On this mild day (35 F) we had fresh non-frozen pieces of fat waiting outside for the bald eagle that I thought was asking for them in the previous update. The fat was the center of an action day.
Before it got light, the rarely seen fisher made three trips to the fat to take no more than his share. His last piece was large enough that I think it filled him up because that was the last I saw him. Along the way he nicely paused for this picture that will help me remember his nice eyes and his look that says he knows I’m there but he’s not worried.
Mid-morning, I put out more warm fat in case the eagle checked in. He did, flying by low a couple times like he does sometimes without trying to grab any. A half hour or so later, though he caught me off guard with a fast swoop and an attempt to grab a piece like I haven’t seen for a long time. If he got some, though, he probably dropped it because a raven immediately flew down to where the eagle would have dropped it if he didn’t have a good enough grip. An hour later, thinking he was gone, I saw his big wings go by just outside my window as he swooped in full speed, thumped the pile of fat pieces, and flew off with a prize—again too fast for me to grab the camera. With that success, I hope he starts checking in like that more often after his productive swoop that I haven’t seen in months.
Ravens flap in snow on iced over lakeThe next bit of action was something I’d never seen before. A pair of ravens were out in the middle of the lake flapping their wings in the 8-10 inches of snow and burrowing down into it, all but disappearing at times as they paused to dip their beaks and heads out of sight before plowing forward half buried flapping their wings side by side making a pair of furrows over 60 feet long.
I wondered if the fresh snow of the last couple days was heavy enough to crack the ice and have water ooze up to drink on this above freezing day. The way they were flapping their wings in the snow (and maybe water) made we wonder if they were also trying to clean their feathers.
Without really knowing what they were doing, the show ended with them flying off together. If anyone has seen something like this and knows why they do it, please let me know so it isn’t such a mystery.
The ravens were tiny dots in the pictures I took through the window from my desk, but they blew up looking good enough to see what it looked like.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center