Katie's Sightings

Local Raptors!

Bald Eagle — Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Just the other morning, as I was leaving to go on a hike, I spotted a Bald Eagle drying out it's wings along the river corridor! WOW!!! We had just had a week of very rainy days, with a total of 4.47" of rain! This spectacular Bald Eagle was spreading its wings on a misty but not rainy morning, attempting to dry them out! How beautiful!

We had JUST seen an immature Bald Eagle last week at Gray Lodge! I hadn’t seen a Bald Eagle on our river for more than a year! What rare sightings I’ve enjoyed lately! Both male and female Bald Eagles look alike, and will have a white head and tail when 4-5 years old. They have a lifespan of 28-38 years in the wild.

Bald Eagle — Haliaeetus leucocephalus

The following information is from the Cornell Ornithology Lab website https://birdsoftheworld.org.

“The Bald Eagle is monogamous and thought to mate for life unless a mate dies, but this is not well documented. They undertake spectacular courtship rituals annually, involving loud vocalizations and acrobatic flight displays. Perhaps the best known courtship act is the Cartwheel Display, in which a courting pair fly to a great altitude, lock talons, and tumble/cartwheel back toward earth, separating just before collision with the ground!

“Both sexes contribute to nest building, although the female may place the sticks within nest. Once initiated, nest-building may take up to 3 months to complete, although nests may be completed in as little as 4 days. Additional materials are regularly added to the nest throughout the year, including daily additions during the breeding period, so that nests used for multiple years may achieve enormous dimensions. Typical nests are 1.5–1.8 m in diameter and 0.7–1.2 m tall, and the nest shape conforms to shape of tree, ranging from cylindrical or cone-shaped to flat.”

Red-tailed Hawk — Buteo jamaicensis

There aren’t a lot of raptors in our area. In fact I have mainly been seeing one Cooper’s Hawk, and one Red-tailed Hawk. New this week a Red-shouldered Hawk and the above Bald Eagle have shown up! Each hawk has a specific diet in the winter, such as birds, birds and mammals, or just mammals. I imagine that it’s not easy for these raptors to find enough to eat! The heavy rain has made it even more difficult to catch prey, as explained in the following quote from gckcopywriter.com.

“Raptors like rain about as much as a cat likes a bath. Hawks, eagles, owls, and other birds of prey have a tough time during drenching rains.

“First, depending on their size, a raptor’s wings can take as much as an entire day to dry out. Before that, it’s too difficult to fly any normal distance to find food. Second, even if they can fly normally, their prey – whether its smaller birds, rabbits, or squirrels – take shelter against storms in dense surroundings or burrows. They stay hidden. If it rains too long, raptors can be faced with a serious lack of food and face a real crisis.”

Your questions and comments are appreciated. Please feel free to email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!