Marg's Sea Eagles

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
I hadn't seen the Sea Eagle before so I looked them up.... quite beautiful. I think they look somewhat like our Osprey, which nest right off of the front of our house... we have a pretty tall Cedar that has a flat spot on top that the Opsrey build a nest on in the spring and spend all summer in, they have gone now and then the Bald and Golden Eagles come and take over... quite impressive.

Marg do the Sea Eagles submerge like our's do when hunting? I have witnessed a Baldy grab hold of a coot and sink under for a few minutes in the winter I screamed for husband, The Eagle in drowning!!! It started flapping it's wings, which is quite impressive and thrust itself up out of the water and onto an iceberg!!! It sat and devoured the little coot!!! I have seen this happen 3 times now!!! I have never seen the Golden's or the Osprey do this, yet...

http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/birds/seaeagle.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey

http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle7.html (this the Golden)

http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/# (I did not realize we have the larger one up North)

Marg is your son a lover of all Eagles??? Or just your local Eagles? The Raptors are one of the reasons that I would hate to move from here... it is so amazing sitting outside with a cup of coffee and watching 7 or so Golden and Bald Eagles fighting on the ice over a Coot or a fish!!!

 

Marguerite

Active Member
difficult child 1 loves all eagles, he has a beautiful photo of a Bald Eagle taken by my brother in law. But his preference is for Aussie eagles, especially the Wedge-Tailed Eagle. The Sea Eagle and Peregrine Falcon come in close behind.

We saw a lot of hawks in New Zealand and wished difficult child 1 was with us.

The Sea Eagles do fish, they don't go right under as a rule. Usually we see them grab something in their talons. They are big, they can swoop and reach down about half a metre and still not get their backs wet. I think they're moving so fast their momentum carries them back out of the water. it IS very fast. Certainly they don't dive in like the terns do.

Round about January the chicks have hatched and we've been privileged to watch the parent birds teaching their two chicks to fish - they often miss, coming up looking surprised at being empty-handed. They don't ever sit on the surface, they soar, and then swoop to skim the surface with claws reaching down to grab their target. It's wonderful having a good view of this - not so often on weekends when there are a lot of boats in the area, but on weekdays the water is much more deserted. The eagles fish way beyond the swimmers, they seem to be used to us but keep their distance.

When we were up in Queensland five years ago, we visited Currumbin, a fabulous sanctuary up there. They had a tame White-Breasted Sea Eagle, and we had our photo taken with it. difficult child 1's face was wonderful - the joy. He was able to stroke the eagle, although it was a bit tetchy and kept trying to take off. They are very heavy. The free flight show at Currumbin was wonderful, definitely worth seeing if you ever are over here. Sydney's Taronga Zoo has a free flight show but no Sea Eagle. And in Victoria, Healesville has maybe the best free flight show we've ever seen, including a Peregrine Falcon zooming up high after 'prey' - shot from a catapult.

I don't recall a free flight show at Australia Zoo - unless they've been working on one. It's perhaps the one lack in a perfect zoo.

As you might gather, we're zoo groupies.

Marg
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
I should have said the Bald Eagles don't mean to submerge!!! They are so stubborn that they wont let go, which is the cause of the submerge. They grab a large coot or large fish and get pulled under... the 3 times I have seen it happen have been amazing. For such a large bird to be pulled down and then to fight his way back up with the bird or fish... powerful!!!

Our nest in front of our house was blown down this summer during a storm, so I don't know if the Eagles will nest this year. I hope they do.
 
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