Birds and Nature

This afternoon I spotted this juvenile Golden Eagle being harassed by 2 Red-tailed Hawks as the eagle apparently had trespassed into the hawks territory in Penrose (nearby small town). Unfortunately they were more than 400 feet away so even with my long lens and then cropping the pic to enlarge I couldn't get the birds any larger. The hawks, (presumably a pair) while considerably smaller than the eagle, were quite brazen diving at the eagle and coming very close to it. The eagle and the hawks engaged in some amazing acrobatics for a few minutes until the eagle could head out and get away from this pair. SeEtta

Last week I saw this Bald Eagle perched on a utility pole just under a hundred feet from the road. I carefully stopped, stayed in my car to use it as a 'blind' and go these two photos. I am happy to report that after I drove off the eagle was still there, undisturbed by my presence. The fun thing about this sighting is this was far from open water (nearby Brush Hollow Res was frozen over)where this species is most often found. Instead it was perched over a prairie dog town, an alternate food source to their more frequent food choice of fish. They do predate on prairie dogs. I believe this eagle is a sub adult IV, or 4th year bird. It has a number of dark markings visible amongst the otherwise white feathers on it's head but has he yellow bill and pale yellow iris found on adult and near adult birds. SeEtta