Can I use this eagle as a sundial?

Spent a day scanning stuff in for a friend to put on his website. It was a repetitive, slow, dull day.

But I had my distraction. I was listening to, and occasionally watching a webcam on an Eagle's nest.

The eagle was having a long dull day too. She occasionally got up and turned a bit, and then sat back down on the eggs. She occasionally called out - I thought she was asking for a break from her mate, so I watched when she was calling out, but no other eagle ever came.

So I noticed that the eagle had a favourite sitting position, and I wondered if it was possible to use the eagle as a sundial, so I took screen shots at noon, 3pm, and 5pm. And her shadow did move in quite the time keeping manner! Not that accurate... but probably about as good as a sundial wristwatch with a compass to align it properly.

So who won the dull day contest - her or me?

Why am I flinching?

I do love a good webcam. Some of my favourites are:
Eagle nests from around southern BC
Bruichladdich scotch distiller in Scotland
Tofino webcam from a wonderful resort on Vancouver Island

It's nice to see people making great scotch - some of my favourite scotch is made at Bruichladdich. And it's great to watch eagles in their nests feeding baby eagles... although it can get nerve racking at the end of the season when you just want that last young bird to leave the nest and fly already!

My most frequent view is the Tofino webcam - a fabulous beach in the most relaxed place in Canada. But yesterday I was alarmed by what I saw. It was black and covered the picture... was it apocalypse? was the camera in jeopardy? No, it was a bird. A bird tail actually. A big black bird tail that looked frightening on my computer screen! It may have been from a crow, or a raven (known as the trickster bird so a likely candidate) but I think it was a bit small for an eagle (I've been close to one in flight by the water's edge - they are bigger than me).

I can giggle at it now... but it made me flinch when I first saw it. A link to an outside reality that felt a bit too close to home for a second!

I may need to get out more.

Will Crows chase any bird?

While we were in Parksville (on the East coast of Vancouver Island) a couple of weeks ago I witnessed a great display of bird flight while sitting on a bench by the beach. A Bald Eagle was being chased by a Crow.

The fight was not that involved – there was no contact between the birds. The Bald Eagle looked a bit bored. The Crow seemed to be having fun. But when they came within a few feet of where I was sitting the sheer size of the Bald Eagle - and those amazing talons!!! - was awesome! This may be one of those fish stories where the fish gets bigger with each telling of the story, but I swear that bird was as big as me!

I didn't get my camera out in time to take a picture, and I'm still kicking myself for that. My spouse has some good pictures of the Bald Eagles we saw on our trip on his Flickr website.

So a couple of days ago I was sitting in a park in downtown Vancouver, close to home, when I saw a miniature version of the same in-flight battle: a Crow was chasing a Seagull. Neither of them were awesome or huge, and again the Crow seemed to be pestering and playing with the Seagull.

So will Crows chase any bird just for the fun of it?

I thought that the Crow in Parksville was trying to scare the Bald Eagle away from the Crow's nest. Bald Eagles are willing to eat anything, including small birds, so it may have been trying to eat Crow. (No, not admitting humiliation, not that kind of eating crow! Eating the little baby birds.)

But maybe not. Maybe the Crow was just pestering the Bald Eagle for exercise. Just chasing another bird because it likes chasing other birds!

Maybe us monkeys, err, sorry, people, make too much of animal behaviour. It may not be all life-and-death struggles. The other animals on this planet may have a sense of play as well.