Bald Eagles get cranky with each other when food is involved.
Because of clipped and cut off body parts I’ve never published these photos from my archives before. But when I ran across them again last night I liked them well enough to let them see the light of day. They were taken near the end of eagle season at Farmington Bay WMA when there were only fish scraps left so competition for food resulted in short tempers and aggression.
Here two sub-adults are squabbling over fish scraps just beneath the water’s surface. The younger bird on the left was the more aggressive of the two and chased the other eagle off.
This eagle at the bottom of the frame was feeding on a fish carcass when the other bird unexpectedly flew in from the left and behind. The instinctive reaction of the eagle in the water was to raise its wings in a threatening manner.
It almost looks like the bird with raised wings could chomp down on a foot if it wanted to.
Here two adults are about to tangle. This time there was no fish involved so I suspect it was simply a display of dominance. Two frames later the eagle at bottom turned tail and vamoosed rather than risk a full-blown fight.
This year because of my aversion to crowds, my recovery from surgery and the fact that baiting was going on I spent very little time at Farmington during eagle season so I’m glad I have older photos of them to fall back on…
clipped body parts or not.
Ron
Note: Only minutes after publishing this post I realized that I lied when I said none of these photos had been published before. I posted one of them three years ago. Sorry about that, I need more coffee…
Ron, these eagles look very strong and aggressive. I sure would not like to be the victim of their huge talons and beak.
Thank you for these photos. I was so “taken in” with the action that I only saw the “clipping” when it was mentioned and had to go back and look. I enjoy your postings every day and look forward to them.
Thanks very much, Alice.
FANTASTIC action shots! Wow! So very glad these saw the light of day on your blog. Superb!
Does the bird on the right in the first shot have a little blood on its beak?
Thanks, Marty. It looks like it does.
Exciting photos!! I’d love to catch “Eagle Season” sometime.
Thanks, Joanne.
Good Morning Ron: Your post mentioned Eagles, so had to check it out. Once again I love the picture, even if not perfect to your eyes and standards, they are good story telling and action pictures for us who do not have a chance to see all the time. Glad you save the photos and you have the time to look thru them.
Thank you, Trudy.
I regularly watch a bird cam focused on eagles in Florida. They start at a very early age dueling over food. Amazing how the human has decided they need to feed “their eagles” when wildlife has taken care of themselves for longer than the humans. Your pictures are great and these show so much natural behaviors unavailable to those of us who don’t always have the chance to see in person.
I think their belligerence is genetic, Betty. It must have a purpose if it has been selected for.
These photos really convey the Eagle’s great wing span as well as their size and strength. The clipping adds to this IMHO.
Let’s see, they fight amongst themselves, often for seemingly pyrrhic victories. The 2000 and 2016 elections could be argued to have been stolen. Per Franklin they are “of bad moral character.” Perhaps befiiting as the national bird. Or at least a presidential emblem.
Ha, good point about their symbolism, Lyle!
Stunning photos, Ron, but I have to admit I think the eagles in the first photo are doing the hokey pokey! Hope your snow accumulation is minimal.☺
I hope it’s minimal too, Diane. I have a tree I’m a little worried about if it gets overloaded with snow.
Great photos of our majestic eagles. Thank goodness Benjamin Franklin did not win the name the national bird contest 🙂 Years ago we had ospreys living at one of our lakes. Then a pair of eagles came – these photos show why we no longer have the ospreys.
Everett Sanborn, Prescott AZ
Everett, as you know Bald Eagles regularly harass Ospreys and steal their fish. The eagles are habitual food thieves (kleptoparasites) and that’s one of the reasons Franklin was against designating them as our national bird. Personally I wonder if he didn’t have a valid point.
Franklin suggested the Wild Turkey, a bird that is food, rather than one who steals it. I think I’ll take the eagle, thanks. Turkeys in number also trash the landscape, though lord knows not nearly as much as the human animal does. The Golden Eagle is my favorite bird of all, and a tough customer it is. Falconers around here (Northern CA) tell me that a mated pair will decimate a large area around their nest of anything living. They kill it all. Including Peregrine Falcons passing through. The local falconers lose many of their birds to Goldens, which in typical human fashion, they call “devil birds.” Fortunately Goldens in CA are counted and watched closely. We lose most of them to the wind farms. At the CA Raptor Center in Davis a few years ago, we spent almost year rehabilitating a large female with a then-unknown mite that defeathered the bird and had killed several. UCDavis studied the mite, cured the bird, released her with a GPS tracker (very expensive) on her, followed her for about three months, she was doing well, hurray, and then: dead at the foot of a turbine. Seems the tips of those things move at such speeds even an eagle can’t see them. So good-by eagles. Dozens dead last year, alone, if memory serves.
I hate those damned turbines, Sallie. Thanks for the interesting comment.
Well these are all new to me and they are great…I especially enjoy seeing the color changes as they mature. The pure size and the wing span is phenomenal. To me their full majesty comes through when they have achieved that white head and dark brown body with the golden beak! 😍 ‘Don’t mess with the king’! I usually see them around here and on my trips north…I have found the locations they typically have their flying corridors and watch for them and then of course the road kill of deer is a big attracter. I always worry about that because when they are engaged in eating they seem to lose their wariness of vehicles.
Thanks, Kathy.
I’d hope that the highway or wildlife departments are moving those road killed deer far enough off the road that the danger to eagles from feeding on them would be much reduced – not to mention the hazard to motorists with deer carcasses on the road.
Unfortunately not all county road departments do a good enough job of moving them far enough off the shoulders. Years ago my daughter had a summer job with the county; she and a partner actually would haul them to a designated site. I guess funds make that an impossibility now.
There’s a place in Box Elder County where road crews haul road kill and dump them. They’ve put up a sign marking the spot and explaining what’s going on. The sign reads “Road Kill Café”.
Hey Ron – the lack of coffee is a great reason for the forgotten post. Just LOVE these captures because they are my FAVORITE raptors but the clipped parts, in my mind, actually adds to the action. It so upsets me to hear about the baiting going on. I hadn’t been aware of that happening when I 1st started following you. It seems like it’s getting worse & worse. Some humans just get more & more selfish & only care about their goals being met at any cost. You prove that spectacular photos can be taken without the selfish, lazy approach of too many professional & amateur photographers!! The other problem is the general population who are loving to death too much of our wildlife!! In fact, when I was posting my bird lists for the Great Backyard Bird Count in February, I had seen several Painted Buntings. They had a note by the date entry line that said not to share the location because they are among many species being hunted so much that they & their habitat are being harmed. Another sign of how “some” humans are abusing wildlife out of love for them.
“Another sign of how “some” humans are abusing wildlife out of love for them”
That’s right, Jo Ann. Some of the baiting at Farmington is done by photographers of course but this year one of the worst offenders was a lady who called them “my eagles”, claiming they needed to be fed. She was even chopping down some of the vegetation at the refuge. Talk about ignorant and misguided…
Neat! Also cranky with hawks as I discovered! Seems they do more fighting with wings and talons than beaks – can do a lot of damage any way they do it! Glad you kept and published these photos…… great action as opposed to “portraits” 🙂 No word on Hawk death yet – I’m sure FWS has plenty else to deal with. +21 and, of course, wind……. 🙁 Great to have the above zero BUT! 😉 More coffee is good……. 🙂
Your eagle was more than just “cranky” with that hawk, Judy. And you’re right, I’ve seldom if ever seen them using their beaks as offensive weapons but their talons are another matter…
It’s supposed to snow here much of the day today, I’m tired of it.
Yes, that was BAD – how the hawk flew away after that is beyond me!
Beautifully fierce and full of so much detail. Thanks. Always glad to see any photos you have because the “imperfections” just shift the focus to the action and the drama of the encounter.
Thanks, Suzanne. Well, I have plenty of “imperfections” in my archives to shift the focus for a long time. 🙂