Cabin Fever Leads To Golden Eagle
Call it cabin fever or the winter blahs, by any name the feeling comes to each of us who live in places with long, cold winters.
I often wonder, do folks who do not have long cold winters, experience cabin fever?I guess it could be a state of mind, no matter where you live.
After the anticipation and excitement of Christmas, the celebration of New Years and the frenzy of the Super Bowl, winter lands on us with both feet, calm, dull and gray.
It can seem a long, long time until April and spring migration.
Today, the need to break the monotony of another day indoors combined with the itch to look for birds persuaded me to call a friend, grab my binoculars and head out to search for birds.
I am always exceptionally keen to search for birds in January and February.
For more years than I want to recall, I have kept a track of all the species of birds I have seen in Ohio in each calendar year.
This means that come New Years Day, I have a net zero number of birds, and get to start all over again, counting every single species I find.
I compete with myself year after year trying to best my own state record.
It's harmless fun, and gives me purpose I suppose.
This personal listing game motivates me so that I am always raring to go when January 1 rolls around.
We started this morning of birding with no firm destination in mind.
However, because of a recent snowfall, I was aware that local farm fields were snow-covered, which might present an opportunity to find some of the winter species of open ground feeding birds.
For that reason, I opted to spend a couple hours just meandering along back-country roads.
My goal was to find flocks of Horned Larks, and hopefully mixed in with the larks, some other exciting species.
Two nesting tundra species, Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) and Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) can often be found in Ohio in winter.
With snow covering the fields, they are easier to detect as they walk about on the ground, feeding.
Birding activity was slow, but spurred on by the prospect of finding some freshly manured fields, a good food source for these birds, we kept at it.
At length, we found several fertilized fields, but the only birds feeding were Horned Larks.
Not so much a single Snow Bunting or Lapland Longspur.
Somewhat disappointed, but realizing there were several hours of daylight to come, I headed east to check out some old strip mine areas, long ago converted to grasslands.
A group of birders had observed a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in the vicinity a few days before.
Golden Eagles are not common in Ohio.
I have documented three sightings for my own Ohio list, over a period of 15 years.
Conversely, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) population is on the increase and they are no longer an unusual sight.
But a Golden Eagle is not to be sneezed at.
Last year I made three attempts to find one in these same strip mine areas, but failed in every attempt.
Today was a different story.
Within thirty minutes of arriving in suitable habitat, we saw a large raptor soaring in the distance.
I pulled the car off the road, set up the telescope and fortune smiled on us.
The raptor was a Golden Eagle, which soared and circled flying ever closer to our location.
Through the binoculars, it was delightful to watch the bird wheeling in circles, ascending then descending in turn.
Tracking the eagle through the scope was awesome.
The great wingspan, the power of his flight, and the ease with which he simply soared around against the blue sky gave us a splendid opportunity to observe him at length.
And if that were not thrill enough, the eagle landed in a large deciduous tree, less than a quarter of a mile away.
Thanks to the power of the scope, we had a great view, even to seeing his eye, and the tawny color on the back of his head and neck.
This tawny color takes on a definite golden hue in good light, or at least I see it that way.
After about three minutes, a flock of crows came calling.
Apparently happy to find an eagle to hassle, they began to do their thing, with a great deal of flapping, circling and cawing.
The eagle seemed to ignore them for a few minutes, but then our majestic Golden Eagle, with a few powerful wing strokes, flew back over the fields and disappeared from view.
So, for this year, after an absence of four years, I can list a Golden Eagle on my Ohio year list.
Yippee!
I often wonder, do folks who do not have long cold winters, experience cabin fever?I guess it could be a state of mind, no matter where you live.
After the anticipation and excitement of Christmas, the celebration of New Years and the frenzy of the Super Bowl, winter lands on us with both feet, calm, dull and gray.
It can seem a long, long time until April and spring migration.
Today, the need to break the monotony of another day indoors combined with the itch to look for birds persuaded me to call a friend, grab my binoculars and head out to search for birds.
I am always exceptionally keen to search for birds in January and February.
For more years than I want to recall, I have kept a track of all the species of birds I have seen in Ohio in each calendar year.
This means that come New Years Day, I have a net zero number of birds, and get to start all over again, counting every single species I find.
I compete with myself year after year trying to best my own state record.
It's harmless fun, and gives me purpose I suppose.
This personal listing game motivates me so that I am always raring to go when January 1 rolls around.
We started this morning of birding with no firm destination in mind.
However, because of a recent snowfall, I was aware that local farm fields were snow-covered, which might present an opportunity to find some of the winter species of open ground feeding birds.
For that reason, I opted to spend a couple hours just meandering along back-country roads.
My goal was to find flocks of Horned Larks, and hopefully mixed in with the larks, some other exciting species.
Two nesting tundra species, Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) and Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) can often be found in Ohio in winter.
With snow covering the fields, they are easier to detect as they walk about on the ground, feeding.
Birding activity was slow, but spurred on by the prospect of finding some freshly manured fields, a good food source for these birds, we kept at it.
At length, we found several fertilized fields, but the only birds feeding were Horned Larks.
Not so much a single Snow Bunting or Lapland Longspur.
Somewhat disappointed, but realizing there were several hours of daylight to come, I headed east to check out some old strip mine areas, long ago converted to grasslands.
A group of birders had observed a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in the vicinity a few days before.
Golden Eagles are not common in Ohio.
I have documented three sightings for my own Ohio list, over a period of 15 years.
Conversely, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) population is on the increase and they are no longer an unusual sight.
But a Golden Eagle is not to be sneezed at.
Last year I made three attempts to find one in these same strip mine areas, but failed in every attempt.
Today was a different story.
Within thirty minutes of arriving in suitable habitat, we saw a large raptor soaring in the distance.
I pulled the car off the road, set up the telescope and fortune smiled on us.
The raptor was a Golden Eagle, which soared and circled flying ever closer to our location.
Through the binoculars, it was delightful to watch the bird wheeling in circles, ascending then descending in turn.
Tracking the eagle through the scope was awesome.
The great wingspan, the power of his flight, and the ease with which he simply soared around against the blue sky gave us a splendid opportunity to observe him at length.
And if that were not thrill enough, the eagle landed in a large deciduous tree, less than a quarter of a mile away.
Thanks to the power of the scope, we had a great view, even to seeing his eye, and the tawny color on the back of his head and neck.
This tawny color takes on a definite golden hue in good light, or at least I see it that way.
After about three minutes, a flock of crows came calling.
Apparently happy to find an eagle to hassle, they began to do their thing, with a great deal of flapping, circling and cawing.
The eagle seemed to ignore them for a few minutes, but then our majestic Golden Eagle, with a few powerful wing strokes, flew back over the fields and disappeared from view.
So, for this year, after an absence of four years, I can list a Golden Eagle on my Ohio year list.
Yippee!
Source...