January: Bald Eagles

Nature reveals itself in patterns, when you live on the windy West Coast… Since late December, I have noticed the return of the big birds. They are busy doing aerial acrobatics, there is a lot of high-pitched peeping (like Mike Tyson, eagles are big and mean-looking, but their “voice” is a high-pitched bell-like sound…). I presume these sounds and aerial displays are discussions over territory. There are quite a few bald eagles around Saturna.
Adult Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in front of my house
Some birds – like the ravens – never leave the island, but bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) head for the salmon rivers of BC in the fall. During that season, those rivers are true all-you-can-eat buffets for eagles and other wildlife. For pictures of that, see my November post about Goldstream, near Victoria.

This set of pictures was taken from my deck, yesterday. First, an adult perched on that tree for almost 30 minutes in the early afternoon. Surveying the neighbourhood, trying to decide if anything edible might be around. Love those piercing yellow eyes, don’t you?
Immature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Then, four hours later, while fixing dinner, I spotted the next visitor to the same tree. An immature bald eagle. According to the bird books in my collection, immature eagles only acquire the full white feathers on the head and tail by their fifth year, less frequently when they are four years old… So Junior, below, was probably following mommy around.
Immature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) Close Up

I left my cooking to get my camera, and get some pictures of Junior too. It was getting dark, so they are a bit grainy.

2 thoughts on “January: Bald Eagles”

  1. Oh what a sight that would have been – supper could have burnt watching them…lol.
    I will link up the webcam site so I can stop in periodically.
    THANKS for posting these AWESOME photos Andree!

  2. The bald eagle has done so well in recent years, it not only has been taken off the threatened list, it’s even been dropped from the endangered list. Their numbers have been climbing steadily since they were first listed as an endangered species.

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