Animal Interactions of the Day

Another day, another trip to Chambers Creek Properties. I got a nice walk in today that was particularly noteworthy for the animal interactions. Not surprisingly, one of those interactions involved a crow chasing a bald eagle.

With the tide out, I could walk south on the beach. As I approached the South Dock, one of the ospreys nesting on the bridge over Chambers Creek (there are two nests, not just the one that I had brought up in a previous post) was swooping around the dock. As I got closer, I found out why. There were two young eagles just sitting there.

The osprey didn’t wait for the eagles to leave. While flying back to the bridge, Caspian terns took over the eagle harassing duties. The terns didn’t last long before taking a break from the eagles.

Why did the terns leave the eagles? It’s because they found a new target. An otter was swimming in the Puget Sound and the terns decided to go after it. Each time the otter stuck its head out of the water, terns would shout at it and swoop down. The otter would dive out of the way.

The eagles eventually crept a little closer to Chambers Creek. Two ospreys actually took off at one point, but they quickly returned to their lookouts. Since the eagles landed on the beach, the ospreys didn’t seem to view them as an immediate threat.

I finished that segment of my walk by approaching the creek and turning around. The otter was still in the water, but not for long. I kept my distance and watched as the otter emerged surrounded by Canada Geese. The geese casually stepped out of the way. There were goslings in the group, but they were far enough from the otter that they didn’t really acknowledge the carnivore. I know that otters eat primarily fish, but I’m kind of surprised that the geese didn’t react a little more. The otter headed up the beach and disappeared into some shrubbery next to the railroad tracks.

There was one more example of animals interacting with each other during today’s walk. I had watched another crow go after a killdeer. Why don’t they ever pick on anything their own size? They either go after a puny killdeer or something much larger than they are like I had seen earlier with the eagle.

While I’m talking about my walk, I might as well mention my walk home. I was minding my own business when a young deer darted across the street right in front of me. Shortly after, I saw the mom running in the same direction. What would you do in this situation? Would you stop walking to avoid going between a mother and her child or would you continue walking to get out of the way faster? I’ll tell you what I did. I stopped initially. When she stopped as well, I figured that she didn’t want to deal with me. I continued walking so that she could cross more comfortably behind me.