24 November 2009

A Tale of Three Eagles


So here's an adult Stellers Sea Eagle enjoying a breakfast of Salmon yesterday. This species, the biggest eagle species in the world, shares the river with its congener, the smaller White Tailed Eagle.




You'd think it would be the dominant one and wouldn't be bullied by anything with feathers, right?

Here comes an immature White Tailed Eagle.







After some posturing the Stellers backed off. It had its white feathery ass well and truly whipped by an immature White Tailed! It didn't even attempt to wrestle back the Salmon but just stood there looking pi**ed off.







Enter an adult White Tailed.







The Stellers left in a huff.




The immature left too leaving the adult White Tailed to dine alone and in peace.




Well alone except for that Carrion Crow.




So are White Taileds dominant over Stellers? I've seen this several times now. Or we just talking about personalities of individual eagles and this Stellers was particularly cowardly? Who knows............

These shots were taken out of the car window. When the snow starts to fall (next week I guess but this winter has been very mild so far) it'll be impossible to do this as the snowbanks on the side of the road will be too high to see over plus anyway the road will be too narrow to safely pull over.......

These photos are all cropped over 50%, I tried taking video with my 7D but haven't gotten the hang of it yet (and handheld is a no-no I think).

Lots of Salmon in the river and already a fair number of eagles point to a good winter for such photos, fingers crossed.........

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4 comments:

  1. Really wonderful photos and the season's just starting! It's going to be a sizzling winter for eagle photos.

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  2. Mamma mia!!! This is an incredibly fantastic observation and a fantastic post!!! You saw these three guys in only one day! This is just incredible... I did not know neither that you had the White-tailed eagle... We do have it over here too, but only very few of them... Are these three eagles common in your area?
    Beautiful shots and sequences that you got there.. This 7D seems to be a very good camera and combined with your talent and your knowledge, it is a pleasure for our eyes!

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  3. Hahaha I really love the look of the Steller's Sea Eagle
    Can't wait to see them in Rausu

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