#saw a bald eagle the other day

[jigsawwrangler]

I SAW A LARGE FRIEND IN THE BAYOU TODAY

[spinnysocks]

HELP this is pretty much it yeah 😭 /pos

[gingerkingfisher]

Mmm I want to see mountain bluebirds soooo bad

[inkskinned]

sometimes i think about the span of human existence and how if you spread your arms out in a long line and said my body is acting as a poem of all the universe's birthdays, the smallest sliver of your furthest nail would be our entire history as humans. and you, doing this, feeling your sternum crack into place because you're-getting-old and all of your bones crunch these days: you are the universe, measuring its own timeline. you're the memory of a starburst saying i gave birth to humans at the tip of my finger.

and i think about how crocodiles have been around for way longer than that fingernail and how sharks have been here forever too and how there are sea cucumbers that understand time like an angel would; their ages so astronomically long that i get dizzy looking down into them. i think about my dog, and how i am so fantastically ancient to him (an impossible number, staggering) and how, at the same time, i can order my life in eras of pets-i-have-loved and how my childhood died when my cat did.

and i wonder if the earth does the same thing, if nature keeps time in epochs. if the tree in the house where i grew up said oh a new family and got upset when one by one we all left for college and left behind our climbing and screaming and birdhouses. that same tree collapsed during a bad storm this winter; heartbroken. the whole inside was a hull, shivering and empty. it missed our roof by a whisper, almost like it held itself together so it couldn't pass a hole into the house it's been looking into for years now. the people who took it away clicked their teeth. it was a hundred years old, at least.

there are things that went extinct in my lifetime. there are memories that don't extend to the tip of the finger. four years ago, for the first time: i saw a bald eagle in the wild. ever since they've been sprouting strangely in my life, their origami frames hunched in a racket of brown feathers. something in the motion of wild animals braced against the new england weather - like we all (all of nature, all of the fingertip) have the same shared hate when it's cold sorrow. like in years and years and years of history we never really evolved a better method than to close your eyes and brace yourself against it.

i saw a butterfly today, staggering drunkenly in the early spring air. it's too early for her other friends. i want to tuck her back into bed and say it's not your time yet! her life like a pinprick in my own. in butterfly school they'd have to stretch out their scales and say - at the end of your furthest wing is where you are in the life of a human. she is in my life, isn't she. something about how my heart seized at the sight of her, so brave and lonely and unfair; and how it snowed yesterday (and will snow again, probably), and how, in spite of that, she was out there and flying.

something about waking up this morning and thinking - i'm too old for this. how my hips and knees and back all make new noises. how the other day at a grocery store i picked up the gloves an older woman had dropped, how she'd laughed and thanked me - i can't bend down like you young folks anymore.

something about the theory that there's been no visible life on other planets because we are too early. that we are the first butterfly of spring. all this bravery. we know it is probably hopeless, and still we go. breathless, the same tactic - we brace against the cold.

[yelenasdiary]

HII!! I'm sending you back the request for the fic I had already sent, same words sorry lol

I know you have request open now so here I am!

hi nox!!!

yesterday i rewatched the amazing Spider-Man (first one) and i had a vision LMAO

spidergirl reader x yelena x kate

more specifically the scene where Peter enters Gwen's window with his entire chest cut and then Gwen takes care of him

could you do it again but with the 3 characters mentioned before?

Hot Coco for Your Pain?

Pairing: Bishlova x Spiderwoman! Reader (Platonic)

Summary: You got hurt in a fight and turn to Kate & Yelena for help. 

Angst with Happy ending. 

Warnings: Mentions of injury, blood, weapons, daggers & violence. Brief moment of R being semi naked and Kate being a little bit of a flushed mess. | 1.4K

AC: Thank you for sending this. I took inspiration from the movie scene and played around with it a little. I hope you enjoy this! x 

New York City was lit up with all its beauty, the public completely unaware of the secrets the sewage held underneath them. The lizard had his grip on you, his claws so close to your face you could see every tiny detail they held, “you stopped me once” he growled, looking into your eyes covered by your mask. 

“You won’t stop me again” he continued. His claws piercing through the material of your suit that covered your body, “I’m getting stronger every day!” He went on, drawing his sharp claws across your chest, drawing blood.

Your camera flashed, catching the enemy off guard for a few very, very short seconds for you to clock him one to the jaw, causing you both to fall into the water. A hard kick to the Lizards face and you were free to swim to safety. Your injury throbbed with pain as you got yourself to a secure spot to check yourself. 

From what you could tell, the large marking wouldn’t need stitches to your relief, but you’d need to act fast to avoid infecting. You took a moment, sitting on the rooftop of a large building, your eyes scanning the city for an idea until your eyes landed on the area your friends lived in. That’s where you’d swing yourself too. Swinging through buildings with easy until you landed on Kate’s fire escape.

Through the window you saw Kate lying on the queen-sized bed, eyes glued to her phone while Yelena was sat at the desk sharpening her daggers. Neither one of the women had noticed you at the widow until you had tapped your forehead on the glass. Yelena looked over her shoulder and smiled softly, “come in!” You heard her voice behind the window, Kate looked up, placing her phone by her side when she noticed you. 

Doing your best to hide the pain you were in, you slid the window open as Kate sat up, “you know, I do have a front door, right? Why do you two feel the need to always come in through a window?” She said, teasingly. Yelena chuckled lightly, “maybe we don’t want to walk through the restaurant to get here”

You weakly laughed at the couples light bickering as you climbed through the window. “Hey! you love Herman's!” Kate argued as Yelena swung around on the chair. 

“Y/n!” She said in worry as you held yourself up, sitting on the countertop. Droplets of blood hit the floor, catching Kate’s eye as the two women rushed over to you. “What happened?” Kate asked, gently pulling you into her arms to keep you from falling. “You should see the other guy” you joked, sinking into Bishop’s arms.

“What on earth did you fight? A bald eagle?!” Yelena frowned as her eyes took in the open three cuts across your chest. Gently, her fingers touched the surrounding area of your wounds, checking to see how deep they were. 

“Try a giant mutant lizard” you answered as Kate kindly brushed the loose strains of hair from your face. “You’re lucky these are too deep” Yelena commented, “we’ll clean it and get you patched up. Then, you can tell us where to find this big foot lizard” she added, looking up at you. 

“I’ll make some coco!” Kate suggested, earning looks from both you and Yelena. “What? I thought it would be nice” she said, looking between you both. “Kate Bishop, please go get the first aid kid and some fresh towels” Yelena requested, lightly shaking her head at the archer. 

“Right! Good idea!” Kate smiled softly before helping you rest your back against the bedhead before rushing out of the room. 

“You’ve got a death wish bug-girl, I tell you that” Yelena commented. 

“Yeah…I probably shouldn’t have gone alone” you replied, the throbbing pain making you throw your head back slightly. “Here, lean forward, I’ll take this off” Yelena offered, needing better access to your wounds. 

Kate returned moments later with towels, the first aid kit and a large bowl of warm water. “Now do you want some coco?” She asked, “might take your mind off the pain” she added in hopes of convincing you. She never failed to make you smile in such moments. 

“If you don’t say yes, she’ll just keep asking. She wants to live in a chocolate house one day” Yelena said under her breath, helping you remove your sports bra. Kate’s blue eyes moved to the large cuts, the main middle cut started from your left shoulder and traveled to the swell of your right breast, the cut on the left of the main was a clean straight cut on your left breast that jumped to the bottom of your right. The third cut was the least of Yelena’s worries, a small cut on your right shoulder. 

“Yep, will definitely take your mind off the pain” Kate continued, trying her best to keep her eyes from dropping any further. Yelena looked at her over her shoulder, her eyes squinting slightly as she noticed Kate’s cheeks turning red. “Kate, go make the hot coco” she said, lightly shaking her head. 

“G-good idea!” She stuttered slightly, she always admired your frame and felt a little jealous that she couldn’t look that good. 

“Is she okay?” You asked, confused but the way she was acting. 

“She’s a hopeless lesbian, now this might sting” the blonde replied. 

You sat there in silence while Yelena cleaned the dried-up blood surrounding the area of your injuries, you focused on keeping your breathing steady at the stinging pain of the disinfectant soaked into your cuts. Kate returned moments later with a tray in her arms, three mugs steaming with hot cocoa balanced carefully as she placed the tray on the desk. 

“So, uh, you said this was a mutant lizard” Kate turned to you, handing you the hot mug of chocolate heaven. “Yep!” You smiled softly as a thank you. 

“You’re not being serious though, right? Because surely a giant mutant lizard would be all over the news by now” she added, taking a seat beside you. She could only offer conversation to distract you while Yelena tended to your wounds. 

“Well, not if it’s hiding in the sewage” you looked to the brunette and took a sip of your drink. 

“And how did you find this lizard?” Yelena asked.

“It’s a long story, but next time, I’ll be ready” 

“Yes! Because we’ll be there” Kate said almost too excited to go on a man hunt for a mutant in New York City. 

Yelena reached for a bandage, “Kate’s right. We’ll be there. Mutant lizards are not a one bug girl job” she inserted. 

“Deal” you replied knowing that trying to convince these two that you didn’t need their help was going to be an endless argument. Kate leaned forward with a sparkle in her eyes, “so, tell us everything! What did it look like? Was it green? Did it have like, a frill neck? Ooo, maybe it could breath fire!!! Was it a fire breathing lizard?”

Yelena rolled her eyes as she began to wrap the bandage around your chest, “Bishop this isn’t a fantasy novel” she commented. You managed a small smile through the throbbing pain, “well, it was definitely a lizard, and it was pretty big! It was scaly and green, but it didn’t breathe fire” you replied to Kate’s million and one questions. 

"Noted!" Kate said, pulling out her phone. "Okay, so green, scaly, big. Let's get some intel. We can start looking at the city's sewer maps, see if there’s anything unusual down there”

You nodded, leaning back into the soft cushions of the couch. The adrenaline was finally starting to wear off, leaving you with exhaustion. “Thank you, both of you” you whispered, closing your eyes.

“Get some rest” Yelena suggested, “Kate and I will be in the living room if you need anything” she added, jesting to Kate to leave the room with her. “Yeah! We’ll get a head start on trying to find the lizard” Kate replied. 

“No, Bishop, we’ll start that in the morning” Yelena slightly shook her head. 

You drifted off to sleep to the light sounds of the couple bickering, Kate excited to see the lizard in the flesh while Yelena shut down all the ridiculous theories Kate came up with. The thought that you had two friends who would drop everything to patch you up and hunt down a mutant lizard gave you an overwhelming sense of peace. You knew that the next time you faced that lizard, you'd be ready. Together.

Taglist: @noturlondonboy | @umadirectioner | @deathbylesbianwitches | @yelenaslyubov | @sunshine-makes-flowers-grow | @boredandneedfanfics | @twentyonetornmyheart | @red1culous | @charlothee | @jooseboxxe | @starrycherie | @torihobby1226 | 

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[louisetaylor]

this eagle has two heads because it is INBRED

DEGENERE, as the French say

wait wait wait how about we make "ellen" slang for "inbred"

(it shall carry the implication that they should perhaps consider homosexuality to avoid handing the inbredness down to their children)

feeling the urge to make the virgin-vs-chad meme but about the u.s. eagle versus the habsburg eagle respectively

like, look at this buffoon:

this eagle crashes into your window. this eagle can be shooed away with a broom. this eagle looks like a slightly-buff chicken when it rains.

now compare it to this:

this eagle feasts on the bones of its vanquished enemies. this eagle shows up to the funeral better dressed than you. this eagle is an omen of the doom of your family. this eagle has two heads for the love of—

[whoiwanttoday]

I have been watching Olympic Aquatics all day and when I started this I tried to think of a word for the pool based sports that aren't hugely related and started to type out water sports until I thought better of it. I am definitely getting older because that's something someone's grandma would do and wonder why all the grand kids are snickering, "Your grandfather and I used to love water sports. We watched some Chinese girls and some British girls engage in water sports just the other day. Do you children like water sports?" So I guess glad I caught myself there, I am still young and vibrant and cool.

Anyway, among the standouts were Kate Ledecky and the Chinese Divers, all of whom smacked the rest of the field so badly it's like they were in a completely different sport. I couldn't have caught Katie Ledecky with a motorboat guys. And yes, I know what I just typed, get your mind out of the gutter. Your grandfather and i love a good motorboat and we don't know what you kids have against going down to the lake to enjoy a nice motorboat and some water sports with our friends. Anyway, it had me thinking about the inherent advantages some countries have. If you don't know, China dominates diving because they decided to dominate diving. They looked at sports they deemed non competitive, that is ones Americans didn't focus on, and focused on them. They sank money in but also looked at their massive population and actively started recruiting for those sports, because these are two key factors to a country's success in the Olympics. One, people need to play the sports. America has more than enough athletes of a high quality to do better in Rugby than we do but people don't play Rugby here. They play football and then if they bomb out in football they might go to Rugby as adults. Our best Rugby 7s player was cut by the Philadelphia Eagles. And he's amazing. But he's squaring up against people who have been playing their entire lives because this is their sport, this was the dream. On top of that, there is money. US Swimmers dominate in part because the US really cares about swimming. Katie Ledecky is a tremendous athlete and had she been born in say Hungry she would probably still be the best in the world. But she'd also probably be a little slower because essentially no other country can match the money we throw at the sport and things like access to pools and training and dietary science might all suffer that little bit. And if she was born in Mongolia it's very likely we would never have heard of her. None of this is about anything greater but it does make me think about athletes from other places. I guess in the end there is never really a level playing field if you dig deep enough. Not to take anything away from the greats or anything, just something I keep in mind when I watch. All this brings me around to Chiara Pellacani who I saw dive the other day but I didn't post because other people won out, a constant problem with the Olympics. But then there was other diving today and it made me think of her. Plus, she's Italian and my Grandma was born in Italy so really there's a deep cosmic connection there. Also, she's a diver and one time at the pool I tricked some older kids who were being shitty into believing there was a dive called the bald eagle which caused the ultimate splash, a thing they were very into. I told them you have to jump really high off the board, stick your hands under your knees and tuck. The result was a lot like a belly flop but instead of belly first and getting a red belly that stung they went genitals first. So you know, we have a history of dive related activities in common. Today I want to fuck Chiara Pellacani.

[critter-catcher]

Saw this lovely fella while I was out fishing the other day! First time I've ever gotten some decent pictures of a bald eagle so I was pretty excited!

[addie-henderson]

i see so many hcs about percy x hades!gf but that made me curious about how percy would be with a zeus!gf and i wanna know your thoughts so bad

oh it's comical.

so probably starts as complete ENEMIES

i mean mostly on his side: he's competitive angry, and mean and nobody even knows why. like he wasn't even this bad with Thalia or Jason.

then one day it gives me something like "you know you're actually SO... dumb!" and you just shrug and say "ok."

"ok?" he's confused like CONFUSED.

"ok. if you want to pull my pigtails like a little boy on the playground... do that. I don't care."

he's like oh shit is that what I've been doing???? it is

and eventually you guys get together.

I don't see Percy as one of those guys into the "daddy" thing but.... special circumstances.

he really enjoys getting on Zeus's nerves.

but I feel like he would be very deliberate and upfront about letting you know that your relationship has nothing to do with who your father is. it's not some kind of fuck you to Zeus. he likes you.

but that said Zeus disapproving is a bonus.

brings you random bird feathers??? because you fly

calls you birdie because you fly

takes you swimming and holds on because... yk his dad might... yk drown you.

the best power based sparring partner

if you aren't from New York, bullying teasing him about his accent riles him up. he gets huffy and pissy and wants you to apologize with kisses and telling him you love his voice

weird picnic potluck dates. where you two get food from two different places and meet up and have a weird combo meal

him complaining that sometimes when you sleep he can't cuddle you because you lose control of your powers and float

also him complaining that you steal the blankets because you float

once he introduced you to a stranger as his cousin as a joke, that stranger later saw you kissing and was very concerned.

the whole relationship is really just the two of you vibing and bullying each other mostly 😭

"love you, Fish breath"

"I'm in love with you too, bald eagle."

"😮I AM NOT BALD, PERSEUS. TELL ME I'M A PRETTY SPARROW RIGHT NOW. "

"okay okay you're pretty Sparrow, I'm sorry birdie"

[birdingblog]

I spent about 4 hours at Hawk Ridge this afternoon and got to watch kettles of broad-winged hawks for the first time!! Most of the birds were too high to show up on my camera, so this is just a tiny fraction of what was there.

Besides the broad-wings, I saw in the ballpark of 100 sharp-shinned hawks, dozens of kestrels, and handfuls of bald eagles and common nighthawks, among other birds. Overall, a very exciting day!!

[keepsmagnetoaway]

Marvel Fanfare 1 (March 1982)

Chris Claremont/Michael Golden

Marvel Fanfare was an 80s anthology comics series, designed as a kind of upscale, "serious" comic: double-length, printed on nicer paper, with a rotating set of stories, only available through specialist order. When it launched in 1982, it was with a four-issue main story starring Angel and Spider-Man, and written by Chris Claremont, presumably on the basis that he was then the most attention-grabbing talent they could put on a new title (and because Claremont simply couldn't stop writing stuff): Spider-Man, of course, was also the obvious character with which to launch a new book, though we obviously are reading it because of Angel. It fits in here with Angel having semi-recently quit the team to do his own thing, which turns out to be hanging out on his mega-ranch, making friends with bald eagles and making out with Candy Southern.

That absolutely stunning two-page spread, with panels running across both pages, is how this comic sets the scene. The art is by Michael Golden, the guy we recently saw doing Rogue's debut, and I had some negative stuff to say about his faces and figures then (alongside some nicer stuff about the rest of his work), but here I like his work much more. He also did his own colours, and those colours are spectacular - I really like his repeated trick of bright tones and shades of one colour for backgrounds and flashbacks.

As for what's actually happening in this issue? It's Karl Lykos, baby! I have a certain amount of affection for ol' Sauron, not because he's a good character, particularly - gifted psychiatrist turns psycho energy vampire turns pterodactyl is not, like, a particularly good story, and I hate the Savage Land, where he tends to hang out - but because his original story is from the brief golden age in which Neal Adams drew the pre-cancellation X-Men. We also saw him again in the Hidden Years series but I prefer not to think about that.

Right, that was a lot of preamble. Anyway, Lykos' old girlfriend - who he'd been forbidden to marry back in the day, triggering his spiral into rage and eventual disappearance into a hidden Antarctic kingdom of dinosaurs where he lives out his days as an evil pterodactyl, it could happen to the best of us - comes back and wants to find him again after [mumble] number of years, Angel agrees to help and J Jonah Jameson sends Peter Parker to take photographs of this process because Spider-Man on the cover sells books. It doesn't go great.

That's not Sauron, by the way, that's just a regular pterodactyl, like they have in the Savage Land. This is where this whole quite promising set-up goes south (cos they're in Antarctica, geddit) as I'm reminded that I hate the Savage Land and it's 30s pulp adventures vibes. This is also a story closely involved not just with the original Sauron issues but the other, more recent Savage Land visit (which Angel wasn't present for), in which Sauron was also incidentally involved.

Truthfully this is a very strange story with which to launch this book: it's extremelty closely entwined with some very specific and atypical X-Men backstory, much of it probably not easily available to readers at the time, and Spider-Man is very clearly wedged in there for no very good reason. It's absolutely gorgeous, though.

Eventually - god, this is a long post - Spidey winds up trapped, not by Sauron but by the coterie of mutants Magneto left behind when he abandoned his base here. Again, this is...difficult to care about but it looks stunning, and this stuff is very clearly a direct tribute to Neal Adam's style and mode.

So, that was a weird one. I believe this runs for three more issues, and I'm interested to see where it goes: but also, this is the Savage Land, and I'm grimly certain Ka-fucking-Zar is going to show up, so it's probably all downhill from here.

[magnetothemagnificent]

My birding week vacation is over, so here are all the bird species I saw:

1. Little blue heron

2. Sharp-shinned hawk

3. Black vulture

4. Great egret

5. Sandhill crane

6. Mourning dove

7. Common loon (there were two of them just hanging out at a lake. We couldn't believe it but they were unmistakable)

8. Cattle egret

9. Great blue heron

10. Anhinga

11. Double-crested cormorant

12. Red-winged Blackbird

13. Limpkin

14. Wood stork

15. White ibis

16. Muskovy duck

17. Boat-tailed grackle

18. American crow

19. American coot

20. Common gallinule

21. Common grackle

22. Glossy ibis

23. Palm warbler

24. Osprey

25. American purple gallinule

26. Wood duck

27. Red-shouldered hawk

28. Pied-billed grebe

29. Royal tern

30. Eastern Phoebe

31. Roseate spoonbill (last year it eluded me, but this year I saw two at two separate locations!)

31. Black-bellied whistling duck

32. Tricolor heron

33. Northern harrier

34. Yellow-rumped warbler

35. Tree swallow

36. Swallow-tailed kite

37. Ring-billed gull

38. Turkey vulture

39. Mallard

40. White pelican (there were two just hanging out at an artificial lake in the middle of a residential area)

41. Red eyed vireo

42. Mulard

43. American pekin

44. Mallard/Pekin hybrid

45. Downy woodpecker

46. Grey catbird

47. Blue-grey gnatcatcher

48. Fish crow

49. Northern parula

50. Snowy egret

51. Chimney swift

52. Common yellowthroat

53. Bald eagle

54. Red-bellied woodpecker

55. Blue winged teal (we only saw these guys because we had to walk an extra 1.5 miles to take the long way back to the car because an alligator decided to block our short way back)

56. Great-crested flycatcher

57. Louisiana waterthrush

58. Laughing gull

59. Northern mockingbird

60. Mottled duck

61. Loggerhead shrike

62. White eyed vireo

63. Tufted titmouse

64. Northern cardinal

65. Black and white warbler

66. Ring-necked duck (I saw this lone duck from the car as we were driving past an artificial lake. From it's silhouette I could see it looked different from the other ducks common in the area, so we stopped the car literally on the side of the road so I could run out with my binoculars, and sure enough it was a new species to add to the list. And then when we came back a few days later, it was still there swimming around and diving, so I guess it lived around there.)

67. Carolina chickadee

68. Swamp sparrow

69. Ruby-crowned kinglet

70. Pileated woodpecker

71. Belted kingfisher (we visited the same place three times because my Grandpa saw kingfishers there a few times. It wasn't until the third and final time, while we were ready to give up and leave, that we saw it, perched on a sign post over the water)

72. House sparrow

73. Cooper's hawk

74. Carolina wren

75. White-throated sparrow

[paparoach]

hello i have just taken my medicine so i am going to fall asleep shortly and may not see your reply . there is an ant infestation at the psych program and they are so cute but i know they must be killed unfortunately . sighs terribly. other than that when i go out on walks i see birds and that is nice. thank you and i hope any of this was interesting

I WISH THERE WERE MORE BIRDS AROUND HERE... it's cold now :( BUT MY BROTHER SAW A BALD EAGLE THE OTHER DAY AND I DIDNT EVEN KNOW WE HAD THEM AROUND HERE???

[elementoftheeye]

A little more in camera multiple exposure play. The weekend was pretty busy, even though Saturday it rained most of the day. Yesterday, Sunday I took a hike, for some reason I grabbed my dslr, a 100mm macro & my 150-600mm lens. I mounted the 100mm on the camera and left the big one in its case to carry around incase I needed to use it. on the way to where I was hiking I spotted a bald eagle flying along the road... but no good place to pull over so I kept going to the trail I was planning on hiking. I have only ever walked this trail 1 time before. There are to spots I was interested in seeing again. I got on the trail in a different place, and walked, and walked taking photos along the way, keeping my eye out for wildlife, not really seeing anything. I got to the 1st place I wanted to see and checking it out a little, not as interesting as I had hoped, so I kept going to the 2nd place, I rounded the corner and there were 2 people, one sitting on a log and the other wading in the creek... It is seriously cold out! I glanced at the trail, a bridge that crosses the creek... obviously closed because a tree fell on it... length wise, perfectly in the same direction. I said to the guy sitting on the log... "guess I am not going that way, what are the chances of that happening? He looked at me and said almost disgustingly "Obviously pretty good" ... to that I said well back the way I came. at the end of the trail, I saw a sign that said the trail was closed because the bridge was out... I missed that sign earlier because I got on the trail in a different place... The guys comment really irritated me... I was just being friendly... Anyway, back to the car, I loaded my bag, changed shoes and drove out, passed a group of people standing along the creek, once I made the turn I could see what was going on, someone drove a pickup truck into the creek, honestly no idea how that could happen in that location, it is full of trees, and the speed limit is pretty slow because of the bend in the road. Felt good to go on a hike, even though I prefer to go with my wife... she was doing horse training for an even coming up.... a good day.

[kremro]

I'm comin' for ya! by Todd Wynia Via Flickr: I was practicing some bird-in-flight shots the other day when I saw this osprey crossing the pond. I was firing off a bunch of shots when this bald eagle flies in and goes into full attack mode! I love how the eagle's beak is wide open in and extreme effort. It probably thought the osprey had a fish (bald eagles are most definitely thieves). Shortly after this frame, the bald eagle broke off the attack and went to a perch to sulk. Pretty amazing thing to witness.

[alex51324]

Big White Birds Day

Today's adventure was, I drove to the Wildlife Management Area to see the snow goose migration!

Every spring, flocks stop by our area on their way back to their summer homes in the arctic! These include vast numbers of snow geese, and smaller numbers of tundra swans. Dedicated birders come from far and wide to see them, and since the place is pretty near my house, I decided to go look at them.

This morning when I got up it was cold and I was very sleepy and I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I did! My pictures don't really do it justice, but here goes anyway.

Swans:

We started off with a drive around the lake, and saw this flock of swans resting near the shore. The smaller birds are the left are Canada geese, so if you're familiar with those, that gives you an idea of how big the swans are! They pretty much just hung out there the whole time I watched; every now and then one would stretch out its neck a bit and get comfy again.

Then I drove to the Willow Point parking lot, which is Snow Goose Migration Central. There were maybe eight or so cars there, in early afternoon on a Wednesday--the best times for Snow Goose viewings are dawn and dusk, and of course the weekends are very busy. They had a whole row of a dozen extra port-a-potties in for the Snow Goose crowds.

From the parking lot, you walk about half a mile to the viewing spot, along this nice paved trail:

The viewing spot has a pavilion and some benches, and--on this day--eight or ten well-bundled-up senior citizens, who have settled in for long-term viewing with their binoculars and tripods, and a rotating cast of other visitors like me, with dogs and strollers and such, who have stopped by to see what all the fuss is about.

The official count this morning, apparently, was 23,000 snow geese (along with 105 tundra swans, and some Canada geese). During the day, the giant flocks break up and smaller groups fly off to look for places to eat, but some stick around. So this is the small, partial flock that was on the water this afternoon:

Here's a group that was off feeding, coming back in to join the main flock:

They approached in in a somewhat-disorganized-but-recognizable version of the classic V formation, but then scattered as they got close, with the returnees filling in seemingly wherever there was a free spot amid the flock.

A little while later, something really neat happened, which was that something spooked them, and the whole flock took off and swirled around for a few moments--I didn't try to get any pictures of it, because I knew they wouldn't turn out, and I wanted to see it. They took off in a body, like you'll see flocks of starlings doing from a field, and there was a sound like a rainstorm on a tin roof, from all of their wings going at once. They came right at us, in the viewing area, and passed overhead, and wheeled over the lake for a turn or two, before settling down again a little to the left of where they started:

I didn't get the necessary landmarks in the picture to make it obvious, but basically now the rightmost edge of the flock is about where the leftmost edge was before they all got up and moved.

A little while later, it looked like they were getting ready to do it again, and I got this picture:

But they only a fraction of the flock took off that time--maybe a quarter?--and when the rest didn't follow suit, they all landed again, shifting the overall flock a little bit back to the right.

This tree across the lake had a Bald Eagle in it:

Which the birders suggested was probably what had the geese all riled up. After a bit more watching, I decided I was cold enough--and I wasn't going to see anything to top what I already had--and started back to the car. While I was walking back, I heard the flock take off again, and from that distance, it sounded like a waterfall.