What just happened here?
I took Birdie outdoors at 9 a.m. for her morning constitutional and heard in the background the loudest squawking that sounded like a bluejay or something or maybe a blackbird, I don't know. I sort of ignored it as we walked down the street past the pond, then I looked up into a tree. There was a huge, perhaps 18 inches tall, dirty-breasted eagle-looking bird perched on a branch over the pond, presumably looking below for a goldfish or big minnow.
The pond was absolutely still, just a few bubbles coming up from the methane produced by the rotting vegetation on its floor. The interloper was perched high on the big tree, the one reflected by the still water in the picture below. The screeching, squawking continued from a small black bird perched just a couple feet away from the huge whitish one, then the big bird saw me and flop, flopped away on its big wings.
The sentinel bird stayed put, but its obnoxious squawking ceased immediately.
No camera on me, of course, though this scene played out so fast I probably couldn't have caught it anyway. Birdie didn't notice anything, oblivious, she continued her sniffing around the more interesting mailbox footings. She has her priorities.
The noisy sentinel was apparently warning everyone that there was a bad bird visiting the neighborhood, right? Is that pretty ordinary? Do these big birds get hectored constantly wherever they go?
Do you think it could have been a small eagle with a huge breast? It was intent on fishing in my pond, I think. It was no heron or egret. Will a hawk fish? What kind? I doubt this was an owl. What kind typically would the sentinel be?
What just happened here?
Stan
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| By Yathin S Krishnappa |
Osprey?
Greg responds:
First thing I would check are hawks/osprey. Blackbirds/crows consistently hassle hawks – they’re always attacking them. Especially when they’re flying. They don’t want those big birds in their nesting territory.
Could be a red-tailed hawk, or an osprey. Google osprey, see if that’s it. Osprey will try to find fish in a lake. The red-tailed hawk will not. If it's not an osprey, try Googling red-tailed hawk.
Good luck.
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Stan says:
Looked it up. Could have been an Osprey all right. Size is right. 20 inches tall on average. And those were blackbirds hassling it. Crows… we have them, are bigger than what I saw.
Nice to know.
Thanks, Greg.
(Two days ago, Kathleen had a "conversation" with a big Crow. He cawed. She cawed. He cawed. She cawed twice, He responded twice. This happened four times, she says, very excited and proud of her relationship with this very intelligent creature. )
Wayne writes…
You probably witnessed a bird warning others that a predator bird was hunting. Looks like an Osprey.
I made a trip to the shack just today to deliver a supply of water, gas etc. On the four miles of gravel road I noticed lots of ravens in the ditch jumping around. As I got closer I saw a golden eagle feeding on the carcass of a fisher, I think. The animal had been skinned and there were at least two other remains. The eagle was having a feast and the ravens seemed pissed and were harassing it. On my return trip a couple hours later it was still going on. By the way, trapping season on fisher isn't open yet.
