Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:57:50 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Powers Subject: Why eagles soar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Got to Great Falls in MD late yesterday afternoon, in time to see two large birds land in the trees just to the left of the eagles' nest as seen from the overlook. Got my scope up right away, and zeroed in immediately on the two birds...as they were...mating. Just to the left of the nest. About 30 feet. To the left. Third tree over. Very active scene. Very interesting. Maybe fifty, sixty feet up. Helluva way up. Now that's something you don't start out a birding trip expecting to see. Especially this late in the season (isn't it?). Sharp, clear, windy, crisp, cold day. 'Bout 5:15 pm. Over by 5:16pm. Then he left, shortly after. Just flapped on out of there. Circled. Soared. White head, catching the sun. White tail, translucent. Soaring. Beautiful! Soaring beautifully, soon out of sight, up-river. She stayed. White head. Looking all around. Preening, every now and then. Streaching. Getting a good look at the ducks right beneath her. Oh, yeah, the other birds. Ring-necked ducks below, maybe 55, along with a single American Coot, a couple of Canada Geese and Mallards; a Double-crested Cormorant in the river and another forty or so flying overhead. Half-dozen Great Blue Herons coming and going to/from the rookery behind her. Crows and Grackles, busily flocking here and there. And an Eastern Phoebe in the trees behind me, looking down, over the river channel by the bank, searching for insects. But the Eagle still sat there, an hour or more, quietly looking around. Never moved from her perch. Never went to the nest. What a gorgeous day. You can see why eagles soar. But why didn't she? Good birding! Frank Powers Glen Echo, MD mattfp@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================