redphalarope's Favourites

1-24-20 Bald Eagle eating a duck or a raven.

This adult had stolen the meal from a small group of juvenile eagles which were squabbling over it. When I walked over to see what it was eating it skreeled & hissed at me to stay back and resumed its repast.

Then, it gave me "The Glare" - the one that drives nightmares so I backed out of its territory - about a foot, and it went back to ripping it's meal apart and gulping down large chunks of meat, bones, feathers.

We have over 500 Bald Eagles here and while both life forms have learned to have respect for each other it is well understood by us lesser creatures that at certain times of year (nesting season) - Eagles Rule. They've been practicing Dino's for a long time, apparently lack any sense of humor and have no compunctions about attacking intruders about the head and shoulders. A bird with a 6 foot wing span and 3+ inch really dirty talons can do a lot of damage.

Some nesting eagle pairs are known to be very territorial and more aggressive so... most folks here - when near those nest sites avoid wearing certain kinds of hats (no one knows for sure which kind since hats and eagle strikes vary from year to year), shiny reflective things or pushing rattling carts out of the Post Office between May and September.

The last two fotos show how the bird will anchor its beak and then extract its talons before moving its foot to a new spot while eating. This helps hold down the prey and prevent it from being stolen by other eagles. If you toggle the images back and forth you can see the action.

A small blue -eyed lady beetle! Body length about 5mm I would guess. This lady beetle took me by surprise!. Sitting on purple and green plants (?) found commonly in KZN. Looked pale and drab from a distance but the eyes lit up under flash to reveal these deep blue gems. Amazing. No saturation added to any of these images - they are what you see. Different light setup used for the first 3 images - giving the different look.

Second year (SY) male by plumage

Processed at Zuma Canyon Bird Banding Station. Handled humanely with federally-issued bird banding permits. View iNat project here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bird-banding-at-zuma-canyon