Sunday, March 21, 2010

Eagles, Osprey, & Soccer


I've spent the last few weeks traveling; field trips, training, and soccer tournaments. I've been seeing lots of raptors. On a short two hour trip on a school bus to the fourth grader's field trip at Somerset plantation - I saw two pairs of raptors in the act of - um - procreation. Actually caught them in the act. It got me all excited for my own harris hawks to get busy.

Then I spent the rest of my time at soccer tournaments. One thing I have come to realize is that osprey are alive and well in this area. It seems that many of the Virginia soccer fields are built with large power transmission lines running near by. I find myself watching both soccer and osprey.

At one point, this particular pair was being repeatedly harassed by an immature bald eagle. he would swoop in, seemingly after the chicks, and both parents would leave the nest to gang up on him and drive him off.

It was cool to watch.

After seeing so much mating action all weekend, I returned home, rushed down to the hawk's cage, peeked into the nest and found.....

nothing. Crap.
Oh well - can't rush it.

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