While we can watch bald eagle family life online at the Hays nest in Pittsburgh, we can’t see how the male eagle captures the food he brings to his lady. His hunting happens far away.
This photo taken in Florida by Chuck Tague shows how bald eagles do it. They fly over, keep their eagle eyes on the prey, and pounce. Eight sharp talons grasp the fish (or duck) and the job is done.
Watch out below!
(photo by Chuck Tague)
28 February 2014
Late Wednesday night, 26 February, at 11:15pm a raccoon climbed the bald eagles’ nesting tree at Hays while a noisy train rumbled by in the valley. Mother Eagle was asleep but she heard the raccoon’s rustle and stood up to defend her three eggs. As the mammal crested the nest edge she opened her wings and took a few steps toward it. The raccoon turned and fled.
When you watch the encounter on this archived video from PixController you can see everything that’s going on, but the participants can’t. The nest is lit at night by an infrared lamp mounted near the distant camera. The camera is able to see infrared light but we humans, the eagle, and the raccoon cannot. On that overcast night the animals were dark shapes to each other. I’m sure the raccoon was frightened to find an eagle!
Raccoons raid songbird nests because the songbirds are powerless to stop them but they avoid raptors because birds of prey will kill them. Why was this raccoon attracted to a bald eagles’ nest?
Scott Kinsey gave us the hint on PABIRDS yesterday morning when he wrote:
It has been fun watching the Bald Eagle nest cam from Pittsburgh. Finally got to see a feeding. I think it was the male brought a fish for the female at 10:39am. She had it done by about 10:47 and back on the eggs. Might have been a Gizzard Shad around eleven inches?
As Scott points out, the female eagle eats at the nest and though she sets the scraps aside she doesn’t take out the garbage. Lots of smelly fish scraps are up there on the sticks. The raccoon probably smelled the leftovers and came exploring for a meal. When he realized his mistake he was out of there!
This surely isn’t the first time a raccoon has explored an eagles’ nest at night. We just happened to see it because of the night vision camera. He was lucky he didn’t make a fatal error.
Click here to see what’s happening right now at the eagles’ nest.
(video from the Pittsburgh Eaglecam by PixController)
p.s. This episode points out another difference between bald eagles and peregrines. Adult peregrines don’t eat at the nest during incubation and even when feeding nestlings in the nest they take out the garbage.
The burrowing owl’s genus is named for Athena, goddess of wisdom.
In Brazil, this Athene cunicularia stood on one leg for his portrait.
Thinking big thoughts?
(This photograph was Picture of the Day at Wikimedia Commons on 19 February 2014. Click on the image to see the original.)
Spring is coming! The bald eagles at Hays in the City of Pittsburgh laid their first egg yesterday at 4:45pm!
This the second year the eagles have nested in Hays but the first time we’ve been able to see inside the nest thanks to PixController’s streaming eaglecam and the PA Game Commission’s permission and site assistance.
The egg was immediately breaking news (no pun intended) at the Post-Gazette, Tribune Review, WPXI and KDKA to name just a few.
In this video of the egg’s first on-camera appearance notice the reactions of ‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’ eagle…
You can watch the eaglecam at several websites. My two favorites are PixController and the National Aviary. Click on a logo below to watch the Pittsburgh eaglecam. PixController’s has a link to the video archives.
(video from Bill Powers at PixController)
Yesterday at Sax Zim Bog was bright, both day and night. It began with a full moon at -13F and peaked at 10F with this bird.
My Life Bird northern hawk owl was perched on top of a tree near the road, easy to see. He eyed us with suspicion as we trundled off the bus and stood in the road, staring at him. Do his eyebrows give him that disapproving look?
When he wasn’t staring back at us he scanned the bog for prey. I’ve read that northern hawk owls have perfected the technique of hunting by sight and can identify prey as much as half a mile away.
It helps to be in full sun if you need to see a vole at 2,640 feet.
p.s. Jess Botzan was lucky to capture this one in flight. I have never yet seen one fly.
(photo by Jessica Botzan)
I am really tired of cold weather and the effort it takes to walk around in heavy clothes and boots. I can hardly wait for spring and yet … I flew north yesterday to the Arrowhead of Minnesota where the high temperatures are lower than Pittsburgh’s lows, the lows have been -30F, and it snowed six inches yesterday. What was I thinking?
Well, I have a list of northern birds I’ve never seen and my best chance to find them is at the Sax Zim Bog Birding Festival this weekend in Meadowlands, Minnesota.
Jess and Brian Botzan were here last month and saw all the birds on my wish list: great gray owl, northern hawk owl, boreal chickadee, black-billed magpie, gray jay and pine grosbeak. Braving -50F wind chill Jess photographed this great gray owl at the very bog where I’ll be looking for one today. I hope to be so lucky.
So I’ve put on my long johns, corduroys, ski pants, turtleneck, thick wool sweater, polarlite cardigan, parka, Nordic earflap hat, two layers of mittens, wool socks, Sorel boots, face mask, bula and “Hot Hands” heat packets stuffed near my toes and fingers. I look and feel like a purple Pillsbury dough-boy but I am not cold.
My husband, who is too nearsighted to enjoy birding, has wisely stayed home.
Call me crazy. 😉
(photo by Jessica Botzan)
p.s. Thanks to Jess Botzan who’s providing photos from her trip to illustrate my expedition.
As you saw last weekend there are still crowds of bald eagles gathered along North America’s rivers waiting for winter to end. They can’t go home and begin courting until the ice breaks up.
Meanwhile Pittsburgh’s eagles have a head start on the nesting season because our rivers don’t freeze over. The pair at Hays has already progressed to the finer points of nest construction. They finished the foundation (large sticks) and the bowl (small sticks) and are now working on the nest lining (soft grasses). Sometimes they bring a fish and have a snack at the nest. When the lining is complete, egg-laying won’t be far away.
When you watch the Pittsburgh Hays eaglecam you’ll notice how different eagles’ habits are from peregrines’ behavior. Peregrines don’t “build” a nest, they never use sticks or soft grasses, and they almost never eat at the nest unless they have young in it. This difference is driven by their food and habitat needs: bald eagles eat fish and nest in trees near water, peregrines hunt birds on the wing and nest on cliff ledges.
Bald eagles also nest earlier than peregrines so watch the Pittsburgh Hays eaglecam for live updates. If you miss the action, browse the archives here.
(bald eaglecam video by PixController, streaming provided by WildEarth)
In the winter bald eagles move to sites of abundant food along North America’s rivers. One such location is Safe Harbor Dam on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
In mid-January Meredith Lombard found this crowd of immature birds jostling for a good position on the rocks. They’ve been chumming for dam-stunned fish.
(video by Meredith Lombard)
Last Friday Ginataras Baltusis filmed an immature peregrine falcon preening in New York City. I found the video interesting because the bird is banded and has a pale face and head with long white eyebrow stripes.
The pale head made me think of the tundra subspecies from the arctic. The bands made me think, “This bird hatched near people, not in the arctic.” The head stripes are a puzzle.
Is this a tundra peregrine? (Compare to this tundra peregrine in Pittsburgh in 2008.) Is it a peregrine hybrid, perhaps a falconer’s escaped bird? Or have I just been fooled by a bird with unusual head feathers?
What do you think?
(video by Ginataras Baltusis)
Yesterday the weather was cold and sunny but the birds could tell snow was coming.
Seed and fruit-eating birds were busy chowing down at the feeders and fruit trees. Birds of prey patrolled those areas looking for lunch.
When all the little birds flush at once, look for a hawk.
Perhaps it will be an immature Cooper’s hawk like this one.
Click here for tips on the difference between look-alike Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. Start practicing now for the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 14-17.
(photo of “Mr. Cooper” by Cris Hamilton)