This lovely female bald eagle took less than the 30 seconds of this video to surely, swiftly fly past me. What power!
raptors
CategoryJordan Lake: Exclamation Point
I think Hersey makes an excellent emphatic feathered statement about sticking a landing, perfectly!
Jordan Lake: Osprey Fledgling and a BIG Fish
The fledgling male osprey had caught a fish so big that even a mature female osprey (who are bigger than the males) would have had trouble getting the catch back to a tree. And, there is the ever present danger of a bald eagle looking for a fish to steal.
Jordan Lake Osprey: Drop Like a Rock!
The osprey fledgling was on a branch about 50 feet above me on a tree only 30 feet away. When an osprey is that close to the water and they spot a fish, they tilt over and drop almost straight down, like a falling rock. You get to see just what I got to see … and I was so close that my long lens couldn’t frame all of the osprey for the complete dive. Whew!
Jordan Lake: Sharp-shinned Hawk Chases an American Crow
The young hawk takes the opportunity to chase an American crow. The hawk is pestering the crow. The crow is much bigger than the hawk’s normal prey of sparrows and warblers. American crows raid hawk nests and steal eggs and chicks. Even though this is a juvenile hawk, he understands the damage a crow can do and decides to remind the crow just how agile a flier is the Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Jordan Lake: Osprey Skipping!
Osprey’s often get rather messy down their chests when they are eating their fish. One way that an osprey can quickly clean his front is to skip across the water, chest parallel to the surface, and at very high speed scrape clean his front, lickety-split. All ospreys do this – but you have to recognize the difference in the dive as they head for a cleaning session if you want to try to catch the action. This fledgling skipped 5 times before going aloft.
doc ellen's journey 