Laura Colton, with the state Department of Fish and Game, witnessed the older sibling taking its first clumsy flights out of the nest on Saturday. She saw the youngster try to land on a branch, losing its grasp and tumbling down the tree, finally catching itself on another branch. On Monday she saw the same fledgling come in for a nest landing accompanied by an adult.

    "He is still getting used to landing," she says. Normally, an adult will extend its feet just moments before landing, but the young fledgling extended its feet for quite a while, maybe 100 feet or so, before landing, explains Ms. Colton. "It was quite amusing."

    Mr. Cummings also observed the younger sibling, still on the nest, but flapping vigorously. At one point it jumped up into the air and did a little glide from one side of the nest to the other. "He has a lot of desire to follow his sibling," he says.  He saw the older one soaring in the air, just off the slopes of Goat Mountain "diving and rolling and doing all kinds of aerial stuff, testing his wings," he says.

    It was not anticipatead that both birds would fly at the same time, since one bird was more advanced with feathering, says Ms. Colton.  The tail and wing feathers have to be a certain length to fly, and one sibling was two weeks ahead of the other in feathering, she says.

    "There is no doubt both birds will be flying on their own before the Fourth of July,"says Mr. Cummings. The scheduled holiday fireworks at Bass Lake should pose no problem to the pair. Last week the eaglets could be seen perched on the edge of their nest high atop a dead tree on the south side of Bass Lake. "They were getting their muscles built up and getting the feel of things," says Mr. Cummings, who says the babies start flapping their wings about two weeks before flying away.

    "They are right on track," he says. Once they fly at about 12 weeks of age, they will hang around the nest for a while then expand their horizons. By the fall, the parents should be sending them on their way to find their own territory. "Everything is food-dependent," he says. Mr. Cummings says that eagles laying two eggs are the most common. When there are three or more, there is trouble hunting for enough food.

    Visitors to Bass Lake who would like to “take a look” at the nest can obtain binoculars at Ducey's Bar and Grill at Bass Lake, says Brian Wilkinson, director of sales and marketing at The Pines Resort.

    The eagles caused quite a stir last year when the nesting pair and their one baby were discovered. Even more exciting was the discovery that the mother had been originally fostered into a nest on Santa Catalina Island.

    Years ago, eagles, once on the endangered species list, were dependent on breeding successes in different parts of the country to increase their population. Northern California eagles were doing well, for instance, while those living on Catalina Island were not. Hence, the mother bird, as a two-week-old baby, was collected from a nest in Northern California and placed into a nest on Santa Catalina Island. She was banded and tagged by the Institute for Wildlife Studies before leaving the nest. Scientists then lost track of her until she was spotted in Washington state in 1995.

    Then, in 1998, she showed up at Bass Lake with another adult adding sticks to an old osprey nest but a little late in the breeding season. In 1999 the couple returned to the nest and successfully raised an offspring before sending it on its way.

    A couple of years ago, the eagle was moved from the endangered status to threatened, says Mr. Cummings. Now, the plan is have them taken off the list completely.