Who Is Doc Ellen?

Joel Bulkley

Doc Ellen is Margaret Ellen Tinsley, wildlife photographer.

She’s 71, a retired veterinarian of equine medicine (horses), who’s best known for her Jordan Lake bald eagle photos and videos. She lives in Fuquay-Varina but spends six mornings a week at Jordan, monitoring two active eagle nests with fledglings, taking field notes and pictures, thousands of pictures.

Doc Ellen, AKA Ellen Tinsley, sets up her gear to observe Jordan eagles. She is keenly aware of the behavior and patterns of bald eagles in North Carolina. The retired equine veterinarian is an eagle monitor and spends most mornings at Jordan tracking the behavior of Petruchio, Kate, Hershey and Godiva and others.

Doc Ellen published three e-Books last year ( fourth is due April 15) and her pictures are widely available. Many are for sale. Some are on exhibit at the Jordan Lake Visitor Center, and on Facebook (DocEllen’sDreamingSongPhotos), Jordan WildlifeCam, Flickr. She’s an eagle advocate, became a XX and became a volunteer ambassador for N.C. Audubon in 2017. She participates in meetings related to eagle issues at the lake and beyond and gives public talks about eagles at the Visitor Center and to community groups. She’s also an advocate for more citizen science, involving the public to better understand the importance of wildlife.

Doc Ellen was born in South Carolina, lived all over the country because her dad was a Marine Corps officer and has lived in North Carolina since 1972. She graduated from NCSU Veterinary College in 1993 and worked in Greenville area. Doc Ellen was involved in a bad wreck on the way to a farm call for horses in 2007 (she was “lucky to be alive,” she said) and began photography for physical therapy in 2009, and started visiting Jordan Lake in 2011.

How did you get interested in photography?

Doc Ellen: After more than two years in rehab after a very serious vehicle accident, of being indoors and not out with the horses which had once been my patients, my left arm limited what I could do. I was tired of the chronic pain, I was depressed because I could no longer tend to my patients—the horses. I wanted to throw in the towel. What was left to make me want to get out, about and living again?

Was it related to your rehab after accident?

A very wise physical therapist figured out that I needed to get outside of myself, literally. He put a Canon G3 point-and-shot in my hand and told me to go out and photograph anything and everything. To use photography as a distraction from the pain. To be outdoors where my heart longed to be. I started out at Yates Mill Nature Preserve in Wake County photographing mostly the small birds, wild plants and the landscapes the small camera was good at capturing. I quickly understood I wanted to reach out and capture the many ducks on the pond there and I got the funds together to purchase a Canon Rebel T1i and an inexpensive short zoom lens. While at Yates Mill, I met a photographer who said I needed to go to Jordan Lake and see the bald eagles. It was at the Jordan Lake Dam that I saw my first bald eagle and also realized that I needed a better camera and a longer lens. That is how an addiction works. I was hooked. And blessedly, the hours at the lake were and are hours when I can almost forget the pain in my arm.

When did you start as eagle monitor?

In 2012 one of the rangers for the Army Corps of Engineers found me leaning against a tree, patiently watching a bald eagle nest being built. I pestered him with questions. Showed him the field notes I had been making—the scientist and the veterinarian in me made the recording of my observations second nature. A few days later the ranger asked me to join the Eagle Nest Monitoring group. I have monitored that same nest ever since and in 2013 a second nest was added to my duties. I still monitor both nests. At this moment, there is a very active chick in one nest and 3 eaglets in the other nest (3 is very rare at the lake, usually the eagle parents have 2 chicks).

How do you describe your favorite eagle nests?

First Nest, where Kate and Petruchio live, is in one of the southern coves at the lake. They got their names because Kate was not happy with a stick that Petruchio brought in for building their nest, she carefully looked the stick over and threw it over the side. And then Kate bonked Petruchio and told him to go get a better stick. If you know Shakespeare you will recognize Kate as the main character in “The Taming of the Shrew” and Petruchio as the fellow that softened her edges.

H&G Nest, where Godiva and Hershey live, is at about the midpoint of the lake. The first time I saw Hershey, he was flying with the early sun making his wings glow and I thought it was a perception that he was not as dark a brown as most eagles are (bald eagles are dark brown, not black). It was when he landed next to his mate that I realized he was indeed a very light brown eagle, and I instantly called him Hershey because he is a milk-chocolate candy bar brown. That, of course, meant that his mate had to be Godiva.

BTW, First Nest and H&G Nest are how to find the eagles in my Facebook postings about the eagles.

Was it your prescribed burn comments that put you on the eagle radar?

Yes. In my first encounter with a prescribed burn in 2012, I started asking a lot of questions. As a veterinarian I understood just how sensitive a bird is to smoke. I also understood the need for prescribed burns. I ran headlong into the insistence that there was a traditional burn season and no exceptions could be made, even if there was an active bald eagle nest in the burn block. It took until 2016 before I got people to begin to understand that both activities could be done legally and without danger to the bald eagles. I am happy to say that the NC Wildlife Resources Commission held a full day seminar in 2017 about prescribed burns that was attended by several entities: state, federal, academic, conservation groups and me and a friend as citizen scientists. A lot was accomplished that day, I believe because there was so much give and take, questions and answers worked through in cooperation. There are plans being worked through in order to structure the prescribed burns not only for the safety of the bald eagles but for the better management of the game land’s forests.

Doc Ellen’s e-Books

Jordan Lake Rescue: Grayced.
Stumpy: Great Blue Heron of Jordan Lake [a Story of Shared Pathways, Trials and Triumphs].
Bald Eagles: Jordan Lake Neighborhood.
She will have a new print booklet “Bald Eagle Secrets” by April 15.

Doc Ellen On Eagle Etiquette

Here are Doc Ellen’s rules on how to observe eagles without disturbing them. These rules are incorporated into all her eagle talks at Jordan Lake SRA and to school and community groups:

know that eagle breeding season is Dec. 15 through June 30. This is a very, very critical time in an eagle’s life.
active eagle nests: MUST stay 660 feet away, by Federal law. That is 2 football fields away.
non-breeding, stay 330 feet away. That is 1 football field away.
go to nearest boat ramp.
have patience, lots and lots of patience.
do NOT chase eagles, they don’t like being followed.
bring a camping chair; stay in ONE place.
plan 2 hours observation time, minimum.
wear dark clothing; this holds true for any birding you do
leave you pupdog companion at home; eagles don’t like dogs on or off leash. That holds true for any birding you do.
I repeat: have Patience.
smile when the eagle soars past and savor the moment.