Lunch-time Bald Eagle

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I just got back from my lunch-time stroll, which today took me to the
west end of the Reflecting pool, in front of the Lincoln Monument.
I heard the sound of cawing, and looked up to see 3 crows (American?)
mobbing a Red-tailed Hawk.  This went on for a minute or so, and then
the crows left off their attack, returned to the trees, and the hawk
sailed off towards the FDR Monument, and out of view.  Then, a large
aggregation of Ring-billed Gulls, which had been calm throughout the
performance, all of a sudden leapt into the air and began milling
about.  I stopped to scan the skies to find what would have precipitated
this.
   At the Washington Monument end of the pool, high in the sky,
wheeled an adult Bald Eagle.  As I watched, it circled a few more times
then glided down the length of the pool, and off towards Roosevelt
Island (and lost to view).
   One of my best lunch-time birds.  I was told that the week before last,
one of the local Washington DC channels had footage of a Bald Eagle
flying over the Capitol.  Perhaps this is the same one.  I'll keep
my eyes open.
  Nothing more of note on the Mall.  A lot of the resident birds are
singing and setting up territories, including American Crows, birds
that sound like Fish Crows (who knows, anymore?), Canada Geese, American
Robins and Northern Mockingbirds.  The large flocks of Ring-billed
Gulls are looking restless.  No birds yet that I could say spent the
winter further south than this.
                              Jim

                              Jim Felley
                              Smithsonian Institution
                              irmss668@sivm.si.edu

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