Saturday, February 28, 2009

Strange Birds


Bird behavior has been different for the last couple of days, so I headed down to Union Bay again, just to see what was going on. It was cloudy, almost calm and about 50 F. There were 13 herons sitting in the same area as yesterday. The Canada geese have clearly begun to pair off. The life mates appear to be looking for good lakeshore property and with the others there is a noisy mating ritual beginning. I found the six swans over in the NE corner. One eagle was in a tree about 100 yds south of the nest. There was a redtailed hawk in a nearby tree. Crows were at the eagle nest, so I don't know where the other eagle was, but it wasn't on the nest. I haven't seen the eagles actively hunting ducks for more than a week. Not sure what they are doing for food right now. Oh, and the coots were acting like the idiots of the bird world that they are (photo). They were in good sized flocks today and at one time they all went and sat on shore while I paddled by. They were reluctant to move too far though, and I would see a hundred of them skimming over the water to move 50 yards away as I neared.

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