Ex-lurker
Finishing up with my posts on raptors, here are some nests I’ve found in the last few years–mostly red tails. I time my visits for when the eyasses are old enough to thermoregulate, and I am in and out in a few minutes. These nests are all found way out in the backcountry, where they are unlikely to get other visitors.

This is a Golden Eagle eyrie. I couldn’t get any closer without a rope, but if you zoom in you can just make out the two young. I was looking on this cliff for prairie falcon eyries, because I took a couple of tiercels out of an eyrie here many years ago. When I came up to the edge of the cliff, the male flew off the nest. You don’t usually find golden eyries by hanging out on the top of the cliff because, unlike many raptors, they just slip quietly off the nest and disappear when someone appears, rather than raising a fuss and alerting you to the presence of the nest. I usually find them by walking along the bottom of the cliff, looking for the nest and the wash of feces below it. It’s interesting that eagles are not aggressive around their nests, since they would obviously be pretty damn intimidating if they decided to guard them. I went back with a rope a couple of years later, and there was a peregrine eyrie near where this eagle eyrie had been. I don’t have photos because I didn’t want to drop into an eyrie in the backcountry without someone else near. Peregrines are aggressive around their eyries, although they (usually) won’t hit you, particularly if you keep your eye on them. Turn your head away, however, and sometimes one of the parents will bang your head. (Keep looking at a goshawk or ferruginous hawk when it’s diving at you around the nest and you’re liable to lose an eye.)