Subject: [Tweeters] Crow Chasing Eagle - With a Twist
Date: May 31 11:01:53 2006
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net


I work within a block of the Sammamish River in Redmond, and sometimes take a work break to walk over to the river with the binocs. This morning, one of my coworkers and I witnessed a crow harrassing a mature bald eagle, but in a situation I've never seen. We were walking south on the trail when from downstream behind us we heard an agitated crow and looked over to see said crow pursuing a beautiful adult eagle who was flying above the slough at a very low altitude. The eagle then took a sharp right and flew into a grove of trees in an apparent attempt to shake his tormentor. I've seen lots of crow/eagle, crow/hawk, blackbird/crow, tweetybird/blackbird encounters before, but never one where a very large bird being harrassed did the movie stunt cliche of trying to shake off the pursuer by dodging through alleys, crowded markets, etc. All the ones I've seen have been fairly high in the air with no obstructions to hamper the aerial maneuvers. This one was the avian versio!
n of th
e famous Star Wars chase scene through the woods. At the point the eagle turned into the trees, he was only ten to twelve feet off the ground. The eagle apparently navigated the fairly thick grove of trees rather easily despite his size because both birds disappeared in the grove and must have flown out the other side still at a low altitude, because they never appeared above the trees. Nor did we hear any commotion indicating the either bird had crashed and burned or that the eagle had taken refuge in a tree. I unfortunately did not have my camera at the time, though probably wouldn't have been quick enough to catch any of the action anyway.

Yesterday, while walking the loop trail at Marymoor on my lunch break, there were simultaneously six immature bald eagles circling near the lake edge just east of the lake observation deck. Several were soaring at quite low altitudes.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com