Chambers Creek Eagles

While bald eagle sightings are not unusual at Chambers Creek Properties, I really enjoyed watching them today. When I was south of the Bridge to the Beach, I saw an immature eagle on the small concrete building. When it flew off, it turned towards me and flew right over my head.

I continued walking. When I passed the bridge on my way North, I saw another eagle. This one flew off one of the concrete support structures by the dock. While still a young eagle, this was clearly a different eagle. It had developed a little white on the head. This eagle flew over the water, hovered, and took a quick plunge. It didn’t catch anything, but the Barrow’s goldeneyes that were in the uncomfortably close to the eagle flew away. The eagle kept flying around for a while. Unfortunately, some of the action was behind the dock where I couldn’t see. With the activity in the area, a Canada goose eventually decided to chase away the eagle. It worked… sort of. The eagle did leave briefly only to circle around and land on the light by the dock. At this point, there wasn’t as much activity. I managed to glance up and see a peregrine falcon fly by. I almost missed it thanks to the eagle.

The eagle would eventually leave the light and find a spot on the dock to rest. Around this time, two more eagles landed in a tree near the beach. One was immature, perhaps the one seen earlier. The other had the white head that indicates maturity. I could hear one of them calling. The eagle on the dock would eventually fly near the tree where the other two eagles were but did not land. The mature took off and joined the eagle that I had been watching as they both headed away from the water. It was almost like watching a mother call her child in for dinner.

The other eagle remained in the tree. I got some good looks at the bird as I did the same thing as the other two. I left the beach. Not surprisingly, the bulk of my eagle enjoyment was done for the day. That doesn’t mean that I was through with the eagles. I saw one soaring over the central meadow after I had crossed the railroad tracks. Towards the end of my walk before heading home, I saw a couple eagles soaring above the Grandview Trail. Overall, this has been one of my better walks this year.