Bald Eagles At The Hood Canal, Washington

In spring eagles gather at the Hood Canal in Washington. What brings them there is a little fished called the Midshipman. The female Midshipmen lay their eggs in the oyster beds and then leave for the male fish to tend to the eggs. The problem for the fish is the oyster beds are in shallow water so that when the tide goes out the fish are exposed. All sorts of birds come to feast on the fish, and among them are lots and lots of eagles.

The behavior shown in the two images above is called grappling. It is a cartwheeling spinning display with talons locked. I had heard that this was courting behavior, however, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Wildlife Institute, this is aggressive territorial behavior. In every grappling image I have the eagle on the bottom looks distressed, while the one on top appears very much in control.

Here is an image of an eagle with a freshly caught Midshipmen, being tailed by one of the ever present crows. The eagles aggressive birds for sure but the ravens and crows are not daunted by them and put up quite an aggressive display themselves. Sometimes, when watching them with the eagles I will wonder if they didn't wish they were eagles.

This is perhaps my favorite bald eagle image. This was taken just before the turn to dive down and steal a fish from a blue heron in the oyster beds. I feel like this image captures the elegance and majesty of these amazing raptors.

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

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

Urban Grey Foxes, Santa Rosa, CA

Have you ever awakened in the night to strange sounds outside your bedroom window? I have and I investigated. We live in the city limits of Santa Rosa so I was surprised to discover how much animal night-life goes on in our yard in the wee hours. On one occasion it was a family of raccoons in our fig tree. I thought they only came for the figs once a year, but as it turns out they seem to make nightly excursions through our yard. Likewise with the skunk who only occasionally will nearly drive us out of the house with its odiferous discharge. Much less noticeable are the possums who are seemingly frequent but not particularly regular visitors and no apparent trouble at all. My favorites though are the grey foxes. I like to call them urban foxes as they have definitely adjusted to city life. You might wonder how I know of these visitations. Well, a few years ago we had an outdoor cat. Outdoor cats are fed outside. Having my curiosity peeked by the raccoons in the fig tree, I d

Smoky Mountain National Park In The Fall

There are many places to find fall color and one very special such place is the Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the most visited national park and I would guess the bulk of the visitors come during fall color. When you are driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and the traffic comes to a stop you can be sure there is an excellent viewing location just ahead of you. The waterfall in this picture is Looking Glass Falls and it is viewable from the road, but absolutely worth getting out of the car to really experience it. It is not often that you find a good waterfall with fall colors surrounding it like this. In another part of the park is an area called Tremont. It is a gold mine of scenes like the one above with cascading creeks deep in the forest. A wonderful place to spend contemplative time, alone with nature. Sunrises are special in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the lingering ground mist, gorgeous skies and the awakening of the forest beauty. One of the things I love about sunris

Notes To My Mother

Search This Blog