SIBLEY &045; About five miles down a dirt road in St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge, there’s a turnoff to another road. Or at least it would be a road if there wasn’t more than a foot of water over it.

On Friday afternoon, Jack Cupit, a volunteer at the refuge, led a reporter and photographer to this point and then launched the small boat he’d brought.

After getting in the boat &045; which probably had about 200 pounds more than the suggested maximum weight &045; in the water, it took a 300-yard journey, some of it as the boat scratched against the ground, to reach the parking lot next to the lake. Cupit had to get out and push the boat part of the way.

Things got easy after that. It just took a five-minute trip across the lake, past a rookery of hundreds of heron nests to see, in the tallest tree in the area, a bald eagle perched on a branch high above the lake.

&8220;People ask me why I come here and volunteer when I don’t get paid,&8221; Cupit said. &8220;This is my pay, right here. I get to see this.&8221;

The eagle, likely a female &045; it can be difficult to tell males and females apart from a distance &045; stood watch on a branch a few feet from the nest, where the chicks are.

The nest is one of two on the refuge, giving St. Catherine’s 20 percent of the nesting pairs in Mississippi, refuge manager Randy Breland said.

Cupit has been part of an effort over the last few years to track the eagles and their chicks in the refuge. The areas around the two nests are off limits during the time the eagles are at the refuge from about January through the summer.

The eagles like to be near water. Their diet consists almost entirely of fish, so having a ready supply of food nearby is a plus.

And there’s plenty of fish and other wildlife in the area. Besides the herons and smaller birds, alligators, beaver, river otters, deer and endless varieties of fish and bugs inhabit the area, some of which could be seen Friday.

&8220;I feel sorry for people in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles that only get to see a concrete jungle,&8221; Cupit said. &8220;They don’t get out to see all of God’s creation like this.&8221;

Cupit said bald eagles generally have two chicks a year, though this pair has had one group of three during their time on the refuge.

On Friday, only one chick could be seen poking its head up above the nest to peek out.

The chick looked to be about half the size of its parent but should be full-size by early summer. Juvenile bald eagles have brown coloring across their entire body. They don’t get the white heads until they are two years old.

Cupit says the staff has seen juveniles return to the refuge in addition to the two pairs that nest there.

&8220;We’ve seen juveniles with them,&8221; Cupit said. &8220;It’s probably some of their young who have come back.&8221;

Cupit has another reason for coming down to St. Catherine’s: his children, who both work at the refuge.

&8220;They’re my only children, so I get to see them here every day,&8221; Cupit said.