What's going on here? I think its an eagle being harrassed by a crow
The pictures in the next three posts were all taken on the same day. Each set seemed to be a separate event. There are many more of the ones from this particular event but I got frustrated fighting the web page creator. Mostly it works great, but it doesn't make editing changes well.
If anyone can verify that this is a bald eagle I would appreciate it. I think its a young bird maybe one or two years old. It was circling and I kept driving till I found it in the section of the refuge across the road at the end of the first section. (I forget the names of the sections of Montezuma.) Anyway it was across Rt 89.
Interestingly I shot a million pictures of these eagles. I kept keeping shooting till I got a 'battery' signal from my new digital camera. As I turned back to the car, I saw the nesting Osprey. Imagine my disapointment. My camera finally wouldn't run out of film, and it ran out of battery. (I had charged it just before leaving.)
I wanted to put these in order, but its almost impossible to move pictures around in this editor. Still these picutres are ALMOST all in order.
posted by Maqz @ 11:03 PM
6 Comments:
maybe the eagle has some sort of a crow phobia.... or is just shy
Hmm. I think the two birds were more serious. Its my first thought when I see a big bird. Its an eagle! Then I decide why I'm wrong. The more I looked at this, the more I couldn't defeat the idea that this IS an eagle. And a pretty dynamic moment too. It took me a few days to realize what I had.
Steve i have SOME doubts about this being an eagle for a couple of reasons. One, the splayed wingtips in photo four. I don't think eagles do that, it is more common to birds that do a great deal of soaring for control. I think of eagles as being more the attack and back to the nest for a couple of beers. In your earlier eagle photos of flight, no splayed wingtips could be seen. Two, coloring seems mostly black. Young eagles are more spotted and molted looking. Three, I have never heard of crows going after eagles although there are plenty of stories about their conflicts with hawks, turkey vultures and owls. Finally, the V shape of wings while soaring. More an indicator of a turkey vulture than eagle. Eagles and hawks have more of a flat profile. Also the wings seem too long for an eagle. I tend to think of them as having more stocky, thicker, powerful wings.
I will check in my bird books to see if any of this rings true. Anyway, thats my 2 cents worth...
Crows often harass birds of pray to keep them away from there young, territory or just for fun. ( hawks, eagles are only dangerous in the dive when they hit with a lot of force, they can't kill easily in flight or on the ground) This could be a turkey vulture based on the 'fingers' on the wing tips. This is a characteristic of them that is easy to spot on I do not think it is a feature of any other birds that size. I would check out what the wing tips of egals are like.
Ed
The fingers are definately a sign of a buzzard. My first thoughts were of that, or some smaller hawk. However the wings are not the shape of a buteo which has more rounded 'scalloped' secondaries. The next biggest Hawk is a buteo, namely a redtail. At least I think that is the next biggest. Northern Harriers are very large and colored much like this bird, however they have a distinct bright white stripe across the 'rump' on top. I think we get enough looks to see this stripe if it were there.
Buzzards look white underneath in their secondaries. (I think I'm naming the right stretch of feathers). The diheadral of a buzzard looks distinctly different from the V of this bird (in the last picture). I think that is exactly the shape of an eagle taking air on the upstroke. But the biggest reason why this can't be a buzzard is the head. If you click on these you can get a large image. I've looked at them in Photoshop and this bird has a sharp downturned beak. This and the extended muscular neck make it highly unlikely to be a turkey vulture. Look at your pictures of buzzards and you'll see the head is quite small.
I think the reason the 'fingers' are so distinct is that this bird is doing serious manouvering.
I'll send the link to a Hawk guy and see what he says.
In the interest of full disclosure, i did do some research about this last night and found some interesting things out. Saw an eagle photo with splayed wingtips, so that kills that objection. Your newest photos show the mottled look i was talking about so #2 goes out the window. I read where groups of crows (gaggle, pride, flock) will take on any raptor so if you believe this was one pissed off crow, i would expect he would harass a crow. #3 is out. Also saw a v shaped eagle wing while he was flying. I think what I said about the shape while soaring is true but the photos you had could have been his pumping his wings like hell to get away from the obnoxious crow so #4 is also out the window. I guess this all points to the fact that you got some amazing photos of an extraordinary event. I really liked the newest ones too, much closer, much clearer. Congrats...
Post a Comment
<< Home