With Georgia out tending to community matters, after lunch today Skye badgered me into taking her down to the beach. It was an amazing day for February, 40 F, light winds, and cloudless blue skies.
I managed to find a few (4, I think) shark's teeth while being marched down the beach.
And we ran into a pair of eagles in one of the usual hang outs. Only about 45 days until the Ospreys return, and the eagles can stop eating carrion and killing ducks, and get back to their primary mode of feeding around here, stealing from the Ospreys, making them "kleptoparasites."
The eagles were a little shy and took off as we passed under their trees, and went down the beach another 100 yards or so to a new perch.
There is a large flock of
Tundra, aka Whistling Swans down the beach behind the big sand bar at Port Republic. They'll be leaving about the time the Ospreys return.
Tundra Swans wintering in Chesapeake Bay feed almost exclusively on clams that they dislodge from the mud. But it can be challenging to enjoy a peaceful meal: often the swan has to fend off a Ring-billed, Herring, or Greater Black-backed gull that swoops in to grab a clam from the swan’s bill—a successful tactic in about half of these “kleptoparasitic” encounters.
No comments:
Post a Comment