Bald Eagles served up by Great Blue Heron

At the Hood Canal in the state of Washington, the Bald Eagles come to feed and joust about with one another. The food they are after are a fish called the Midshipmen. The Midshipmen lay eggs in the oyster beds and when the tide recedes they are available food for a variety of birds. For the eagles it seems there are two sources of this food, one is the Hood Canal itself, and the other is the Great Blue Herons. Wherever you see herons standing in the shallow water, you will likely see an eagle come swooping in either right at them or just next to them. But the eagles are always on the watch and when the see a heron flying with a fish in its claws they are off to the chase. In the image above you can see the eagle closing in on the heron who has just release the fish which you can see just below its wing.

The herons know the eagles are not after them but the fish, so letting go of the prize is a smart thing for them to do. Here you see the eagle stopping its pursuit of the heron and zeroing in on the fish.

And now success for the eagle as it grabs the fish in mid air. Another story for the heron who will have to return to its patient wait for available fish in the shallow waters of the canal.

If you would like to follow my blog and have it delivered to your email, please follow this link:

https://follow.it/notes-to-my-mother?leanpub

Comments

Aurora Borealis - May 10, 2024, Last Installment.

On Friday afternoon, May 10, 2024, Jan and I were getting coffee in a very small somewhat crowded coffee shop in downtown Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. We overheard people talking about the Northern Lights showing up that night. And thus began one of the most exciting nights of photography in my life. If you have read my three previous blog posts you have seen some of the spectacular color displays we were able to capture. In these images I have included some foreground information to put the color displays in perspective. The picture above was taken to the northeast of the Trumpeter property where they house the pygmy goats and alpacas. Looking to the northwest you can see the moon low on the horizon. The building shown here has an additional suite that is separate from the main B&B house.. This image is looking due east showin the stable for the animals. Another view to the east showing the building with the separate ...

The Aurora Borealis, May 10, 2024

This last May, my wife, Jan, and I were on vacation in the San Juan Islands, WA. We were there for a week staying at the Trumpeter Inn, a B&B on San Juan Island. Mid way through our stay we heard there was to be a Northern Lights display and that we would likely be able to see it since we were at a latitude just north of Victoria, BC. The excitement was immediate. The conditions were just right as the sky was cloudless and the moon was in its crescent phase and would be low on the horizon (and therefore not overly bright) during the expected good viewing time between 10 pm and 2 am. The image above was taken that night and is what I was expecting to see, a green Aurora. Little did we know what was to come! Early on the was the first hint that something special was about to happen as color in addition to green began to show. I found this very exciting as I had seen green auroras before but never one with the purple/blue colors an...

Subscribe to my blog by Email

Get new posts by email: Enter your email address in the box and click subscribe to be notified when a new post is published. Subscribe Powered by

Notes To My Mother

Search This Blog