Hi Martin,

My friend didn't have her glasses on, and couldn't tell for sure if the
eagle was an adult or not. She did say that it flew in the direction of the
eagle nest to the west of the Green Lake Ampitheater; the pillaged crow nest
is (was?) at Fremont Ave N and N 63rd, quite close to the eagle nest.
Hopefully the young ones will acquire the same taste for crow!

Kevin

> ----------
> From: Martin J. Muller[SMTP:MartinMuller at email.msn.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 8:44 AM
> To: Li, Kevin; Tweeters
> Subject: Re: Green Lake eagle: tiring of carp?
>
> Kevin,
>
> Thanks for reporting the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) with crow
> (Corvus brachyrhynchos, I assume) nestling near Seattle. In the past I've
> seen the male eagle at Discovery Park raid nearby crow nests also. It
> appears to be an acquired taste ;)
>
> Any chance your friend noted whether the eagle was a full adult or had
> brown
> on head and tail? If it was indeed one of the Green Lake eagles that would
> tell us whether it was the male (full adult) or female (sub-adult).
>
> Of course there are so many eagles around, unless the eagle was seen
> flying
> to the nest, it could have been a different eagle. Any chance it was seen
> flying to the nest?
>
> I've noticed different behavior in the Green Lake eagles when it comes to
> crows. The male will scream at the crows when they dive-bomb him. When he
> perches in a tree away from the nest tree he carefully chooses a perch
> surrounded by branches so the crows cannot actually hit him. He will still
> scream at them. On several occasions I've seen him chase crows and get
> very
> close. The female, on the other hand, will totally ignore crows. The other
> day she was eating (old unidentifiable bird remnants) in a tree south of
> the
> nest and 4 crows dove at her hitting her tail and back. She just kept on
> eating. Later, after the female finished her meal, she perched upright.
> One
> crow flew in from behind her and repeatedly (12 times that I saw) hit the
> primaries protruding past the female's tail, causing the whole wing to
> move
> forward slightly. In the past I've seen eagles loose their balance due to
> this kind of crow bombardment. This eagle apparently just relaxed her wing
> enough that the blows did not upset her balance. Must be frustrating for
> the
> crows to have this little effect. After 12 minutes the crows had all
> left....
>
> Martin Muller, Seattle
> MartinMuller at email.msn.com
>
>
>