Rickubis Bird Page #2b: Eagles! page 2! Page 1
, Page 3
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is.) Last update: 2/14/2024
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Dashnau
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Welcome
to Brazos Bend State Park. That's me on the trail at Fiorenza Park
watching an Eagle 6/3/2023. I was just a child when the number of Eagle
nests in the U.S. was only 417...in the lower 48 states.
I never expected to see
Bald Eagles at all where I live and play, but here they
are! I'm sharing
many of my pictures and videos of Eagles here on my Eagle Pages.
12/24/2022
I went out
to Fiorenza Park to see what changes the freezing polar air might have made. When I got
there, I found the gates to the park closed
and locked, and
a check online showed me that the park would be closed until the 27th.
Since
I couldn't go where I usually do, I used the parking lane in a property
adjoining the
park, and got
on the trail there. This put me about 600 yards
South of where I usually
start. It
was about 28degF, and the wind blew at me from over the water. I got
back in the car and
watched over the
waters from there. I thought I saw an Eagle to the west, but it went down too quickly. So I
got back on the trail and walked around the building.
There's video
edited from the various clips here.
When I rounded the building,
I saw an Eagle on one of the high-tension line towers! Now...I was about 600 yards
closer to the towers that I normally see from the trail! As I walked to the tower,
I noticed the Eagle on the tower watching something, and a juvenile Eagle flew
by. It didn't land next to the adult Eagle and circled off to
the West. Juvie
has white flex on top and bottom of
wings, some white on the tail, a lighter beak, and lighter head. Chest is mostly dark.
So, maybe 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 years old?
The
eagle on the tower took off, and I tried to keep it in frame as I shot
video. I lost sight of it for a few
seconds, and when I found the Eagle again, I noticed a clump of
vegetation in its
talons.
The Eagle returned to the top of the tower with the bundle--and I had
no idea what
it was up to. Was it going to nest? But a closer
look showed that the plants were only "bycatch". The eagle
had caught a large fish! While I watched, freezing my fingers
in the cold, the
Eagle ate its breakfast. From what I can see, the fish is
"white", striped, and has a tail without pronounced lobes.
My guess is that it's a White Bass (Morone chrysops). I used this TPWD web page to try for an
identification.
I left before the eagle finished. I caught a lot with the camera, so I've put it together
here so we can watch the eagle's breakfast. I thought it
wonderful that
I was standing only 20 yards from cars
rushing by on the Westpark Tollway while I watched the Eagle eating
about 50(?) yards above the traffic. AND...there's video
edited from the various clips here.
From BBSP on 03/13/2022. Around
8:40am, this Bald Eagle was in a tree in Pilant Lake (at Brazos Bend
State Park). The tree was at least 100 yards North of the
Observation Tower.
While I shot video and photos of it sitting in the tree (Hey,
Bald Eagle!), it took off to land in a tree a bit further North.
From there, it took off and swooped towards the lake,
turned,
and performed repeated turns and swoops before returning to the
treetop. It repeated that "hunting patrol" many times, and I
shot
video even though it was so far away. I was able to
crop the clips
and collect some viewable imagery! The pictures below (except
for
the first) are frames from the video clips. The video looks much better
than the still images. The video clip
is here.
From
such a distance away and with the Eagle moving so rapidly, I
couldn't really see what the Eagle was doing. But I could
enlarge
and slow down the video. In one clip, I could see that the
Eagle had
actually tried to grab something. Unfortunately, the moment
of
contact was hidden behind some plants--but something dark seemed to be
in the talons afterwards. However, just
before landing, dark dots
(feathers?) seemed to fall from the talons, and the Eagle landed
empty...clawed. Since the Eagle didn't start eating, and
continued hunting, I'm pretty sure that it never
kept anything.
The Eagle finally flew of to the Northwest--and I could hurry
back to the Nature Center to lead a hike. I've put together the video
as it appears because I really, really like watching
the Eagle
flying in video slowed 1/3 normal speed. So, there there are two clips
showing flight and normal frame rate, and then replayed at 1/3 speed.
Again, The video clip is here.
02/27/2022. More cool encounters! So here are a
couple raptors from
that morning. Crested Caracara flying over Pilant Lake at 8:55am; and a
juvenile Bald Eagle in
Pilant Lake at 9:38am, just North of the
Spillway Bridge.
Crested Caracara 8:55am
Juvenile Bald Eagle 9:38am
01/16/2022.
Another cold day at Brazos Bend State Park. Please note that there was
movement around me most of the time, so the animals that I mention were
not the only
ones about.
I walked to the observation
tower and the open waters there, hoping to encounter otters
and/or
eagles.
Around
10:00, I noticed two young eagles
flying over Pilant Lake, and I watched
them for about 30 minutes. Most
of the time,
they were at least 100 yards away, but it was fun to watch them. At
first I'd thought this one was carrying a twig--but after review of the
video,
I think it was carrying remnants of viscera--probably from a
bird. A friend took pictures at the same time, and one of his photos
shows one of the Eagles carrying a carcass (possibly a
small bird) in
one talon, so I think this was part of it. You can see the "wrestling"
photos under Chuck Duplant's gallery on pbase: https://pbase.com/desertbum/image/172291869
Neither
Eagle has the white head and tail of an adult. Guessing with
from images, and information I
found online, I think that the darker Eagle is about 1 1/2 years old
(since it has
some lighter patterns) and the "lighter" one is 2 1/2
years old, because more white patches, but no lighter head or tail.
I tried shooting video, and a few photos of some of the
flight.
It
was interesting having to choose between two eagles--so I
alternated, filming whichever flew into my camera view.
It's possible that an adult was down in the grass
with a
carcass,
which would have been the reason the two young eagles kept
circling the
area and watching the ground. After most of the play, the two
young Eagles circled higher, and were joined
by
an older eagle. Where
did THAT one come from? The "playing" stopped when the Eagles
landed in trees across the lake, maybe 1000 yards away. After the
initial landing in the
trees
across the water (shown in the video) the juvenile Eagles moved
around a bit more. The video
clips I captured have been edited into this 6-minute
film.
At 11:50, I
noticed a young Red-Shouldered hawk perched, and just beyond it
(actually about 20 yards away from the hawk) one of the immature Bald
Eagles was also
perched.
The
Hawk (which was closer to me) was still about 50 yards away from me.
There was no way from me to get both birds in focus in a single
image--or at least no way I was aware of.
Update 01/06/2022- A
cold front came through our area on the evening on January 1st, 2022.
The forecast said that temperatures would be somewhere in the
30's F (or about 40� colder
than the day before). I went
out to BBSP again on 01/02/2022
mostly for two
reasons. First,
I'd seen Bald Eagles out there (or the
same one more than once) the day before. One of my
"working theories" is that our favorite winter predators
(Eagles and Otters) would be more active on cold
mornings because they're require more food for fuel.
Second,
I wondered what the pod of baby alligators would do in the cold, and I
also wondered how much the air temperature would differ from the
temperature of the water. So, I
went out. In spite of the cold, and wind, it turned out to be an
interesting day.
I
got on the 40 Acre Lake trail about 8:30. It looked like the first
image above. I snapped a few pictures, and tested my thermometer
(35�F). Then
I noticed commotion in the field past
that
first bend in the left in that image. Birds were flying around--and I
ran down there. I had to face into the cold rushing wind--and saw two
Eagles. I shot video,
hoping for the best--
since the wind was pushing me around. The
three images above (and 4 images below) are frames from the video.
The there were a
few clips, and this only took a minute. So, I've
time-shifted the clips in the edit to slow it down--so we could see
what happened. The video is here. Even
though I only saw a few seconds of action in high wind, I think I
salvaged
useable video.
I
missed the beginning the--conflict(?), but it appeared that the younger
eagle
(without white head) was trying to take something that the older eagle
was carrying in its talons. I've
examined the
video at various crops and speeds, and I think that the Eagle was
carrying a duck--possibly a teal. The bill/beak is not white,
so
not a coot. I can't see orange on the face, so
probably not a
gallinule. There seems to be a white band crossing the face behind the
bill. I couldn't salvage much detail in any frame grabs, but the video
seems
to show it. After this
initial chase, the immature eagle flew up
and I lost it while I tried to see what the adult was doing with the
carcass. I lost that one, too. They seemed to fly north for a bit,
judging by
the
birds that flushed out. Then, the adult finally flew Northeast
over Pilant Lake. After this, I continued to check the mother
alligator and pod.
Update 01/03/2022- On 01/01/2022;
I was one of the guides during the First Day Hike at Brazos Bend State
Park. The weather was unseasonably warm, to say the least (near
80°
F later in the day. The "hike" portion of the day was from
8:00am
to 12:00 pm. I'm often on the trails doing "roving interpretation"
anyway, so my part wasn't much different.
There were just more
people hiking around 40 Acre lake than usual. Since the
weather
was so warm, it was very comfortable in the morning. A few alligators
were moving around,
a pod of baby alligators was visible (I've been
monitoring them for weeks, so didn't take any pictures for this hike).
It was a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures of the
less-common
sights.
I saw Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
a
few times, but pretty far off. Once, I pointed one out to some
visitors, and the Eagle flew
past a couple Caracaras that were
perched in a tree (way across Pilant Lake--no way to get a picture of
the Caracaras).
We really enjoyed that!
If
you'd like to know more about the park
follow these links:
Brazos
Bend State Park
The main page.
Brazos
Bend State Park Volunteer's Page The
volunteer's main page.
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