#867 Eagle Day 2013

This morning I convinced MT to spend a little bit of time with me away from the rental to go out to Farmington Bay to see the bald eagles. I was so glad he agreed to come because T isn't feeling well (he still has that cold!) so he didn't want to go. Also, there is still a lot of snow on the ground and the roads at Farmington Bay are dirt roads and I wanted to take the truck which has four wheel drive. It's just better if MT drives because then I can focus on looking for/at the eagles.

I was also glad that we went early. We got out there around 8:30, so there weren't too many people clogging up the narrow roads yet. We still had to wait for awhile when a pickup ahead of us got stuck in the snow and how to be pushed/pulled out. MT was great and we didn't have any issues. He was also very nice about letting me jump out to go watch the eagles and take a few photos.

Farmington Bay is a Waterfowl Management Area.. There are eagles and other types of birds there all the time, but on Eagle Day, the Division of Natural Resources puts some dead fish on the banks where the bay has thawed and lets the scavenger birds have at it. Bald eagles are scavengers and they seem to enjoy the free food.

The last time I visited Farmington Bay on Eagle Day was a few years ago. The sky was blue and the air was warm that day. T and I went for a stroll and it was fun. We didn't see too many eagles, but it was nice to walk around.

Today was a lot different. It was a little bit foggy, the skies were gray and there were a few snow flurries. It was also pretty cold, below 30 degrees, but not much of a breeze. We drove as far as they (the DNR) would let us go, then MT parked and I got out to see what I could see.

There was a little inlet and the bank was covered with fish and seagulls. There was also an eagle eating one of the fish.

I kept watching and another eagle came over, but it didn't go eat. It just sat a little way away near the first eagle. Occasionally one of the eagles would fly over near where all the seagulls were chowing down and the seagulls would fly away and squawk, then the eagle would go back to it's watching place.

Bully!

A few minutes later, another eagle flew by, but he didn't stop where the other eagles were. He flew to the other side of the inlet and settled in the middle of a field.

It was kind of boring over there, though, so he flew away. While I was watching the eagle, I saw this and I thought it looked cool, so I took a picture:

I like how the frost is clinging to the weeds and the look of the wood fence. The fence is actually the bridge railing.

I probably spent 20 or 30 minutes watching the eagles, and I noticed that more people were starting to come. Some people had cameras with huge lenses and tripods. I did use my Canon camera with my own slightly larger lens, but my photos are just to share with you here and I put some on FB too.

As we were driving back out, this is what I saw:

For some reason, this photo really appeals to me.

A little farther down the road, we got to see this:

I did crop this photo from the original so I could see the three birds a little more closely. There's a bald eagle, some kind of hawk and I think that third bird is another eagle, but I can't really tell. I couldn't tell from the truck, either. The third one was pretty far away, but I liked the way they seemed to be lined up for my photo.

Once again, I was very pleased with Eagle Day. I think I'll try to get out to Farmington Bay in the spring when the migratory birds come in to make their nests. I might even take my bike out there and ride around to see what I can see. More to come? Stay tuned!