For me, that celebration takes the shape of a walk outdoors, no matter the temperature. Although it was a freezing day, the sun was out and the sky was blue, something that has been a bit of a rarity this January. I have a friend who has recently gotten a rescue dog and she wanted to see if, once off the leash, it would head for the hills or stay with us. Open fields are what we needed. We had a lovely little walk, the Lab stayed near, we didn’t freeze completely and as I had hoped, we saw a Marsh Hawk, make that a Northern Harrier as they are now called.
It was dipping low over the fields in that tippy way they have that makes you think either this bird doesn’t quite have a license to fly yet, or it has had one too many.
The truth is not only is it looking for its food, the yummy vole or mouse, but it is listening as well. If you look at its face it has a bit of facial disc like an owl which funnels the sound to its ears. With excellent hearing then, it can hear its meal yelping the mouse equivalent of “Yikes!” and find it easily. Plus, it is that low flight that lets you know you are seeing a Harrier and not some other kind of hawk, even before you see the diagnostic white patch at the base of its tail.
And one more cool thing about Harriers, you can tell male from female if you get a good look, for the male has a gray back and head with more white underneath where the female is more rusty brown in color.
Perhaps as with many birds that are ground nesters, all the better to blend in. And fact number three, they are ground nesters, not high in some huge nest in a tree, for really the marsh is more their home. Ok enough about them.
The wind was making the chill a tad chillier than we wanted, so after about 45 min we had had enough and headed home. However, I felt, “Wait a minute, its my birthday, I shouldn’t head home that quickly” and instead headed to a nearby large pond where in the past, Bald Eagles have been spotted. I had taken my nature group there, and I have stopped there a few times with no luck.
But today, on my very birthday, just as I was about to leave seeing nothing more than some gulls, a large brown motley bird swooped over my car, and yay!, no mistaking it, it was an immature Bald Eagle!
The pond as it turned out wasn’t as completely frozen as I had thought, and the eagle was headed to the edge where a large, tightly grouped flock of Ring Necked ducks was.
They lifted off, swirled around and resettled. The eagle then did a lot of hovering over the area, while a crow and a couple of gulls flew over and around it, with only the crow taking any serious swipes. But the eagle continued to hover, than flap away, soar and return. I thought surely I was going to see someone become lunch here, but then along came another immature eagle and together they soared back and forth in what seemed a more playful than hunting attitude. Then they sailed off over the ridge and out of sight. WOW! Happy Birthday to me indeed! Two other cars came immediately after, one with someone with serious camera equipment, and another with serious binoculars. I feel bad that they had just missed it, but perhaps the eagles returned after I left.
I know some of you might live where eagles have made a great comeback and are more easily seen. Here on the Cape however they are pretty rare, so it did make for the most unexpected and delightful birthday present! So, maybe there will be more to this decade than just awaiting Medicaid after all!
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