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Watch these eagles in bed. :)


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Neat! That was one of the coolest parts of Alaska. They have bald eagles like we have crows it seemed liked. You could just ride down the road and see the white heads in the trees.

Got crows? [:)] If you scroll down on that page, you'll see why there should be open season on crows.

(Actually that's a raven, but ravens are just a big crow, like a Kodiak is a big griz.)

I suspect the last living bird on this earth will be a crow, so no, they'll never be endangered. Unless somebody creates a black market for ceremonial crow feathers. Hmm. [8D]

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LA is not far form me. I've heard that if was capable of ever moving, a cajun would eat it.

I've also heard they carry spray paint in the car when they go to town. No, no graffiti, they mark the dead animals on the way in. It one has no paint on it when they are going home it's fresh and good eatin!

Sorry Marc.

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I've become addicted to this site (actually both, there is a link to the White Rock Eagle nest as well). It's a bit like watching paint dry but once in a while you'll see shift change. Pretty cool.

On the Terminal Tower, in Cleveland, we have a nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons. Another amazing Raptor.

http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org/news.php

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I saw a live one fairly close-up once at the Memphis Zoo. He was in an enormous outdoor enclosure, recovering from a wing injury. Son of a guns are HUGE, way bigger than any birds I was used to seeing. It's not hard to see how the "eagle stole my baby" stories got started.

Brian G.

What Bird Is Big Enough to "Stole" My Wife? [;)]

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I saw a live one fairly close-up once at the Memphis Zoo. He was in an enormous outdoor enclosure, recovering from a wing injury. Son of a guns are HUGE, way bigger than any birds I was used to seeing. It's not hard to see how the "eagle stole my baby" stories got started.

Brian G.

What Bird Is Big Enough to "Stole" My Wife? [;)]

Yep,

That's why I policed up Peanut (my avatar) PDQ one afternoon as I'm walking him near the park. I approached a guy on the path who was looking up into the trees. As I got closer he said something like, "You might want to pick that little guy up before that fellow up there gets him." I looked up in the tree in the direction he'd been looking and there on a branch was an eagle kind of leaning forward on his branch, craning his head and looking very interested in that little 3lb 11oz guy like he was the appetizer for the main course.

Magnificent birds. I've read that Ben Franklin wanted our national bird to be a turkey and said they were more noble than an eagle. I don't get it; an eagle is a strong independent fighter, a turkey is a skulking, hiding meal.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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. . . Magnificent birds. I've read that Ben Franklin wanted our national bird to be a turkey and said they were more noble than an eagle. I don't get it; an eagle is a strong independent fighter, a turkey is a skulking, hiding meal.

Well, you've got to appreciate the difference between a modern feed-lot turkey and the native north american wild turkeys that Franklin would have been familiar with. The two birds are nothing alike.

Also, he never argued the point in congress. His observation was limited to a single letter to his daughter:

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .

"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."

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Herons are neat too. We got away for a few days at Blake Island. Picked a good time to go. Weather was great, no tour boats, and the we almost had the island and marina to ourselves. I understand it can be a bit of a zoo later in the year. Anyway...took this photo yesterday. It almost looks like I photo-shopped the big bird, but it's real. Must be the light?

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Campground...no campers.

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Dudley had a great time.

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Heading home.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 11 months later...

Got home about an hour before sundown. Sat down to work at the computer and the little prince starts bugging me. "You want to go out?" I asked him and he set up a row. So, bundle him into the truck and drive down to logboom park to let him do his thing.

Pulled up in the car, by then he was trying to scratch his way through the door. I opened the door and he jumped onto the floor and then out under my legs to the ground before I could get my seatbelt off. He scamped over the lawn and then spun around to leave a deposit. I'm just stepping out of the truck watching the dog when I hear a sound like two pieces of chalk being squealed on the blackboard very rapidly for about five seconds. I looked up at a tree just about 30 ft. above Peanut and there's a big old bald eagle with his head turned sideways looking down at the 3lb. sub-miniature pooch trying to decide if he was hungry enough to deal with all that hair if he swooped down to grab him.

2012320231916_peanut2.jpg

Don't think I've moved that fast in a year. Scooped the little prince up with half a deposit still dangling from his bottom and got his harness and leash onto him.

Maybe another five seconds out there on the lawn on his own and he would have been an appetizer.

Once I got control of the pooch the eagle lost interest, flew out by the dock, swooped down, hit the water and came up with some kind of fish and flew off to St. Edwards State Park on the other side of the lake.

The Korean Connection doesn't know. If she knew I'd let him get that close to becoming raptor sushi she'd filet me like a cod.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Took the pooch back to the park today.

When I pulled up in the car, I saw a few people peering up in the trees over the parking lot taking pictures with their phones. I got out and there were two of the fellows in the photo below; just sitting there looking uncomfortable but curious as to what all excitement below them was about.

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After watching them for a few minutes I decided they were either some kind of eagle I don't know or they are a pair of juvenile bald eagles; and, based on their behavior, weren't much of a threat. Took the dog for a long walk. It was windy as hell. I was returning along the bike path wondering if those birds were still there and why they were hanging around, while occasionally glancing skyward to make sure nothing was angling down to grab the sub-sub-miniature pooch, when just as I'm almost back to the parking area here comes a huge bald eagle soaring nose into the wind about fifty feet above my head. It didn't appear to be paying attention but I scooped up the pooch anyway until the thing had gained some altitude and was about a quarter mile away and getting farther away every second. Then I put him down.

I've lived in Kenmore 16 years this month and have never seen eagles this close in. I think what I was seeing was an adult with two fledglings that are still dependent on the adult for food. From that park across the tip of the lake to St. Edwards park is about half a mile as the eagle flies, and I suspect that since St. Edwards park has the wildest woodlands and tallest trees in the neighborhood, in addition to that really tall bell tower on top of the old monastary, that these guys are probably from there.

It's kind of cool having them around. I guess if there's enough of them around that they are establishing territory this far in toward population centers their numbers must be recovering pretty well.

The dogs gonna be bummed 'cuz I'm going to have to keep him on a leash from now on. Hmm, maybe I can borrow the neighbor's cat whenever I take the dog for a walk.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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