Skip to main content

Bald Eagle with Goldfish

By


April 1st was a nice day, so when I got home from my part-time job I decided to skip supper and spend some time outside with my camera. The male ring-necked duck was in our pond again so I slowly headed in that direction, trying to hide behind the trees as I approached. This duck is no fool and spotted the bumbling human before I got halfway to the pond. I have been trying to get a good photo of a ring-necked for the last few years so I was disappointed when he flew off.

 I wasn't ready to give up so I  headed for our small marsh, walked the short incline to the dike and was again disappointed to see there were no ducks in sight. I stayed on the dike for another 30 minutes watching flocks of tundra swans fly overhead and trying to get some flight shots. It was beautiful watching them in the setting sunlight but  the photo opportunities just weren't there so I headed back to the house to finally get some supper. I was in the backyard when I saw more swans coming in my direction so I aimed my camera at a section of blue sky,  put my eye to the viewfinder and waited for them to fly into view. I forgot all about the swans when Keetie, my guinea fowl and constant companion, started screaming his alarm call just behind where I was standing. I looked away from my camera just in time to see this immature bald eagle fly into our willow tree carrying a large goldfish. The eagle spotted me and immediately flew away but not before I got a couple photos---not the best photos, but what a thrill it was to watch this eagle fly in with a bright orange fish!


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Day in the Coop

By
I wrote this in a notebook while "babysitting" in the chicken coop on Friday 10/2/15. I'm sitting on the bottom roosting pole in the chicken coop surrounded by six curious, lively baby chicks and one cranky older hen that Robin calls "Godzilla." She's giving them the "evil eye" while scratching and digging in the bedding and tossing it around, trying to scare them. Today, they seem less frightened by her, although they are still wary and scatter if she approaches too close. They're trying to scratch in the shavings just like big chickens; some of them are even flapping up in an attempt to perch on the roosting poles. They're a little shaky, but they'll catch on. We've been watching the babies, trying to sort out individual personalities so we could give them names. Some of them were easy: Amelia Earhart--the blue Ameracauna who was trying to fly at the age of one day, and Maggie--the other blue Ameracauna, a real sweetie who k...
4 comments
Read more

Two Birds in the Hand

By
September has been quite a month on our 12 acres. Within less than two weeks I had rescued a budgie(parakeet) and a rogue rooster. I first spotted the budgie one evening as we were shutting up the chickens. He was sitting on a bush in  our backyard. My first reaction was "rare bird" but I soon calmed down after looking at the yellow blob with binoculars. Definitely a budgie. I tried to capture him that evening but he flew off to the top of a very large willow tree. Over the next couple of days we spotted him off and on under the bird feeder but he always flew off with the wild birds every time we walked out the back door. About 3 days later, on our wedding anniversary, I saw him sitting on our chainlink fence all by himself...no other birds around. I grabbed some bird seed and slowly walked over to him, fully expecting him to fly away. He didn't. He let me put my seed-filled hand in front of him and he started to eat the food. While he was eating, I carefully brought up...
2 comments
Read more

The Keetie Factor

By
Shortly after I wrote my last blog entry, Keetie, my little guinea fowl buddy, and all but one of our chickens were killed. Here is a link to our August Lifestyles 2000 article which is a tribute to this very special bird. Scroll down to page 5 to view the article. http://lifestyles2000.net/pages/aug15/aug15.pdf We still only have the one remaining hen. Her name is Leica and she is currently sitting on an egg that the black silkie laid. I doubt that it hatches but it's worth a try.
Post a Comment
Read more