A Branch of May
may contain
Lincoln's Sparrow
That's a nice picture. Are you posting to any of the big birding apps? Yesterday in kayak saw on the ground, five feet apart, in East Cove at the mouth of Carman's River two bald eagles. I circled around and drifted straight at them, not paddling and very still with binoculars locked to my eyes. One flew away low and was met by a passing hawk or maybe Osprey and they did a brief dance and the hawk flew away. One eagle still on ground so I kept drifting with binoculars and I got kind of scared when I could see its pupils. I looked up from binoculars and was about thirty feet away from bird and ten feet from running into the bank. Felt like I was tresspassing so I paddled off. Second eagle flew off when I started paddling but only about 50 feet before landing again. On the way out of the cove could see second eagle, still on ground about 200 yards from first. Not catching any fish but seeing some nice birds.
I trust the eagles have better luck fishing than most people. I use eBird, so my sightings are publicly available. I don't post much to the email lists anymore, unless it's something really rare; the lists have declined in importance, as there's now more real-time communication, particularly on twitter, which is more than I need. I prefer to go about my business and be surprised by things, rather than get a constant stream of reports to go chasing after. I don't take many photos either, though you have to be ready to get a record of a rarity. There are plenty of photos of these birds, but everyone wants their own. In some cases it actually erodes field skills, as folks take photos instead of simply watching the bird, then go home an try to make identifications from the pictures.
that's a pretty amazing bald eagle sighting. i wouldn't think they would hang out that close to each other. we took two birds to the audubon society yesterday. one robin, who sadly didn't live through the day, the other i was called to come pick up later in the afternoon. he was fine. apparently stellar jays can live on the ground for weeks before they learn to fly, getting tended to by parents. we thought he was injured...
Yeah, I guess it is a mating pair, but it did seem weird seeing them so close together, just sitting on the ground like that. From Alex's Eagles as fishermen comment the lightbulb clicked on and I thought why would they be there if there weren't plenty of fish to eat, so I went back yesterday, partly to fish and partly with camera this time to get a photo but only saw the one, and as I set up to try a drift towards it a power boat roared by and eagle no more. As for those stellar jays no wonder cats are the leading bird predator if they haven't evolved no better than that, raising their young on the ground.
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A Branch of May
may contain
Lincoln's Sparrow
- alex 5-25-2014 10:35 pm
That's a nice picture. Are you posting to any of the big birding apps? Yesterday in kayak saw on the ground, five feet apart, in East Cove at the mouth of Carman's River two bald eagles. I circled around and drifted straight at them, not paddling and very still with binoculars locked to my eyes. One flew away low and was met by a passing hawk or maybe Osprey and they did a brief dance and the hawk flew away. One eagle still on ground so I kept drifting with binoculars and I got kind of scared when I could see its pupils. I looked up from binoculars and was about thirty feet away from bird and ten feet from running into the bank. Felt like I was tresspassing so I paddled off. Second eagle flew off when I started paddling but only about 50 feet before landing again. On the way out of the cove could see second eagle, still on ground about 200 yards from first. Not catching any fish but seeing some nice birds.
- jimlouis 5-26-2014 1:49 am [add a comment]
I trust the eagles have better luck fishing than most people. I use eBird, so my sightings are publicly available. I don't post much to the email lists anymore, unless it's something really rare; the lists have declined in importance, as there's now more real-time communication, particularly on twitter, which is more than I need. I prefer to go about my business and be surprised by things, rather than get a constant stream of reports to go chasing after. I don't take many photos either, though you have to be ready to get a record of a rarity. There are plenty of photos of these birds, but everyone wants their own. In some cases it actually erodes field skills, as folks take photos instead of simply watching the bird, then go home an try to make identifications from the pictures.
- alex 5-26-2014 2:34 pm [add a comment]
that's a pretty amazing bald eagle sighting. i wouldn't think they would hang out that close to each other. we took two birds to the audubon society yesterday. one robin, who sadly didn't live through the day, the other i was called to come pick up later in the afternoon. he was fine. apparently stellar jays can live on the ground for weeks before they learn to fly, getting tended to by parents. we thought he was injured...
- linda 5-26-2014 11:43 pm [add a comment]
Yeah, I guess it is a mating pair, but it did seem weird seeing them so close together, just sitting on the ground like that. From Alex's Eagles as fishermen comment the lightbulb clicked on and I thought why would they be there if there weren't plenty of fish to eat, so I went back yesterday, partly to fish and partly with camera this time to get a photo but only saw the one, and as I set up to try a drift towards it a power boat roared by and eagle no more. As for those stellar jays no wonder cats are the leading bird predator if they haven't evolved no better than that, raising their young on the ground.
- jimlouis 5-28-2014 2:39 pm [add a comment]