Jordan Lake State Park

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By Jordan Lake: Bald Eagles; Godiva Challenges Hershey

Godiva was speeding down the lake when she suddenly pulled up vertical.  Her mate Hershey was headed her way, also in a hurry.  Godiva decided to challenge Hershey, possibly to a death spiral, but he wasn’t in any mood for the high stakes aerial.  Hershey streaked over Godiva.  Godiva was so mad she about stalled out of the air in her turn around to chase her mate.  They both were quickly out of my sight.

By Jordan Lake: Practice!

While on the Haw River above the main lake, a friend and I watched a pair of immature bald eagles practicing the maneuver known as a death spiral. I managed to get one of the talon to talon grabs that the youngsters were practicing; when they get really good at this skill they lock both feet to both feet. This is a critical skill for a bald eagle to learn as it is part of the breeding behavior of a potential breeding pair of bald eagles. The upper bird is a 4-year-old and the lower bird is a 3-year-old.

By Jordan Lake: Falcon! Merlin!!!
I was tracking a fish-carrying osprey with my camera when I realized there was a small bird also tracking the osprey. Hmmm. Too late in the season to be an eastern kingbird chasing an intruder away from its nest. Too big for a kingbird anyway. But not as big as an American crow. And, oh, the pointed wings and the facial markings sure said “merlin”. Oops! I have never seen a merlin at Jordan Lake before late fall – some migrate here for the winter. A puzzle, but it was great to see the small falcon. Oh, and I think he was just curious about the osprey, especially since the merlin was smaller than the fish the osprey was carrying.