Just one photo today as there is a lot of persiflage to come, and you’re spoiled with photos anyway! This, of course, is from Stephen Barnard, who is watching the two bald eaglets (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) grow rapidly, stuffed with fish by their parents Desi and Lucy.
This is the biggest fish I’ve seen them bring to the nest, and probably close to the limit of what they can comfortably carry. (This is Lucy.)
Click to enlarge:
I asked Stephen what kind of fish it was, and he replied:
It’s definitely a trout because those are the only fish of that size here. I think it’s a Brown Trout (Salmo trutta), judging by the shape of the tail, but it’s hard to tell for sure because it’s covered with dirt. Lucy may have had to make a rest stop or two on the way to the nest.
Oops—this just in from Matthew, a tw**t with one predatory bird capturing another. An amazing video (click the blue arrow):
Great #gif of an owl taking a roosting hawk. #birds #nature #wildlife pic.twitter.com/KCna0UFUo3
— Dr Anthony Caravaggi (@thonoir) May 12, 2016
Look at those glowing eyes approaching, and the other bird thinking, “WTF just happened?”
Good fishing Lucy.
And WOW!
Hawks do not like owls for this very reason!
(We had nesting Coopers Hawks in front of our home a few years back. One trick the ornithologists used to capture them for blood tests was to put up a mesh net and then put a half-blind Great Horned Owl behind the net. The owl was bait for the hawks who flew down to drive it off only to get captured. Note… the owl was a rescue bird that was blind in one eye and couldn’t have lived in the wild anymore.)
Love the GIF. The hawk appeared to be a juvenile, possibly not even fledged.
I was thinking that, since there were 3 of them roosting together.
Rather, there were 3..
Sinister and impressive hawk-owl capture!
Wow, on the owl attack. Wow.
Damn, those owls mean business.
A giant owl used to look in the window at my parent’s cat. The cat was never let out.
I’ve also seen a momma hawk try and scare away an owl for hours…the owl just gave her a Sith stare…like “Come night, you will learn the power of the dark side”.
Jeeze, that is death by WTF!
Very cool on both the pic and gif.
I watched something the other day about how owls fly so noiselessly. It was amazing. They’re the original silent assassin.
Always thought Owls were amazing Birds and that just proves it ,wow