Eagle on Ice

Woke up to find a world coated in crystalline ice after a night during which freezing rain fell. All the trees and shrubs in the yard were coated, as was the fence out front and the driveway. Birds made repeated trips to the feeders from ice-coated shrubs –

The far off hills looked beautiful so, after lunch when the ice still hadn’t begun to melt, we hopped in the car and headed for the hills. And those ice-coated hills really were beautiful –

We drove through the valley and to the lake where a handful of folks were fishing through the ice –

As we pulled into a parking area a couple of dark objects far out on the ice caught our attention –

The camera’s zoom lens revealed that those objects were an adult bald eagle and several crows –

Zooming the lens for an even closer look it was apparent that the eagle and the crows were feeding on a fish that someone had discarded. The human who caught the fish may not have wanted it, but the birds sure did –

A later examination of an aerial photo indicated that the eagle was 1,500-1,700 feet from where we had been parked – hence the photos aren't very good.

It wasn’t long until the eagle took to the air and circled over the lake, coming closer and then receding – perhaps looking for more discarded fish –

After two circuits of the south end of the lake the eagle landed on the ice again, almost as far away as when we had first seen it –