Tag Archives: bird of prey

Crows Mobbing a Bald Eagle

I never fail to be amazed at the crap that large birds of prey take from smaller birds.  The eagles fly around here with crows and other birds swooping in at them and trying to drive them away.  The strangest part is that the eagles barely do anything about it.  I have seen how agile an eagle can be in flight and a rapid turn to point some talons at an incoming crow is well within their capability but they just don’t bother.  I was down south of Seattle recently and heard the familiar call of a bald eagle (not as cool as you might think).  It was sitting on a tree top.  Crows were coming in to hassle it regularly and it barely flinched.  I shot a small video clip to show the crows working as a pair and that is included below.

Buzzed By A Bald Eagle

We had a day out on Whidbey Island and we stopped off at Fort Casey to eat our lunch.  We parked up near the lighthouse and there was a bald eagle hanging around along the cliff tops.  The updrafts made soaring around a piece of cake for it.  It landed in the top of a tree near us as we walked along the cliff.  When we turned around and headed down the slope towards the fort, it started flying high above us and then appeared to swoop down into the bushes – presumably to catch a snack.  We lost track of it at that point but a short while later it emerged from the bushes flying just above head height and straight towards us.  I had the camera on the wrong settings to maximize my chance of getting a good shot but I still managed to get a few slightly blurry ones as it buzzed by.

Ospreys Galore

A trip to Log Boom Park in Kenmore is usually because I am after floatplanes.  However, it is a great source of wildlife and some of the ospreys in the vicinity were keen to be photographed.  You get plenty of ospreys and eagles in the area but they are usually fishing a bit further out into Lake Washington and not so close to the shore.  However, a few of them were circling right overhead and even looking at some fishing opportunities in around the jetty.  It would be rude to not try and get some shots of them!

Ospreys on the Docks

AU0E1643.jpgI might have been visiting Mare Island to see the museum and surrounding area but I also got to fit in some wildlife viewing while I was there.  I had stepped out of the back of the museum towards one of the dry docks.  One of the guys working in a business nearby starting chatting and saying how he wished he had a long lens with him to photograph the ospreys.  I could hear a lot of noise but he pointed out the source.  All of the high structures around the docks be they cranes or gantries seemed to have a nest on them.  Ospreys were all over the place.  They had access to the fishing in the water a short distance away so the metalwork was providing a great vantage point with plenty of privacy.

AU0E1670.jpgThe noise from the nest close to me was pretty loud.  A chick was obviously awaiting some food.  At first I thought the parents were going to come right in but then I realized that there were so many nests that the birds I could see flying were not necessarily anything to do with this chick.  I don’t know whether it had worked that out, though, given the noise it was making when any bird came close.  I have no idea how much the nest impact the operation of the machinery and whether there are any restrictions on what can be done when they are in place but they are clearly all over the place.