THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED!
Today I birded Laird’s Landing where there is a major Bald Eagle Roost in a copse of trees there. Laird’s Landing is on the southern shore of the once Lower Klamath Lake.
Every evening, from about three o’clock in the afternoon till sunset, anywhere from one-hundred to one hundred fifty Bald Eagles convoke here for the night. They come from all over the southern portion of the Klamath Basin, but mostly from the vast neighboring Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.
In the pictures there are some forty Eagles, by sunset this number swelled to a little over one-hundred. About two thirds of the Eagles today were adult (white heads and tails) the remainder Immature (no white or streaked white). Bald Eagles do not acquire their full adult plumage until their fifth year.
Prior to Laird’s Landing I toured the LKNWR and spotted over thirty Bald Eagles there in various activities such as soaring, roosting, and feeding on waterfowl.
The Eagles on the Refuge we get much closer to, as close as a few yards. The ones at the evening roost we do not approach any closer than that shown in the pictures so as not to disturb them. There is another major roost for Bald Eagles some ten miles north of this one, Bear Valley, that is fenced off at quite a distance with no access what so ever.
Today I birded Laird’s Landing where there is a major Bald Eagle Roost in a copse of trees there. Laird’s Landing is on the southern shore of the once Lower Klamath Lake.
Every evening, from about three o’clock in the afternoon till sunset, anywhere from one-hundred to one hundred fifty Bald Eagles convoke here for the night. They come from all over the southern portion of the Klamath Basin, but mostly from the vast neighboring Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.
In the pictures there are some forty Eagles, by sunset this number swelled to a little over one-hundred. About two thirds of the Eagles today were adult (white heads and tails) the remainder Immature (no white or streaked white). Bald Eagles do not acquire their full adult plumage until their fifth year.
Prior to Laird’s Landing I toured the LKNWR and spotted over thirty Bald Eagles there in various activities such as soaring, roosting, and feeding on waterfowl.
The Eagles on the Refuge we get much closer to, as close as a few yards. The ones at the evening roost we do not approach any closer than that shown in the pictures so as not to disturb them. There is another major roost for Bald Eagles some ten miles north of this one, Bear Valley, that is fenced off at quite a distance with no access what so ever.
The Klamath Basin is home to as many as five to six-hundred wintering Bald Eagles every year; the greatest concentration in the lower forty-eight states. Twenty years ago there were practically none!
posted by Rex at 8:02 PM
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