Today was an exciting day indeed! Another day that demonstrates the awesomeness of nature.
We were visited by a fairly large flock of young eagles right in our pasture. At one time there were about 40 birds either soaring or sitting around the back of the pasture.
Some of the birds were circling overhead while quite a few had landed on an old tree stump in the back of the pasture and were pleasantly sunning their wins. The wingspan of these guys is AWESOME to say the least. The animals (turkeys, sheep, and even the llama) were watching nervously, all huddled up and hiding near or in the sheep shelter. They knew these birds were nothing to mess with! I have to admit I was a bit afraid for the baby lambs myself. At less than a week old those little lambs would have been quite a treat for a hungry eagle. The llama, Rainey, was doing his job, standing between the eagles and the flock with his ever watchful eyes trained on the bird's every movement. I am sure that had a bird come over to attack a lamb, he would have been right there to contend with it.
I attempted to get some pictures but the birds spooked as soon as I got close enough. What you see below is a few of the shots I did get. I really wish we had a longer lens to get better closeups! As they majestically soared away towards the hills...
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| View walking up. Rainey watching carefully in the foreground. You can see the eagles sunning on the fallen tree stump. |
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| As close as I could get before they took flight. |
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| Spooked, the eagles take flight |
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| Gaining some ground now, and soaring more than anything. |
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| A few birds flew quite close to me. |
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| finally taking to the clouds |
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| Here you can see about 20, maybe half of the total birds, soaring above the neighbor's pasture. |
Watching the birds soar, sit, sun, etc from the distance we were at, my best guess is that these are either young bald eagles or older brown eagles. I am by far no expert so if anyone can make a better identification from the pics please do so!
Eagles tend to be more solitary, so after looking closely at your photos I was able to determine that those are in fact Turkey Vultures. Much less likely to attack a live animal, but quite useful in clearing things like afterbirth out of a pasture. And I personally prefer them over other animals (like coyotes) that preform this service.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for the tip! we looked up turkey vulture images and comapred to the photos. It appears you are right.. these are not eagles. the head shape is certainly more like a vulture.
ReplyDeletesigh.. hav to change the title now.. and eagles are my favorite bird! :( but hey, vultures perform a good service, as you stated. We certainly have tat need with the sheep giving birth out in the pasture we might see more of them.
Wow, you aren't kidding when you say you are transitioning from "city life". Eagles! Hah!
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