Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 11:43:20 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Re: Bald Eagle Behavior MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have a couple of ideas about this young eagle's actions. Conflicts often arise in nature over food, perhaps the eagle recognized the heron as a competitor for the fish in the creek. Another possibility is this youngster was testing the heron's response in the faint hope of catching it for a hefty dinner. When the heron proved unperturbed the eagle may have changed it's mind. I have seen eagles chase prey for awhile then break off the attack when the prey proved too agile or healthy to catch. On the other hand the bird may indeed be a surly teen; eagles, especially young ones, do seem to have a hell raising streak. Walter Ellison 104 Maple Ave #1 Chestertown, MD 21620 410-778-9568 rossgull@crosslink.net "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast." - E. B. White ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Mann" To: Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 9:20 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Bald Eagle Behavior > I recently witnessed the following: > > An immature bald eagle spent about 20 minutes divebombing a Great Blue Heron who > was fishing our creek. The eagle would circle and come down at the heron with > talons spread, the heron would squawk, the eagle would fly off and repeat the > perfomance. > > The heron wasn't hurt - no blood or odd head parts in the water. Nor did the > heron stop his walk up the creek - it appeared he saw this as more of a nuisance > than a threat. > > The eagle then landed on a log in the creek, spent about 5 minutes watching the > heron, took off for one more attack flight and then flew away. > > My question is: what sort of behavior was this - was the eagle defending > territory, playing, or merely being a surly teenager? Anyone seen this ort of > behavior before? > > Thanks > > Peter Mann > Galena, MD > Living and Birding on the Eastern Shore > > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================