Eagles Being Eagles

Bald Eagles don’t just try to intimidate Great Blue Heron; they spend almost as much time trying to intimidate each other. Sometimes it seems deadly serious, like when these two juveniles tried to eat some of the fish the adult was eating, perhaps thinking the adult would be intimidated by two youngsters.

Bald Eagles

The adult was having none of it, and though I don’t think he did any real damage he drove off the juvenile eagles.

It’s impossible to tell an Eagle’s intent until after the event has unfolded, but quite often an adult that seems to be trying to intimidate another adult

Bald Eagles

will settle in next to them, and they will be perfectly content to look back and forth at each other for the next ten or fifteen minutes.

Bald Eagles

Many times, though, a particular piece of real estate seems especially desirable and several eagles will jostle each other until some decide to leave.

Bald Eagles

Of course, sometimes a Bald Eagle just wants someone else’s fish, whether it be Great Blue Heron’s or a fellow Bald Eagle’s.

Bald Eagles

3 thoughts on “Eagles Being Eagles”

  1. Sometimes when I visit your site I come away with mixed feelings. Your photography is a wonderful display of the incredible variety in birds, a demonstration of the miraculous workings of nature. At the same time (perhaps because I’m getting old and increasingly pessimistic), I get a depressed feeling about all the wild life that is disappearing. These eagle shots are tonic to the spirit, proof my pessimism is misplaced. Fifty years ago it looked like eagles were done for. This morning one of my coffee mates showed me a picture of an eagle that he’d shot yesterday. Eagles are coming back in Vermont too Thanks.

    1. I think if something is important enough to us and we work hard enough, we can have success stories like the Bald Eagle. Unfortunately, too many species are rapidly disappearing and no one does care.

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