I was taking a break from the 4th of July party preparations in my back yard yesterday when I noticed six raptors soaring at a very high altitude. They appeared to have the wing profile of Bald Eagles, but either they were too high to catch the white tail and head or they were juveniles or sub-adults. I'm used to seeing them as a single or a pair, but I've not seen this many soaring together. The altitude and number suggested a migration behavior, but it's not that time of year. By the time I got the binocs out I was unable to re-acquire them in the sky.
Is this a normal behavior for Bald Eagles? I went back and checked Jerry Liguori's "Hawks From Every Angle" and I'm pretty sure I got the wing profile right. In Central Florida there isn't anything else that looks like that directly overhead.
Hi Kelly. I live in Valdez, Alaska and what you're describing is pretty much an every day scene here. They appear to be somewhat social animals but I believe a lot of the reason is the focus on food. Wherever the food is they will tend to congregate. Often they will be dispersed all over the area but when one or a pair start circling over potential prey, it isn't long before they all come over to check it out. Pretty soon you'll have 10 - 20 eagles circling over one spot and frequently taking turns diving in for the prey (especially when its easy pickins such as salmon stranded on the tide flats). As far as the altitude goes, I've seen them circling so far up that I couldn't tell they were there. One clear blue day our Anatolian Shepherd dog, who was guarding our ducks and chickens, was looking up in the sky and barking like crazy. Knowing he has a natural instinct for recognizing birds of prey when he's guarding birds and that his eyes are far superior to mine, I knew he must be seeing an eagle but there was nothing in the sky. He was quite insistent so I got the binoculars and scanned the sky in the direction of his gaze. Sure enough, with 10 power binocs, I could see a tiny little dot, barely recognizable as an eagle circling very slowly. I have no idea how high it was but I can see eagles easily with my bare eyes when they are on the other side of the bay which is 3 miles away.
To Gary's good list I'll add "just plain fun." Eagles love to fly and often seem to do it for the heck of it. We live on a bluff overlooking the ocean from an elevation of about 100 feet. It's just the right shape for great updrafts when winds blow about 10 degrees east of north. When that happens we can have as many as a dozen eagle soaring and horsing around right in front of our dining room window. More pertinent to your description, when the wind drops something gets into their collective heads and they start to spiral upward almost like vultures. Eventually they get so high they are virtually out of sight.
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4 repliesIs this a normal behavior for Bald Eagles? I went back and checked Jerry Liguori's "Hawks From Every Angle" and I'm pretty sure I got the wing profile right. In Central Florida there isn't anything else that looks like that directly overhead.
To Gary's good list I'll add "just plain fun." Eagles love to fly and often seem to do it for the heck of it. We live on a bluff overlooking the ocean from an elevation of about 100 feet. It's just the right shape for great updrafts when winds blow about 10 degrees east of north. When that happens we can have as many as a dozen eagle soaring and horsing around right in front of our dining room window. More pertinent to your description, when the wind drops something gets into their collective heads and they start to spiral upward almost like vultures. Eventually they get so high they are virtually out of sight.