I usually have a handful of bald eagle sightings every month. Sometimes more.
Never ceases to stop my in my tracks. Except when I'm driving.
--Bob
On Mar 6, 2012, at 11:50 PM, Moose wrote:
> On 3/6/2012 1:01 PM, Chris Barker wrote:
>> Thanks, Chuck, I like those. I never saw bald eagles in the wild. I assume
>> that juveniles have different head colouring from adults.
>
> On 3/6/2012 4:09 PM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>> Why not? Plenty of fish to eat all year long. No need to fuss with
>> winter. I would guess ice fishing for eagles is pretty tough. :-)
>>
>>
>> On 3/6/2012 6:48 PM, Johnny Johnson wrote:
>>> A State of Florida naturalist recently told me that Florida has the second
>>> largest population of Bald Eagles in the
>>> US, second only to Alaska. I'm not sure why but I found that surprising. If
>>> asked I would have guessed Alaska and
>>> then Montana or Wyoming.
>
> No. America has two large eagles, Bald & Golden. It is very difficult to tell
> the juveniles apart. They have completely
> different diets. The Bald is a true fish eater, while the Golden eats pretty
> much anything found on land or in the air,
> but doesn't fish*.
>
> The difference is highly significant, though. A nearby wildlife rehab center
> for many years had an apparently perfectly
> healthy adult Golden Eagle on display in a cage. As a fledgling, it had been
> misidentified (by someone else) as a Bald
> and raised on a fish diet. As it matured, they realized their mistake, but it
> was too late. It's bone and muscle
> development was poor, and it couldn't fly.
>
> Alaska has a very extensive seacoast. Florida is a peninsula surrounded by
> sea and low lying enough to be full of lakes.
> Montana and Wyoming have only a small amount of open water. I would imagine
> both have larger Golden than Bald Eagle
> populations.
>
> Bald Eagles simply excite people more, both for their far showier plumage and
> as the national bird of the US. There was
> a great deal of excitement when a nesting pair took up residence on a lake in
> the southern part of the county I live in.
>
> Yet most of Alameda County and the similar, adjacent Contra Costa County are
> rolling hills, still with large amounts of
> undeveloped park and range land. Although I knew the area had was excellent
> habitat and had Goldens, I was surprised to
> find on Wikipedia "The highest density of nesting Golden Eagles in the world
> lies in southern Alameda County, California."
>
> I once watched a juvenile Golden (assumed from location) being unrelentingly
> harassed by crows. They actually drove it
> to the ground, where it took refuge under a low live oak until they went
> away. From time of year and situation, I assume
> it was a recently fledged bird, not yet an accomplished flier. An adult would
> simply have eaten a crow or two. :-)
>
--
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