree nor on the ground. There had been a big storm in mid May, with heavy winds and a subsequent flood. As I put my gear in the truck, I took as final look back across the cornfield toward my friend. Now, there were two eagles perched together on the dead tree. No young eagles in sight though. Still a smile crossed my face as I thought ... maybe next year we’ll all have better luck