Hello Eagle Friends,
It was another snowy day in the valley of the eagles. It all started with large flakes, followed by icy chunks, then the flurries. It made driving to and from my project area a challenge too.
I couldn't find the fifth nest today with the snow falling so heavily it blocked my view, but the other four nests were snow-covered and vacant.
I saw four eagles today, two different pairs of them.
After I left Dancer and Daedee's nest area I moved on to visit the trumpeter swans. About two
dozen canada geese had moved in since yesterday, add to that about twenty mallards who also joined the small pond stirring with life.
As I filmed the swans with the geese and mallards crowding their pool, I got an unexpected surprise when a bald eagle quickly swooped down above them, and tore into the ground, rose up
chasing something, and dropped quicker than I could shoot. At first I wondered if it was going after a mallard, but it kept diving at the ground. I just kept shooting and then was surprised again when another eagle swooped in and both eagles hunted the animal below.
I couldn't see what kind of animal they were after because there was a rise in the landscape, but from the way the eagles were flying I would guess it was a rabbit. Anything else would have run up a tree, or jumped under a log. I sometimes question if a rabbit enjoys being persued, because the way they run back and forth it almost appears like that is a challenging game for them. The eagles hunted as team in the underbrush of the gnarly woods. One eagle would dive talons extended, and the other eagle would perch, momentarily, then dive down with its' talons extended heading the direction the animal they were in pursuit of ran. I wondered how they could
fly and dive so well that they never collided.
As the eagles neared the pond edge the swans began trumpeting loudly. For the first time in 17 days I can with 100% accuracy say they are, without a doubt, trumpeter swans. It's the vocals that separate the breed differences between a trumpeter and tundra swan. I've had my doubts all this time. It took the eagles visit to them to give me an answer I've been waiting for.
I watched the eagles for several minutes and then the one eagle flew off and a few minutes later the mate followed shortly after and I didn't see any rabbit in its talons.
Later as I moved along my outdoor beat I found a few robins standing on the ice, sipping from the open water. The belted kingfisher was sitting on his favorite branch over the river, he even gave me a cursory glance as I passed him.
I photographed the snowflakes, and then some "spirited" trees for a tree book I'm working on.
As I backtracked, I found an eagle sitting on top of a branchless tree, scanning the rapidly moving creek below for a chance meal and his mate flying by.
I talked to a man from the fisheries department a week or so back and he told me when the floods came through this past summer they lost, I think he said 150,000 lake salmon into these streams and rivers. He said they probably wouldn't survive though, as they may not know how to eat to survive. They were destined for a Lake Superior delivery, but the floods took them instead. Eagle food. That's what they are now.
As I traveled along I found a hairy woodpecker, a grey bird that I have yet to indentify, a couple red tail hawks, and two blue birds singing from their perch in the falling snow.
All in all, it was a good day in the fields, and it was almost 10 degrees all day. What a change that was.
Looking forward to Day 18.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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