Just whose fish is it? Both great blue herons have dibs and bills on it…
There ensued a royal tug-of-war between the two birds.
The heron in the water is the one who caught the fish.
And ultimately held onto it.
Wild day on the lake even though it was cloudy and dripping rain.
The gangster crows easily found this immature red-tailed hawk this morning.
I believe this may be a migrating hawk.
He didn’t seem to know the area and didn’t know how to evade the black menaces.
I saw several hawks today: red-tails, red-shoulders, and I believe a broad-winged hawk too.
The changing weather patterns up the northeast are driving the migratory birds south, early this year.
I was not in sight of the osprey nest when mom osprey found me.
She was angry, very angry; the dropped legs and feet are a threat posture.
I was pulling on my camo when I saw her shadow over me and then heard her scream.
I stopped, dared to lift my camera toward her, and she warned me again.
I did not argue and regretted having somehow upset the protective mom.
Quietly walking back to my vehicle more than a quarter mile away, I wondered about the violent reaction.
I have watched the nest for almost a month, on and off, and I rarely got more than a glance from the parents.
Part of the mystery was solved when a human resident told me that a lot of people had found the nest over the weekend.
They ignored the parent ospreys’ warnings and irritated the human resident since “his” birds were upset.
Another part of the mystery: one of the chicks had fledged and that makes parents very, very edgy.
I gave mom and nest a wide berth and headed on up the lake – asking the Creator to provide the nest some peace.
the immature red-tailed hawk crossed the line into the nesting territory of the American crow
the defense was immediate and intense; sometimes the crow was chasing, sometimes the hawk would chase
they both crossed the river and were still tangling when I lost sight of them
doc ellen's journey 