la fiesta de aguila

February 8th was NBPT's annual eagle festival. 

This is the kind of event I would've traveled hundreds of miles to see because it was so cool and special. 

We were especially lucky this year because the eagles were plentiful and easy to find by the Merrimac river. 

On friday, I went out by myself and spotted at least 5-6 eagles flying around  along the Merrimac.

  At the NBPT town hall on Febuary 8th, they had Mr Ricard who is in charge of rehab for birds of prey in Massachusetts. He did a wonderful presentation featuring different types of hawks and owls who reside at the rehab sanctuary. This bird above is a turkey vulture.

 

This falcon was so impressive and beautiful I think he said this one is a gyrafalcon

  This little vocal guy is a screech owl.
During the summer months, I have one that lives in a tree near my house. At 3:00am sharp he would do this eerie "whhhhooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggh' sound. The owl sounds like a ghost.
Or at least what I would imagine a ghost would sound like

Here is a bald eagle in a tree at a distance. This one is a youngster because it did not have a white head. I had the worst time trying to get a photo of them.As soon as one would land in a tree, they would take off as soon as a pointed my camera., plus, my camera was not being cooperative either. 

Eagles like the really really cold weather and my camera does not. I actually had one eagle with a big beautiful white head land on a branch above me and that is when my camera froze and shut down. 

On saturday I counted at least seven different eagle sightings. 

I saw some brown youngsters and a few adults with the white heads. 

I could pretty much count on seeing them if I waited patiently by the shore line if  there were ducks hunting for fish. The eagles are kleptoparasites. They hunt by stealing food from other creatures. I saw one big ass eagle fly straight at me aiming for a merganser holding a fish in it's mouth. "Whooosh" it grabbed the fish from the duck. I did have some photo opportunities but my camera was not cooperating. 

Regardless, it was quite the show!

As I was aiming my camera in the sky in hopes to capture this grand eagle I spotted this squirrel shitting his pants in fear. At that moment, I slipped on the snowy slope at Deer Island and rolled down the hill like a giant snowball. OK,that was IT for day, as least, for today.