We were caught by surprise by the Black Eagles at Wilgepoort (photo taken today). They are nesting on the main face next to the route Van Der Merwe’s Crack. The nest currently has eggs and if all goes well the pair of eagles will be busy with parental duties until summer. I suggest that until the juvenile has fledged (around Sept - crossing fingers) routes 25m either side of the nest are not climbed and that climbers at Wilgepoort should take care to cause as little disturbance as possible. I recommend that (at least) the routes from Toothache / Toothpaste and up to Madeira and Bottleneck Bulge (inclusive) should be avoided.

wow! Photo

We were at Wilgepoort 2 weekends ago and were lucky to see 4 of these stunning birds flying around.
The colouring of 2 of them seemed a bit different so i would assume that there were 2 adults and 2 juveniles. They were not “on the wing” much so we could not get a good look. They did these quick “hops” from the cliffs, glided a bit and landed again. Perhaps flying lessons ?? LOL

Ja Andrew, we saw the same last weekend, but 2 adults and one smaller, slightly browner one who seems to still be learning this whole flying business. It was very cool to watch them taking junior for flying lessons.

Nice shot Dean

Andrew now that Pierre mentioned it, are you sure there were 4? Unless I'm having a real brainfart, I'm sure black eagles only raise 1 chick. There will be 2 chicks but the stronger one will kill the weaker one. And I'm pretty sure this will happen long before they learn to fly. Either way, not many thing that beats the sight of black eagles flying.