Subject: personal bird of the year
Date: Jan 2 17:59:56 2001
From: Shirley Vanderveen - Svande at fhlbsea.com


Tweeters:

It was hard to make a choice - I've had a pretty good year birding. But, the most dramatic sighting was cavorting sea eagles (white-tailed eagles) in Norway.

On 7/5/00 my husband and I were seakayaking along the shore of Lovund, a small island about 30 miles from the mainland. It is rocky with lots of cliffs, and dominated by a big mountain that is home to a large puffin colony. This in turn attracts a lot of raptors. We had just paddled past a pair of golden eagles and then rounded a rocky point to see a pair of sea eagles flying circles around each other, sometimes grappling talon to talon and falling nearly to the water before separating. To our eyes it looked more like playful activity rather than a territorial dispute. They eventually flew away together higher up the mountain slope and out of sight.

This is why I believed it to be a courting display :
Lovund is only about 20 miles south of the arctic circle.
Summer was late - still lots of snow patches on the mountain. Lilacs just beginning to bloom in nearby towns.
We had seen nesting sea eagles recently on another island.

I would like to hear from anyone with more experience with the white-tailed eagle and can confirm or enlighten me on the behavior I saw.

Shirley
n7pcx at gte.net
Issaquah, WA