After posting my 3-Eagle-yard-bird sighting yesterday, the dog and I visited the lake shore areas in front of my house to look for evidence of what the Bald Eagles had been eating.
I found three fresh bloody spots and blood spatter right at the edge of the water/ice (not much ice), many feet apart. In the bloody places I found only a few tiny pieces of bony tissue and a few curled, grayish brown feathers. Very few feathers. At one kill site, I found wonderful large wing prints in the snow (before the helpful dog walked thru the prints, I was able to photograph a couple with my phone). So, I presume the Eagles had killed about 3 ducks. There was not a big pile of feathers, or pieces of wings, anywhere near any of the kill sites. I didn't look extensively down there for where they might have eaten the ducks, but I suppose they could have perched on a lower tree than was visible up over the cliff at my house earlier. I had not seen the Eagles in the high branches with anything but little pieces of meat. Do eagles rip out most the feathers of birds they eat, as I have seen Coopers and Sharp-shinned Hawks do? Or do they wolf down most of the bird including feathers? Donna L. Scott Lansing Station Road From: bounce-118751064-15001...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-118751064-15001...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Donna Lee Scott Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11:10 AM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Patriotic Yard Birds Dawdling at the breakfast table after chores has its rewards here by the lake! First I was treated to a nice flotilla of REDHEADS and their CA GEESE and MALLARD groupies swimming and diving back and forth. Then I had a rarer treat: First, 2 BALD EAGLES, an adult and probably a 2nd year juvenile (lotsa white on belly, some white flecks on head) landed in the tall cottonwood tree on my beach, directly out from my kitchen table. They sat for a minute and the adult flew off out over the lake, leaving Juv. on branch. Soon, 3 of the 6 residents of the local A. CROW family started harassing the Eagle, which mostly sat there looking around, fluffing its feathers. The crows actually kept landing on branches near the Eagle, as well as strafing its back. Some of my ~36 resident MOURNING DOVES, who had been sitting near the water, beat a hasty retreat from their lakeside perches, up into the yard by the house. Then the Adult Eagle returned and the two flew just south of my property and the adult dove down to the beach, while the Juv. perched in Cindy Lion's tree. For a minute I thought I saw 2 adults, but was not sure. Then Juv. went down and came back up with a long piece of tissue in its beak which it kept transferring to its talons in flight. It seemed to be adjusting the tissue so it could eat it, which I think it finally did. In the air. Meanwhile, an adult came up with a red lump in talons and ate that in my tree, with the Juv. hovering in air and then on branch nearby. After the little meal, the adult started "screaming" (I was out on deck by now, watching, hearing). The two took off again and flew down around the beach shore and then I saw that there were indeed 2 adult eagles. The other must have been on the beach with a prey animal. All three took off flying over the water and in quick succession both adults caught in their talons a prey animal from the surface of the water. Same size prey, dark gray; then all three Eagles flew south out of sight. Prey looked much more fish-like than duck-like. --Donna Scott Donna L. Scott Lansing Station Road /Cayuga Lake Lansing, NY d...@cornell.edu<mailto:d...@cornell.edu> -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
