...Did later show up to grab one of the dead birds in the ice-chunk/water edge of the big ice sheet here at Lans. Stat. Rd.
An adult BALD EAGLE swooped around to check out the floating body, then grabbed it on the third pass. It flew back south a short way & landed on the ice where it started picking at the carcass. By the time I grabbed my scope & got to back deck & re-found the eagle, it was standing near the carcass while an immature eagle stood on carcass pulling it apart & eating pieces of it. The adult now & then would eat a little meat that got flung onto ice. After watching this for awhile, & Wanting to try determining approx. age of immature I ran in house for bird book. By the time I did that & 1 other unnecessary chore & got back to scope, the adult eagle had disappeared and 2 immatures were at the carcass, most of which seemed gone (they were at least half a mile from me). Looking at both Sibley's field guide & Crossley's raptor ID Guide, i would say the immatures were 2nd year birds. They had dull-whitish feathers on top of heads and in sort of a wedge down the back of their necks. Had brown on sides of faces and some white streaks on their backs. I did not note how chests/belly looked, but maybe they were lightly streaked. I do not think they had the lighter eyes and light sides of faces that pix of 3-years show. Sent from my iPhone Donna Scott -- 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/ --