The Novice Naturalist

07/09/2022

Recently seen: juvenile Bald Eagle, a crow and a Turkey Vulture share a mutton lunch

02/16/2022

02/16/2022

Found 18 Bald Eagles in a field with Tundra Swans, it’s what’s for dinner.
The white headed full adults were done, the juveniles fought over scraps

02/13/2022

The juveniles were fighting over scraps

02/13/2022

I was very close to this Bald Eagle as he watched over a field of lambs
I tried out my birdwatching continuous shots setting and got some nice stuff.

04/24/2021

Went looking for a eagle I know and found his tree full of vultures. There was a raucous scrum under the tree.
They took off when I got out of the car, all except this one. It stayed with the beaver, yep I looked, even when I moved the car directly across the street, but did not eat while I was there.
I think it is young, has downy feathers sticking out. It may not have managed to get a bite yet, too much competition.

01/30/2021

I went back to the field where the eagles were, it was empty... no swans, no sheep, no lambs 😥, just grass.
So I went a bit further north, Voit off Milliron, and found a feast. A sheep carcass (not everyone makes it) was serving lunch to more than a dozen bald eagles. It was organized chaos, the pecking order being reassessed continuously. Luckily I was able to pull off, not really but it is an unused road, and took pictures for most of an hour.
Fascinating to see all the morphs together: first years, the reddish brown fellow; 2nd year dark mottled guys; 3rd year gets the whiteish head but spots on the back and black tail; 4ths get the black and white suit but still have dark stripes on the face and flat heads. The majestic full white headed guys are full grown and it shows, they dominate.

01/29/2021

Like an eagle doing his hunting from the sky

01/29/2021

Today I saw about a dozen bald eagles in fields just north of the airport, where the lambs are.
Some of these are real bad, way out beyond the limits of my lens, but it is an inventory.

03/15/2020

Bald Eagles have a nest just off Awbrey Lane in an easily accessible place.

03/15/2020

I found 4 juvenile Bald Eagles working a carcass, three were still in mottled brown feathers, one was nearly in breeding plumage just had a few more dark feathers to loose.

03/14/2020

Bald Eagles with dinner (lamb, likely).
This one is not quite in breeding plumage, still has some dark feathers on his head and tail.

02/14/2020

02/14/2020

02/14/2020

Miscellaneous birds seen around the valley in recent weeks

02/14/2020

There is a large flock of Tundra Swans hanging out in a field off Meadowview.

The folks at the local mill/bakery/ lunch spot told me they come every year for about 3 weeks, and that they were early this year.

They move around the field, and sometimes bug out to some other field somewhere, this was the first time they were close enough to get good shots of them

02/14/2020

The older, whiter headed bird flew in to a feast and ran all the other birds off, a very agressive bird. Chaced this on all the way out of the field

02/14/2020

took a short drive from Eugene to Junction City on back roads and saw more than a dozen Bald Eagles.
I got shots of 10 of them and was quite close to most of them.

What a wonderful hour

01/25/2020

Birds

01/25/2020

backyard birds winter 2019/2020