On my way to the airport to head to Pasadena last Thursday, I was in a bit of a hurry. I left on time, but several delays (getting gas, putting oil in the car, forgetting my PIN at the bank, and a half dozen more assininities) had me about 15 minutes behind. I got on a side road with no traffic lights to speed things up, hoping to catch up on lost time.
Sure. When I do things like that, usually some disaster occurs to slow me down. But this time, what slowed me down was made of awesome. I noticed something odd on one the very tall power line towers following the road; was that a pair of insulators on top? Or two birds? Yeah, birds. But geez, hawks aren’t that big. Could it be…
Oh yes, it could be.
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See them there, at the top left? Maybe this will help:
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Yeah, they’re bald eagles (click the pictures to enoblify them, and there are three more images of them on Flickr). I’ve seen what I thought were eagles at least twice in the past near here, but they were far away and it was hard to tell. I’ve been fooled by hawks before. This time, though, there’s no doubt.
I have no idea where this pair — are they mates? — are nested. There are no tall trees for literally miles around. Maybe they fly in from the foothills, but that’s at least four miles away. I don’t know how far they’re willing to travel to hunt; but the poles lie next to a vast open farming expanse which must have thousands of rabbits, mice, and other prey. We see foxes and coyotes along this area as well, so the wildlife spotting here is truly wonderful.
I certainly hope I see this pair again, and when I do, I hope to have with me either a better camera or my brother-in-law, who has an awe-inspiring camera and telephoto. I’d very much like to get better shots of these gorgeous and majestic birds.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:17 am
Bald eagles fly through my neighborhood every so often. I’m in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They seem to appear whenever I forget that they are around. They nest on the Susquehanna River about 3 miles away. A week or so ago on my daily walk, I saw a large spread-out flock of crows. I did a double-take when I noticed one was much bigger with white head and tail and different wings. The eagle was just flying along with the crows.
I have yet to get a camera picture of them, but I have a lot of mental pictures.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:25 am
Wow!
Back in September when we were out there for our semi-annual visit to the in-law, we saw some bald eagles up west of Golden just soaring…. heart-catchingly beautiful.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:28 am
Phil, are you being *contaminated* by the lure of biology?
Good eye you have; they weren’t easy to spot. Got to be a mated pair, otherwise they’d be aggressive toward each other.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:47 am
Phil, you should keep your eyes open for Golden Eagles, you live in their range and they are the largest and most majestic of Eagles. Here’s a head shot of one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggieandcharles/2580890868/sizes/o/in/set-72157605622493598/
Thankfully, Bald Eagles are becoming quite common as they make a comeback from the bad old days of DDT and other environmental toxins that decimated their numbers. We see them all the time here in the east, especially near water because they prefer to be near bodies of water for hunting purposes.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:47 am
Those are two males.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:48 am
We have a couple of Baldies flying around Red Top Mt, as well as a Great Horned owl or two. Impressive raptors I must say.
Driving around here at night, I occasionally get the cajonnes scared out of me when an owl does a fly-by in front of my head lights. Good thing they have impeccable timing or they’d be grill splatter,,,
GAry 7
PS: excellent, timely pics.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 am
Considering the horrible black market for bald eagle parts, maybe you should be careful not to pinpoint their location.
http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/reward_offered_in_eagle_poaching_case_031408.html
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 am
Phil, I don’t know where you spotted this pair, but there are several breeding pairs at Barr Lake.
There are also many Golden Eagles nesting along the foothills, most notably around Roxborough.
Raptors are so cool…
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 am
My town could use that pair to take care of the seagulls.
Austin, TX has a lot of them.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:57 am
They winter here in Tropic Ut,and more than once I’ve walked out my back door to see one seated on my wooden fence. A couple of years ago, one stayed the whole summer at the reservoir, a few miles from here. That’s rare. And the Goldens, the eagles, not the reformed family, are here year round.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:02 am
Yes your bald eagle is mighty pretty but can it do this , Wedge-Tailed Eagles “… display considerable adaptability, and have sometimes been known to team up to hunt animals as large as the Red Kangaroo; to cause goats to fall off steep hillsides and injure themselves; or to drive flocks of sheep or kangaroos to isolate a weaker animal. Wedge-tailed Eagles may also kill young calves”. (from the wiki on Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagles)
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:02 am
Eagles are truly aweome to see in person. I live not too far from Beth K, with a pair of bald eagles nesting in the river nearby, but I live in downtown Philly. Waiting for my kids’ schoolbus one day, I looked down the street into the churchyard and spied one sitting on a tree branch! Another time, I saw one in flight waiting for the El. To know they’re rebounding and retaking their habitats is one of the things that gives me a glimmer of hope for the future.
Thanks for sharing Phil.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
If you want to tell you’re looking at an eagle from a distance, look at the way it is flying and the way it is holding its wings. First, it needs to be a very large bird, with long finger like projects at the tips of a pair of long wings. While hawks have these finger like protections, they are often not as visible as they are in eagles and their wings are more rounded. Though harries, kites, and falcons have long wings, they also have long tails, eagles have short tails. The main thing to look for first, are those finger-like protections. If you can see them from a distance clearly, you are not dealing with a hawk. However, there are two other birds that fit this description. Vultures (turkey and black) and osprey. However, the black vulture has more narrow wings, making it look bulky, or fat when it is flying, and the tips of those are white. The turkey vulture and osprey hold their wings differently when gliding. Vultures form a V shape with their wings. Ospreys often hold their wings that give something of a W shape, they bend them at the wrist, that, and they are white from a distance. Eagles, however, hold their wings flat. Their feathers might curl up a little at the end, but if you see a large bird which is holding its wings out flat, its an eagle (be it bald or golden, that’s another story). And you can tell this from a great distance away. Btw, Peterson field guide gives very excellent pictures of what to look for and once you start being able to pick out common birds, the not so common, like eagls, will stand out.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
The local nature centers around here (Westchester County, NY) are holding their annual “Eagle Fest” this weekend. http://teatown.org/eaglefest.htm
I see plenty of large birds of prey nearby, as I live just off the Hudson River near some decent-sized mountains (okay, “decent-sized” for the east coast, far from the Rockies). Too bad I don’t have time to stop at the one roadside “scenic overlook” on the way to taking the kids to karate. I can’t tell if they’re eagles, hawks, or falcons. At least the kids all seem interested to watch from the car as we drive by. I hope to get them to Eagle Fest this year.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
But did your wife notice?
When we drive around (usually me at the wheel), that sort of thing comes up a lot. Squid: “Look dear, an osprey!” … Squidette: “huh, where” … Squid: “on that pole, watching” …Squidette: “I don’t see it”
She never sees the birds. I never miss them, or presumably when I miss them she does too, so it only seems like I never miss them.
Bald eagles know they’re cool.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
They mostly eat fish, so if there’s a good lake or river near you, that’s likely where they hunt. Very cool!
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
Awww, they are so cute and truly amazing creatures
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:27 am
Steven Colbert Jr?
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:27 am
I used to be impressed when seeing Bald Eagles. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very cool birds. But I’ve been vacationing in northern Wisconsin in the summer at my uncle’s lake house, and the area is lousy with the things. To the point that people with small dogs need to keep a close eye on them when they let them out.
They’re neat, but I don’t even notice them any more. Like anything else, the novelty has worn off
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:29 am
Phil, yes, they would be mates. As Gary mentioned, if they weren’t mates there’d be aggression. You will see many eagles roosting in the same tree during migration or when food is plentiful, but you wouldn’t see them perched side-by-side unless they were bonded. The closest they’d be is one wing span apart.
More than half their diet consists of fish (dead or alive) and they’ll feed on mammalian carrion when fish are scarce. Being opportunistic, they’ll also take rabbits, frogs, snakes, and birds (I watched one grab a Mallard off a stream), and you can find eagles at garbage dumps eating with the gulls…and eating the gulls if a gull gets too complacent. Overall though they prefer to be near larger bodies of water that have plenty of fish. (yes, I can provide citations too
This pair could just be foraging in the area, they could be migrating, or they could be a resident pair. You can find general range maps in good bird guides (National Geographic, Peterson, Sibleys) which may help (e.g. if you lived in Pasadena, these two are probably not a resident pair). Next time you’re in a bookstore, sneak a peak but be careful…getting hooked on birding may leave your wife a temporary “birding widow” whenever something interesting is blown in by a storm.
By the way, 4 miles is nothing to these birds…I’ve seen them cover greater distances in one long glide without using thermals. And good eye in spotting them–”Keep looking up”, to lift a phrase from Star Gazer’s Jack Horkheimer.
)
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:29 am
I love birds (remember my backyard visitor?), and I may look into this more. I’d like to find out where the eagles nest around here, where they hunt, how to identify, how to know which is the male and which isn’t, and so on.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 am
Evolving Squid: I was alone in the car. But when we see a hawk on a pole (which is really all the time, like back in California too) we point it out.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:31 am
Awesome! I’ve live in Southern California, so I’ve never seen one of these in the wild. Are bald eagles still an endangered species? I’ve heard that once a species gets protected by the government (like the bison) their numbers usually explode. Bascially I’m wondering when I can order a bald eagle burger. I’m betting it tastes like chicken.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 am
Brian, I was just reading the wiki and it appears the bald eagle is in the Least Concern category now and they were de-listed from the endangered list in 2007.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
I get red tail hawks in my yard sometimes. I can tell they are about by the cloud of agitated crows that surround them.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:44 am
Yes, baldies were taken off the endgangered list, but they are still illegal to hunt. Different law regarding hunting, so they are still protected from poaching.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:48 am
Here in the Phoenix metro area, we have Harris and Red-Tailed hawks. They’ve adapted to urban conditions by changing their hunting behavior – there are sections of highway in the outlying areas where nearly every light pole has a hawk sitting on top, watching for critters that are scurrying away from traffic. Or for roadkill. Hey – why expend the energy to chase prey when you don’t have to?
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
“Those are two males.”
I don’t think you can tell from this range
actually, if anything, the one on the left looks larger which suggests a female.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 am
Next time you are heading for DIA, leave early and plan to stop by Barr Lake State Park. You can load up on all kinds of eagle lore. We have had a pair of nesting bald eagles at the lake every year for over twenty years. (Just one pair at a time, they are highly territorial.) Except for a couple of disaster years, the park has seen one to three eaglets fledged each year. The pair use the same sites year after year, choosing one and building onto the previous nest. A favorite site is close to the trail. With a good pair of binoculars, or better yet, a good scope, you can actually watch the parents tending to their offspring. In winter before the resident pair starts to court, you may see as many as thirty or forty bachelor eagles around the lake. To say it is awesome doesn’t quite cover it.
We give guided tours regularly. And there is a tram we call the Eagle Express that goes out weekends and holidays during the warm seasons. All of this is manned by volunteers. and there is no extra charge for tours, they are included with the park day use fee.
The Ursas Major and Minor are welcome too, but cannot go to see the eagles. The south side of the lake is the bird sanctuary. Dogs are welcome around the lake on the north side. The boundaries are well marked.
If you come on a Thursday, stop by the Nature Center and say hi. Maybe you will sign your book for me? I loved your book. It doesn’t quite sit as high on my chart as Sibley’s Book of Bird Behavior, but almost.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:10 am
About five years ago I was driving west on US 40 somewhere in Western Colorado when I saw something coming straight at me, flying about 10 feet above the pavement. As it approached and then flew directly over me I was thrilled to recognize it as a bald eagle, though it took me some time to convince myself that it had actually happened. One of the joys of living in or visiting your part of the country.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 am
If you get the chance sometime, take a trip up to Cochrane, Alberta. It’s famous for being along the migration route up the foothills for lots of raptors including golden eagles. There are lots of bald eagles too. It’s also a great place to hang glide, and the birds will frequently come and fly in formation with you when you’re soaring over their hunting grounds.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:28 am
Oops. As a biologist, I really do know the difference between Ursids and Canids. I was trying to remember what Phil called his four-legged family members and missed the obvious. But my mind was on Haliaeetus leucocephalus. (Who knows how to get italics in a post?)
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:35 am
I lived in Cape Breton for two years, and there are several bald eagles there. One pair had a nest – about the size of a volkswagon – on a treetop not far from our house. We frequently saw them soaring over the Bras D’or lake, and once saw one quite close on the ice. It was BIG – at first we thought it was a dog!
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:41 am
We’ve got a bunch of them in central Florida. I almost hit one with my car. What looked like a snake suddenly dropped in front of my car. In response I slammed on my brakes, which was fortunate. A second later a bald eagle swooped down and grabbed the snake, practically landing in the middle of the highway! Think I’d get arrested for hitting one on accident like that?
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 am
I live in Squamish, BC, near Vancouver, and we have one of the largest gatherings of Bald Eagles in North America, between Dec-Feb, every year. Check out my album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=72634&l=2aef5&id=701429991
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 am
James – Are you under the (mis)impression that only the males have white heads? If you are, I shall disabuse you of that impression – males and females are identical.
Here’s a little game I call “Count the Eagles”: http://tinyurl.com/deeclq
And Bald Eagles are nice, but being a redhead, I kind of prefer this little guy in MY front yard: http://tinyurl.com/bmksd6
Bald Eagles nest all over here in mid NY as well. Ospreys are also common (there is a nesting pair on the Mid Hudson bridge)
JC
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 am
Okay, Jose` beat me to one of my quips, so I’ll add:
Ornothologist Astronemer?
Yeah, we have a lot of majestic birds where I live. The Eglin Range has a lot of protected land, and with the giant long needled pines, we see quite a few Bald Eagles. The only thing about these birds of prey is that they frighten away all the little birds at our bird feeders when they stop by for a visit.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:17 am
A quick check turns up no links to it on teh Googleverse, but one of my favourite Far Sides has always been the drawing of hawks and eagles in a tree with sunglasses and Sony walkmen with the caption ‘ Birds of prey know they’re cool’.
Bald eagles and hawks are a common site in the Vancouver, BC area. I once had the extreme pleasure of seeing a hawk swoop down and pluck a mouse off of the road directly in front of my moving car and then pass directly over my open sunroof no more than a couple of feet above my upturned face. I got a clear view of the mouse still struggling in the talons. Fortunately, there was no other traffic at the time.
jj
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Phil, the larger of the two birds is probably female (the one on the far left). Though, it’s really hard to tell that when they are flying around and not sitting side by side as this pair are. This is true of the vast majority of birds, where the female is larger. Of course, this creates a whole slew of problems in birding with species that look similar, but one is bigger. Can be hard to say sometimes if you’re dealing with a large female of one species or a small or immature male of the other.
It happens. Even zoos have this problem. I remember a vulture named Ed at one zoo they thought was a male, because he was small. Until, Ed laid an egg. So, with most birds that are not sexually dimorphic, you pretty much have to do genetic testing on to find out which is which. Or, observe one laying an egg.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:41 am
Phil Plait, you can learn all you want to know about Bald Eagle and other raptor behavior by going to this place: http://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org
I have to admit getting kind of a kick out of some of these replies. Raptors are not all that rare, all one has to do is know how, when and where to look. Not two days go by without me seeing one, and I live in an exurban area. We have everything from Red Tail Hawks to Peregrine Falcons flying through our property, much to the chagrin of the squirrels and other fauna.
As for Bald Eagles, they like water, and they are apex predators that will hunt but will often take carrion. It is extremely rare for them to attack something like a small dog. An owl or possibly a hawk, maybe, but dogs are far out of a Bald Eagles’ normal target of opportunity. In fact, you are far more likely to see a Bald Eagle feasting on a whale than you are a dog — unless they happen upon a dog carcass and are hungry.
BTW, anyone who goes on a tour of Kennedy Space Center will have a rather large Bald Eagle nest pointed out to them once they leave the Apollo/Saturn V Center. That nest has been there as long as I can remember and is roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beatle.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 am
Surprisingly, we have a crapload in Central IL. Along the Illinois river, they gather is large flocks this time of year.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Phil,
Ah, yes, the eagles. I remember watching the pair near Standley Lake as a kid.
Another bird you will see a lot up in Boulder are the turkey vultures. You often see a kettle of them above CU’s power plant in the morning. They love using the updrafts to gain altitude for the day. I think the venue lives on Flagstaff Mountain when they aren’t in flight.
And, yes, I’m a wordnerd. Kettle = group of vultures in flight, venue = group of vultures on ground.
Matt
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
On the drive to school every day we go by a reservoir. I think I’ve been seeing a bald eagle flying around there too. I’ll try and get a picture somehow sometime.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I here they are nuts about squirrels.
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Quite a beautiful site. In Orange County, Ca we’ve got mostly Hawks and Falcons. The most spectacular site I’ve ever seen was a Golden Eagle perch on my upstairs balcony rail. An immense creature to say the least and I think the event was a once in a lifetime treat to see.
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
We have a couple over here at 124th and Pecos in Westminster, Colorado. Soaring over the prairie dog fields.
Chris P
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Am I allowed to look at a picture of our national bird and think, “aw, cute”?
SkepGeek, they also love the Mississippi River and there are a lot of eagle events in IL and IA.
Phil, too bad that the Little Astronomer wasn’t with you. That would have probably made it even more fun.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Nice pics Phil! If those photos were taken out by DIA, then the birds probably came from either the Rocky Mountain Arsenal or the Barr lake area. Bald eagles are making a huge come back in Colorado. I’ve seen a few at Chatfield reservoir and I’ve seen pics/stories about them at Cherry Creek reservoir. When I first moved to Colorado 12 years ago, I never saw any bald eagles. Now a days, I see then once or twice a year. All in the front range area.
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Actually, you can’t assume that just because two eagles are in close proximity that they are a mated pair (although given how familiar these two birds appear to be with one another, I’m sure they are!). Eagles aren’t aggressive toward one another at all times and in all places. Click my name for a case in point.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
How rare are these eagles now ? (ignorant Aussie) I remember watching a documentary when I was a kid and if I can recall it mentioned .. hundreds. I wonder and hope the count is better now. I may be mixing them up with another rare bird however.
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Pfft, here in BC, we have BAZILLIONS of bald eagles.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
One of the best moments of my life involved riding a motorcycle up the Stuart Highway (central Australian desert country, between Port Augusta and Alice Springs; red stone gibber plains, snow-white saltpan lakes, massive blue skies, etc.) while a Wedge-Tailed eagle flew, perfectly matching my direction and speed (I’d slowed down to about 50km/h to avoid hitting it), exactly on eye level about six feet in front of me.
The wingspan looked like it covered the entire highway; I swear I could hear the wings go “whoomp” every time they flapped despite the engine noise. It only lasted ten seconds or so before the eagle veered off to the side, but I’ll never forget it.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Charles Boyer: It is extremely rare for them to attack something like a small dog.
OTOH, I know a wildlife rescue guy up around Dubbo who once got a call from a woman who wanted help with a local wedge-tailed eagle that was preying on her five chihahuas. She’d originally had nine…
(yeah, I know; different species, but still…)
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Craig, oh man! How cool (the bike thing – not the Chihuahuas). You can see hundreds of the buggers on the road between Adelaide and Darwin. I never saw one flying that close but we often stopped to photograph a wedgie up to his/her knees in kangaroo guts. Way off in the distance you’d see this huge black shape on the road. As you got closer you’d realise it was wedgie standing on a Roo carcass. They are big birds. You can see them all over Oz though. I spent hours watching them sailing the thermals over our farm in Victoria when I was kid.
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I remember seeing one silhouetted against the setting sun by the side of the road near Broken Hill. The shape it made and the way that it moved had me halfway convinced that I was looking at a baby dinosaur until I saw the feathers…
February 4th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Craig, that sounds gorgeous! I adore birds of prey – unfortunately, living in suburban Sydney, the only wedge-tail I’ve ever seen was when we went out to – actually, Dubbo – once. Seen plenty of owls and related birds, though – there’s a boobook that lives near our place (SO CUTE!), and a tawny frogmouth.
I’ve seen a bald eagle, too – when I was in Flagstaff (Northern Arizona). It was far up high, riding the thermals above a carpark, and I could only just see the speck of white that was its head. Photo came out terribly, though, it was just a dark blob with a bit of a white blob
February 4th, 2009 at 12:54 am
A couple of people have already mentioned BC here but I was chuffed to bits to see dozens of Bald Eagles in the Delta area near Vancouver, BC while visiting friends at Christmas 2007. We took a walk down to the nature reserve and were told we “might” see some Bald Eagles.
There was one perched on the first telegraph pole on the way in, and several more perched in trees or flying around in the distance. There was some water-logged fields on the way that seemed to have attracted dozens of them. They were stood around in the field being watched by some vary wary gulls.
Beautiful birds – as rare as they are they’re much more common over your way than in the UK. I spent two weeks in the Scottish Highlands and only caught sight of one eagle
February 4th, 2009 at 1:10 am
It’s funny I’ve never considered myself a twitcher but my favourite “bird” moments are seeing an Andean Condor soaring high above the Andes in Peru, a Wandering Albatross circling our ship on the way to Antarctica, an Emperor Penguin on a ice flow down in Antarctica and lastly any of the dozens of Wedge-tailed Eagles I’ve seen – awesome awesome birds.
February 4th, 2009 at 3:36 am
I grew up next to a cliff where two white-tailed eagles (close relative of the bald eagle, but not quite as cool looking) nested. Fortunately they never picked me up and fed me to their chicks.
February 4th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
We have bald eagles that nest near the lake outside my office window, along with several species of hawk and some blue herons. It’s fun watching the eagles occasionally coming back from the lake with a fish still wriggling in their talons. I have to admit, though, that I was disillusioned about the grandeur of bald eagles a few years ago, when I went on a fishing trip in Alaska. There was a large flock of them that would hang out on the beach near the lodge to fight over the fish guts left by the staff after cleaning the day’s catch. Of course, I realize this is changed behavior due to the actions of the people involved, but still. It’s always disturbing to watch one of the symbols of your nation’s pride acting like a scavenger.
February 4th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
For another aspect of Bald Eagle behaviour, check out this page: http://www.afblues.com/?p=783 (Make sure to read the artists text and his encounter in Alaska with an Eagle sporting major attitude.)
February 4th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
There seemed to be far more than usual here in Squamish this year. When I went to the river where they gather, in November, in a span of less than an hour, I counted at least 16. There were far more across the river in the trees as well.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Raptors are all around us. I have sharp-shinned hawks that think my bird feeder is a bird feeder. They sit on the swing set or the maple tree. There are also the red-tails, broad-wings, and various falcons around. We can go up to Hawk Mountain (north of Reading, Pennsylvania) to watch various migrations.
But one of the coolest sights will be starting soon. We have huge flocks of tundra swans migrate through here in early spring. They stop off at Middlecreek Wildlife Refuge in northern Lancaster County. There will be tens of thousands of tundra swans and snow geese. Absolutely amazing.
When you see a tundra swan flying overhead, you understand the shape of the swan constellation Cygnus.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:00 am
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