Eagles on Ice

It was an absolutely beautiful morning – clear as a bell, bright blue sky with nary a cloud, cool bordering on cold. It was also a great day to do something H and I have done often over the many years that we’ve been together: take a long ride through pretty country.

It wasn’t long before H spotted an adult bald eagle perched in a white pine; I never saw the bird and could neither stop nor turn around to take a look. Some time later we visited a property where I’d occasionally worked in recent years, a property with large old trees, abundant wildflowers in spring and beautiful stone walls.

The beauty of the day prompted us to visit a large Corps of Engineers lake to see what we could see. The lake was almost completely covered with ice with just a few areas of open water. In the water was a flock of Canada geese and on the ice was a group of ring-billed gulls.

We drove to a spot where we could see more of the lake – out on the ice was a juvenile bald eagle feeding on fish frozen in the ice and being harassed by a band of common crows –

I was busy looking through the camera’s viewfinder and taking photos when H said “Here comes another eagle!”

That was the beginning of a squabble over the fish scraps between the two young eagles –

One prevailed and enjoyed a few pieces of fish –

Until an another bird (a three year old) flew in and took over –

The birds kept looking up and we did likewise to see three more bald eagles coming in –

The after a while the crows left, a bit later the eagles flew further out from shore. One of the eagles that had come late to the party was a four year old bird which the youngsters followed to another frozen fish –

The blue sky reflecting off the ice gave it a blue cast and the heat from the sun caused a heat shimmer that made photography at long distances problematic; the shimmer can be seen in the video.

While the ice easily supported the eagles, it wouldn’t support little ole me and, despite it being a beautiful day and wanting to get closer, I decided a polar plunge was not in the cards so the photos and video were taken from shore and at quite a distance.