Our Very Own Bald Eagle

I feel somewhat guilty about not having photographs to post, but my recovery from knee replacement surgery and the winter weather have reduced my opportunities for photography.  I hope that situation will change by mid-March. 

Yesterday (2/20/2010) my attention was diverted from a conversation with a neighbor by the sounds of crows and an eagle.  I focused on the crows and realized that they were providing some passing harassment to a mature Bald eagle that was atop one of the tall fir trees located in our yard!  I think this is only the second time that I have seen a Bald eagle in one of our own trees.  For whatever reason the crows were content on just flying by and didn't concentrate on full-blown harassment.  The eagle remained in the tree for at least twenty minutes. 

I took advantage of some of the sunny, warm weather to improve my watercourse/photography environment for the coming spring.  A neighbor had unearthed a long, slender rock and had graciously offered it to me.  I stood the rock on end and mounted it immediately adjacent to our watercourse, giving the birds another staging point and at the same time creating an ideal point for natural-appearing photographs.  This rock supplements a dead branch I use for a staging area on the other side of the water feature. 

A neighbor had recently given me a large patch of moss and I split it up to try to get it started on and between some of the rocks that constitute the water course.  I haven't had a lot of luck with such projects in the past but hope springs eternal... especially in the spring! 

The yard birds lately have been rather boring.  On a good day we can field between twenty and thirty Dark-eyed juncos but all will be leaving for higher breeding grounds later this spring.  We have a bumper crop of House sparrows from this past year and I'm contemplating how I can move them on.  We've had at least one Anna's hummingbird all winter and recently I've observed the bird twice using the watercourse in near-twilight conditions.  We're also getting an occasional visit from one or more Downy woodpeckers after an absence of a couple of months.  Perhaps our biggest breakthrough is the presence of up to four American Goldfinches which occasionally visit the yard.  Although present in the Skagit Valley in the winter this is the first winter in the eight we have lived here that we've had them in the yard.  I briefly observed an Orange-crowned warbler in the yard about three weeks ago and saw some unidentified warblers high (80-100') in our fir trees late yesterday afternoon.