Raptor Wednesday

Look, up in the sky! It’s a… oh, let’s cut to the chase, comix book fans. It is a mature Bald Eagle. A pair have been nesting in the area for a couple of years now. (Remember, in 1974 there were no breeding pairs in New York State AT ALL. In 2017, there were 323 breeding pairs in the state. With their assault on the environment/health/the future, Republicans are driving hard to return to that zero base-line.)

This is the way this flyby went down. In the distance, we saw an Osprey coming inshore with a fish. The eagle intercepted it. As Ben Franklin noted, our national symbol is a pirate and scavenger. The Osprey dropped the fish, but the hump of beach ahead of us blocked our view of what happened after that. Several moments later, however, the eagle flew along the narrow beach right over our heads. There was some prey clutched in those hand-sized talons.Heading towards the nest, I’ll wager, with lunch. The prey is pretty mangled in that mighty grip, but seems to show a lot of scales. Fish is the one of the main foods of this sea eagle.The width of the plank-like wings when one of these flies over is unbelievable.