I was driving along West Cliff planning to go for a walk when I saw it on a light pole and stopped in the next parking space because I didn't know what it was. I generally take a little camera with me so I got a couple of shots to use later on. I didn't get a photo of it but I got a good look at the underside when it flew off.:
It took some poking around to figure out it was a Swainson's Hawk (dark form). They migrate from the US and Canada to Argentina and then back each year. This must have been an early return.
I think I'll go back and see if it's still there today.
Well, no Swainson's Hawks today but there were two Sea Otters just off the cliffs. They are large weasels and not birds, technically speaking. Quite hefty creatures, males get up to 100lbs. There were also some Scoters in the water as well, and Scoters are birds.
Just about a year ago, I saw a bald eagle sitting on a power pole (near Two Rock, where I live). Haven't seen it since, and I don't recall seeing an eagle in the Bay Area ever.
SAN MATEO -- A nesting pair of bald eagles at Crystal Springs Reservoir has made history yet again by raising two chicks that are now soaring above the vast Peninsula Watershed, symbolizing the once-endangered predator's resurgence in the Bay Area and beyond.
The juvenile eagles left their nest and began learning to fly within the past couple months, according to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which manages the 23,000-acre watershed west of Interstate 280. Bird watchers and experts say the family, which first appeared at the reservoir in 2012, appears to be thriving.
"It's a sign that things are going well for them up there," said Glenn Stewart, director of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group.
I have been going to the same area of Pa (where we have a house) all my life (1962 was the first time) and bald eagles returned about 10 years ago. In the winter that are now a normal sight along the Delaware and surrounding lakes. (my place is about 10 minutes from Narrowsburg NY)
oldr_n_wsr wrote:I have been going to the same area of Pa... bald eagles returned about 10 years ago... now a normal sight along the Delaware and surrounding lakes... about 10 minutes from Narrowsburg NY
Interesting. Obviously, we grew up together, separately, in the same region. As a lad my family would spend a few weeks each summer on Lake Wallenpaupack (1953-62.) I don't recall ever seeing a bald eagle flying around nor nesting in the area in all that time. I've been going back to the lake on day trips for about the last 15 years. On quite a few of these visits I have had multiple encounters with these eagles soaring overhead and even diving on the lake to grab a quick bite to eat. IIRC even Kipp Island is off limits now to visitors due to aeries being spotted.
It's amazing how the bald eagle population went from so few to no longer endangered in such a short period of time. Do you think they taste like chicken?
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.”
Obviously, we grew up together, separately, in the same region.
Seems so.
Lake Wallenpaupack
Not far from the house, about 45 minutes (probably 10miles by how the eagle flies).
We're not far from Honesdale and Hawley. The town on our address is Beach Lake.
I'm very lucky, the new place I found to live just 5 minutes by car, 15 by bike & a 45 minute walk to town/work, is right on a river that feeds into the Atlantic and out my bedroom window I can see bald eagles, osprey, great blue herons, etc. on a daily basis.
I promise to post pics in future!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
RayThom wrote:It's amazing how the bald eagle population went from so few to no longer endangered in such a short period of time. Do you think they taste like chicken?
No, it's hard to describe but if I had to say I'd put them somewhere between whooping crane and California condor. -"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
Nice to see the bunch of pix here. The plant where I worked near Newark DE for 39 years was an industrial park with not much developed. It was on "Purgatory Swamp" which was near were the Betsy Ross flag was first displayed in battle. The Brits marched from a landing area (Now called Elkton MD) planing to take Wilmington DE. Washington watched from the high ground (now Iron Hill Park, DE) and pulled back as the Brits advanced. The Brits declared Purgatory Swamp impossible to cross and marched back to their boats.
The Swamp is still wetlands with the usual federal controls. There is a small lake now called "Sunset Lake" that is maintained by a private fishing club. But about ten years ago a pair of Bald Eagles showed up and seemed to have flourished. They like the food supply, and the rising air currents off all the blacktop parking lots on sunny days.
What does Bald Eagle taste like? You really don't want to know. The feds watch these birds carefully (their eagle eye? watch like a hawk?) and love to dish out huge fines for even the possession of one feather. Legal ownership of a Bald Eagle feather is more difficult than legal ownership of a Browning .50 cal machine gun.
Burning Petard wrote:Nice to see the bunch of pix here. The plant where I worked near Newark DE for 39 years was an industrial park with not much developed. It was on "Purgatory Swamp" which was near were the Betsy Ross flag was first displayed in battle. The Brits marched from a landing area (Now called Elkton MD) planing to take Wilmington DE. Washington watched from the high ground (now Iron Hill Park, DE) and pulled back as the Brits advanced. The Brits declared Purgatory Swamp impossible to cross and marched back to their boats.
The Swamp is still wetlands with the usual federal controls. There is a small lake now called "Sunset Lake" that is maintained by a private fishing club. But about ten years ago a pair of Bald Eagles showed up and seemed to have flourished. They like the food supply, and the rising air currents off all the blacktop parking lots on sunny days.
What does Bald Eagle taste like? You really don't want to know. The feds watch these birds carefully (their eagle eye? watch like a hawk?) and love to dish out huge fines for even the possession of one feather. Legal ownership of a Bald Eagle feather is more difficult than legal ownership of a Browning .50 cal machine gun.
snailgate
There are special exceptions for members of Native American tribes who are permitted to use feathers (as well as talons, bones, and other body parts such as parts of the wing) in rituals and ceremonies, according to the people who run this place. But even then, you can't just go around plucking feathers, even off of dead specimens; if you are qualified the government provides them as requested, and I feel that it is safe to say they probably have a better idea of where each and every legally-authorized bald-eagle part currently is compared to knowledge of where all the legally-permitted 'tommy guns' or Browning .50-cal machine guns in this country might be. -"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
