Showing posts with label bald eagle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bald eagle. Show all posts

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Look at all the eagles

Bald Eagle in Flight, North Cascades, Washington

When I was working on my bald eagle book 10 years ago, the bird often drew attention. Many times when I was photographing one, people would stop and talk about how cool it was to see it.

Fast forward to this past week. I was in a field with several other photographers when a pair of bald eagles circled over us. Nobody else looked up. Short-eared owls were deemed more interesting.

This isn’t a case of something being wrong. Rather, it’s a case of something being right.

Monday, June 22, 2020

The bald eagles of Hood Canal

Bald Eagles Fighting, Hood Canal, Seabeck, Washington

For a few weeks a year, hundreds of bald eagles congregate along a short stretch of Hood Canal near the town of Seabeck, Washington. Bald eagles are opportunistic. While they are skilled hunters, they don't work any harder than they have to for their meals. Between a fish migration and wide tidal swings, the feeding is easy there in May and June.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Eagle, fox, rabbit: One year later

Bald Eagle and Fox Fighting Over Rabbit in Midair, San Juan Island, Washington

It was just over a year ago that I caught the sequence of a bald eagle and young red fox struggling over a rabbit in midair. Since then, the image has run in newspapers from Moscow to Sydney, on network television and been honored by the National Audubon Society.

It was quite a ride — and not just for the fox. Given the new attention the work is receiving, I thought I would share some thoughts on the past year as well as a few images from that encounter that I haven’t previously shared.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Battle in the sky: Bald eagle and fox

Bald Eagle and Red Fox Tussling Over Rabbit, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Washington

There is no question that bald eagles are skilled hunters. They can spot a fish from a mile away and fly to it in under a minute.

But they’re also masters of something scientists call kleptoparasitism: the art of stealing food from others. In my book The Year of the Eagle, I documented bald eagles stealing food from crows, great blue herons and even other eagles.

A couple of days ago, however, I captured an especially dramatic act of thievery. I saw a bald eagle steal a rabbit from a young red fox. Even more impressive: at times, this battle played out more than 20 feet in the air.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Can birds learn to be better parents?

Pair of Bald Eagles on Nest, Puyallup, Washington

If you would have asked me a decade ago about how a bird knows how to fly, I would have regurgitated the answer I was taught in school: They are hatched knowing how. But after intensely studying a bald eagle nest for three years, I not only believe the young eaglets learn to fly, but that their parents also learn to be better parents.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The story behind "Pair of Bald Eagles and Moon"

Pair of Bald Eagles and Moon, Skagit Valley, Washington

The lucky part was driving behind this bald tree and finding two bald eagles using it as a platform to hunt for food. The not so lucky part involved wading in a freshly-fertilized field to line up the tree with the rising moon.

On a first date, no less.