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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Eagles!!!

All good things must come to an end…and so it was today with our sunny weather.  Since it was kind of dull and grey out and I really didn’t expect anything to be much different from yesterday…I only took the small camera with me.  Boy!  was that a mistake!

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Look at the Bald Eagles!!!  At one point I counted 96 of them, which would mean there would be well in excess of a hundred in the area ~ already!  It is only the 7th of October!

The water levels had dropped to the point that we did our usual walk – it meant wet feet as we waded through one spot…but that is OK, they’ll dry. 

Made it over to the log bay, spooking a Ruffed Grouse along the way…

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and watched this display of Eagles and Gulls actually flying down and dipping onto the water surface….

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I’ve never seen that before ~

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I took this shot to show where the logs of the log bay are now, water depth wise…it was right out there the Eagles were putting on the aerial display.  As I stood there, 4 of them came and perched in the larger Poplar trees right beside me…combination of leaves still on the trees and not having the right camera with me means I don’t have any clear pictures of that to show you, but fear not, there will be lots in the future!

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Here is a more distant shot of the eagle activity…

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Eagles weren’t the only birds in the area…..

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These posts to the north of the log bay sported two Glaucous wing Gull and a Great Blue Heron….the Heron was one of 4 I spotted.  There was also a Belted Kingfisher flying around.

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Off to the north of the estuary there were more Eagles lined up along the shore..

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Back at my end of the walk, another shot of just some of the eagles out on the flats. 

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It wasn’t just Eagles in abundance though….these are just a few of the flocks of ducks that were active all over the area….mainly Mallard I think, although there were American Wigeon, that one lone male Gadwall, and 6 female Common Merganser, right in close to shore.  It was the activity of the Eagles that was making the ducks so restless…

In fact…I watched a young Eagle even dive bombing Canada Geese …there was in excess of a hundred Geese just off shore and more kept flying in…

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These were just a very few of them.  The Geese didn’t seem to perturbed by the Eagles…they just hissed a bit and ducked their heads as the Eagles swooped down at them.

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