Bald eagle

Sorry this might be kind of long. I was rearranging the pole barn yesterday and I shut the tractor off and heard this strange bird noise. Saw this guy(?) sitting on our cell tower. He was just sitting there squawking his fool head off. Of course he quit as soon as I started taking the video. I saw some other birds circling way up but thought they might be vultures.(lots of them around) Turns out it was 4-5 mature eagles and they took turns attacking this guy. I'm thinking the one on the tower was a young male and the others didn't like him in the area. We rarely see 1 if any eagles so to see several was pretty cool.

 

Not the best pic with the phone but this is 2 adults attacking the young guy. Right at the bottom of the pic is 2 of them fighting

 

One of the mature birds is back this morning. Guarding the cell tower.

 

Love to watch eagles. For all my life until about 10 years ago, we never had bald eagles in the area (NW Iowa) but now we routinely see them.

It's been a huge improvement in our area.

 

Living really close to the river we have a good chance of seeing them. There are several breeding pairs in our area. Even though I am seeing them more often, it's still a thrill when I do. Never seen them when I was a kid, I would say about 20 years ago is when they started to be more established.

 

We have an eagle nest about 2 miles from our house...another about 5 miles away. Noticed a large bird on the ground eating something in the field next to the house the other day, thought it was a buzzard, but then noticed it had a large white head instead of the small red head that the local turkey buzzards have...I can't say for sure, but I'm thinking that was an eagle.

 

We have some not far that have been nesting in the same tree on a river/salt marsh area.
They have been there for a few years now , lots of people some days when I drive by with their cameras and long lenses. Easy parking and not far from the nest.
Have also seen them kayaking in the same area. I suspect it might have been a different one though.

They are really making a comeback in our state. Actually there are cruises on the Ct. River now that take you out scouting for them.

 

Actually fish and game was who told me where the one I saw on the kayak was nesting. Putting the boats in with the wife and fish and game officer was there and we chatted for a while about them.
A different area than where the cars park to take pictures so appears to be more than one. About a mile as the crow ( or Eagle ) flies from each other. Both on the river / marsh area though.

 

I've seen them in the area.

 

I've never seen an eagle kayaking! That would be an awesome sight! (Sorry for my early morning attempt at humor)

My wife and I took a couple road trips a few weeks ago. There are 2 large reservoirs fairly close to us where eagles are reported to be Feb-April. We saw a couple nests but no birds spotted. Interestingly when I uploaded the pics from the camera, we saw a tiny white spot at the top of the nest so it appears we got the very top of the head and didn't know it. We ended up seeing one in a field about 5 miles south of our house.

 

That’s an awesome sight (and sound)!!

 

I lived along the river back in the 80's above Harrisburg. There was a 1,000 acre island that was part wildlife sanctuary and part game lands where I hunted. The game commission brought the first eaglelets from Canada and raised them there in big towers. I used to watch them feed the babies with a fake eagle head glove. That was to keep them from getting used to people. I'm sure any we see are descendants of those birds.

 

In a van?

 

Around 2009 we went with a NJ biologist to band ospreys in the platform nests in the back water marshes of Avalon. The kids had a blast on the boat ride thru the marsh and the osprey parents diving at the biologist as he climbed the ladder and pulled the fledglings from the nest. They helped with the banding. At the second nest, I noticed what looked like a bald eagle on a distant nest and the biologist confirmed with his field glasses. He couldn't believe it. Never saw bald eagles nesting in Cape May County. He called an associate and confirmed it was the first. We didn't go near the eagle nest. Apparently they are not a tolerant as osprey with their young.

 

No but I had one. That's what I hauled firewood in.

 

We come in 404 to Harrington when we go to NASCAR. Seen several nests along there in the electric poles.

 

It was about 2 years ago I was up at what we called the cross over. That is where we start to maintain 3/4 acres. A big shadow caught my eye and looked up just in time to see a eagle fly right over me. Was cool for the short time it happened.