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[Dream] Christmas Bird Count
Dec. 13th, 2012 08:19 amDanny, Jaye and I were participating in the Christmas Bird Count (which we will actually be doing this Sunday!). Downtown Guelph we came to the corner of Quebec and Baker Streets, but where there is a church on the corner there was instead a vacant lot.with some trees. A birdfeeder was hanging there with a lot of activity around it so we stopped and watched the birds for a while. We saw one with a blotchy breast which I thought to be a black-throated green warbler in winter plumage, but it was quite large.
Then Danny pointed out two larger birds approaching in the distant sky. I fixed my binoculars on them. The larger of the two, which was chasing the other, had a pale dirty-yellow head, which was actually white under the filth.
"Yes," I said, "It's a bald eagle chasing an osprey."
The osprey landed in the trees near the feeder. The smaller birds did not fly away but perched in thick branches in hopes the osprey could not reach them. By now the osprey had grown much smaller, more the size of a shrike. One small bird very close to it was terrified. The osprey inched closer. Its quarry hopped deeper into the branches, but this gave the osprey a chance to follow, reach out with one leg and sieze the bird in its talons.
I was excited about recording a bald eagle and an osprey for Project FeederWatch, then I realized this was the wrong day, so I could not count them. How disappointing! The fact that this was not our birdfeeder did not seem to matter.
Then Danny pointed out two larger birds approaching in the distant sky. I fixed my binoculars on them. The larger of the two, which was chasing the other, had a pale dirty-yellow head, which was actually white under the filth.
"Yes," I said, "It's a bald eagle chasing an osprey."
The osprey landed in the trees near the feeder. The smaller birds did not fly away but perched in thick branches in hopes the osprey could not reach them. By now the osprey had grown much smaller, more the size of a shrike. One small bird very close to it was terrified. The osprey inched closer. Its quarry hopped deeper into the branches, but this gave the osprey a chance to follow, reach out with one leg and sieze the bird in its talons.
I was excited about recording a bald eagle and an osprey for Project FeederWatch, then I realized this was the wrong day, so I could not count them. How disappointing! The fact that this was not our birdfeeder did not seem to matter.
