Sometimes I swear eagles don’t like to get their feet wet.
These aren’t great photos but I think they’re interesting, even funny, and even though they’re older shots I’ve never posted them before so I thought they were worth a look-see.
There was a tiny perch sticking out of the shallow water at Farmington Bay that eagles liked to at least attempt to land on. If memory serves it was a curved, waterlogged piece of driftwood. But there wasn’t enough of it sticking out of the water to get two of those huge feet on it easily, especially during the landing process. So this eagle landed precariously on one foot while it was holding the other one up as if it didn’t want to get it wet. Here the left foot is just beginning to touch the perch.
I don’t remember what happened immediately after I took this shot because it’s the only one of this bird I saved but just to prove this wasn’t a one-time deal…
very soon after the first eagle vacated the perch another one took its place and did the same thing – landed on one foot while trying to keep the other one out of the water. This photo was taken so soon after the previous one it’s very possible that this eagle was displacing the bird in the previous photo in an act of dominance. I can’t remember…
It’s only a minor and possibly even meaningless behavior but I still get a kick out of it.
Ron
Note: Sharp eyes may notice that there’s a band on the left leg of the eagle in the first shot.
Ron, I enjoying to see your pictures of a bald eagle. Bald eagles are beautiful! Actually, I still practicing with my Canon camera for outdoor animals to take some shoots. I have hard time to hold my camera while take picture a bird in the sky by shaking hand! lol How can you be calm with your hands while holding the camera without shaking in the sky?
Michelle, It helps a lot to use a fast shutter speed.
Fantastic shots Ron!
Charlotte
Ron, interesting with one foot raised and the speculation by your readers and you about why that was happening. You always challenge our eyes and minds, which I find so welcome.
Thanks for the photos and commentary, Ron
Thank you, Alice.
The first eagle looks like it just landed — albeit a little off-kilter — on the balance beam. The Russian judge in the background is not amused. 😉
Thank you for sharing some amusing shots today. How’s the “culling of the 1100” going?
I liked your “Russian judge” observation, Marty.
Don’t wanna talk about the culling…
Thank you (as always) for starting my day with a splash of beauty and thoughts to ponder.
Love that upraised foot – and would hate to be on the receiving end.
So would I. Thanks, EC.
Beautiful photos, it almost looks like the eagle is going for the back of a fish in the first shot. I wish both Farmington Bay and BRMBR would leave some of the old dead cottonwoods in and along the shore for natural perches. They seem to clean them out.I understand they don’t want them floating into the bridges, but it seems they could be left in strategic places in the refuges.
I’ve had similar thoughts, April. So many perches have disappeared over the years (snags, etc.) and they’re not being replaced.
While we were in Australia one thing I was thrilled with in the wetlands around Noosa was the lack of management. Downed trees were left hanging over the water. The trees were so full of birds sitting over the waterway. Yes we had to paddle around them in our canoes but the natural overhanging beauty was worth it.
Ron, I guess I have sharp eyes for your photos and bad eyes for reading the entire post!
It happens, Jim. No worries.
Made me giggle. How you gonna catch a fish?
I thought it was funny too, Arwen.
Just curious – is that a band on the left foot of the eagle in the first photo? It’s hard to tell without enlarging the photo.
Jim, see my note at the end of the post.
Comical behavior. I guess “hydrophobia” is not the appropriate term for this affliction. Just stopped by at our local eagle nest and got (I hope) the best flight shots ever. The male had just exchanged incubation duties and the female flew up to exercise her wings, circling around repeatedly in perfect light. So uplifting!
Congrats, Ken. I hope your shots turn out well.
A beautiful way to start my day ❗️ My all time favorite the Bald eagle ❤️ A few times I’ve gone to do a quick check on our local pair of eagles, while six hours later😳 They just entertain me ❗️Thanks for these great pictures.
Have a great day.
Thank you, Diana.
Wow, Wow, Wow, Ron!! Love me some Eagles and the behavior with that small perch (I have to admit when I 1st started to read your sentence I thought it was the fish “perch”! As I continued to read, I realized my mistake & had to chuckle!! Do you even have Perch in Farmington Bay??) I would have gone along with Judy’s assessment until you said they are regulars in this area. It is a curious behavior since Eagles do a lot of fishing which gets their feet wet!!!
Thanks, Jo Ann. We have perch in some of our fresh water lakes but I’ve never seen any evidence of them at Farmington.
Fun photos Ron. After watching eagles here for the past 12 years I believe eagles like to have fun. Right now we have 8 eagles of various ages at our little Goldwater Lake and their daily performances are really fun to watch. One or two will start to soar and fairly quickly all the rest join in. They have been diving down and doing touch and goes on the lake. They hit the water pretty hard, but no fish – just practicing or playing. They also have a chatter going almost all the time they are flying from perch to perch in the pine trees. The most active of course were the younger juveniles, but the two much older adults joined in with all the activities from time to time. There were at least twelve other guys and gals out there taking photos at 8 am in spite of the 27 degrees.
Everett Sanborn, Prescott AZ
Everett, those eagle behaviors you describe are fun to watch and sometimes difficult to interpret. I once watched a juvenile bald deliberately land in the deep water of Upper Red Rock Lake in Montana, then float and even “swim” a little (using its wings as paddles) in the water before it took off again. Never seen that before or since and it was obviously done deliberately so I have to wonder “why”. Maybe it was jealous of what all the ducks were doing… 🙂
It IS amusing considering all they get their feet into! 😉 Wonder if it’s to do with not wanting to disturb the water or they aren’t sure how deep it is?
Your guess is as good as mine, Judy. But most of them had been around the pond long enough that I imagine they knew how deep it was in the area of this perch. I suspect the reason for the raised foot had more to do with the lack of room on the perch than it did not wanting to get their feet wet but who knows…
It’s funny, Ron. The more I do the wildlife photography thing, the more I’ve come to realize that the “Behavior” part is truly the reason I’m out there. Thus, I share your ethic that
ANY thing that has an impact on the animal’s natural behavior is to be avoided. Thank you for helping me to grasp that concept with your well-reasoned prose and, of course, your beautiful photo images!
You hit two of my soft spots with your comment and that means a lot. Thank you, Thomas.