Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:03:46 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: John Staples Subject: Potomac River/ Charles County - Eagle, Osprey, Coot MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Yesterday, in the early afternoon, we watched our favorite female Eagle perching on her tree in our front yard when we saw a Osprey coming down the Potomace River headed toward her nest, which is on a day marker directly below the tree where the Eagle was perched. The Eagle had its back to the Osprey and the Osprey dropped from high above the tree and nest onto the back of the Eagle with its talons out. It bumped the Eagle which immediately chased the Osprey north and out of our sight. Some 20 minutes later they returned with the Eagle still chasing the Osprey! The two of them continued their adventure up Pomonkey Creek out of our sight again. This morning the Eagle dropped down from the tree onto an American Coot and was holding it below the water when out of no where the Osprey attacked the Eagle in the water causing it to release the grateful Coot who attempted to swim away while the two big raptors duked it out. The Eagle ignored the Osprey as much as it was allowed and continued to attempt to get the Coot. The Coot alluded the Eagle for several minutes (desperate diving) until the male Eagle arrived and chased off the Osprey and spelled the female in her attempt to get the Coot. We watched for several more minutes. We believe the Coot eluded them, but cannot be sure as we both had to get back to our work lives. :-( Glad the tip worked George...keep up the inspired birding! John Staples staples@direcway.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================