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: 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/ --
