3-16-16 Bald Eagles Galore!

Wednesday, March 16th...
...over the last few days, since the day J Pod came back in (March 12) and went north there have been some interesting things going on...
...it's spring, I guess things should be changing...
a recap:
...last year I had recorded a 'burp' sound that began over the Lime Kiln hydrophones and within the next day or so J Pod would show up...link to that is on the right column on my blog...'Fish Sounds and the Appearance of J Pod'

...this year: before March 12th there have been rarely any burp sounds and the few there were I heard over the Orca Sound hydrophones, which are located about 4 miles up island from the Lime Kiln HPs...since March 12th I have been hearing the burps, at first over Orca Sound, and then over the last two days, over both hydrophones...

...yesterday out on Peregrine with Capt. Andy at the helm we had several bald eagle encounters...

...on the west side of Henry Island there must have been at least 10 and they were taking small fish, I'm guessing herring...back up to the tree and another one down for one, sometimes two eagles at a time...
...in John's Pass they were doing the same...
...on the northwest end of Spieden the same...
...and at each location, there appeared to be many pairs of an adult and a juvenile, and they looked like a tag team...

...this is the size of fish they were getting...snack food!

...on the south side of Spieden Island it's lambing season...that brings lots of eagle activity too...while trying to get an image of the eagle with the Mouflon sheep in the background, my camera caught something additional...none of us on the boat saw it only my camera did...

...it's what is hanging off the tree...it appears to be the hide of a Fallow deer...now how in the world did it end up there? !

...the nictitating membrane, cleans, lubricates and acts as 'sunglasses' to cut down the glare on the surface...

...in late February, out with Capt. Jim, we had different kind of tag team of eagles...out at Kelp Reef marker...
...they appear to be not quite fully adult because their heads and tails are not yet completely white...but that didn't slow them down...
...pairing up for the future?...

...now, with the waters becoming more plentiful with small fish...I hope there will be larger fish, salmon, in the not too distant future, and behind them will be the whales...we hope...
...if they are still up north, they'll be back down...or if they came down and went out undetected, they'll be back...they just don't let us know when that will be...as long as they are finding plenty to eat - that's what is most important.
...and K and L Pods are out west and off the coast...they'll be in at some point!