Saturday, January 11, 2014

Raving About Raptors

The William L. Finley Wildlife Refuge is BIG - the area encompasses over 5700 acres. There is lots of room for several different kinds of raptors to live and hunt.

First up, is a Golden Eagle - a year around resident in western Oregon.

Not one, but two Bald Eagles watched from this tree.

This is an immature male Bald Eagle. Look at the size of that beak!
Bald Eagles don't get their all white heads until they are around 4 years old.

The other Bald Eagle was a female.

This is a Rough-Legged Hawk. It is a winter resident in Oregon, and spends summers in Alaska and northern Canada. 

Here a Northern Harrier flies low over the ground as it looks and listens for small animals. Their preferred habitat is wide open prairie grasslands.

I think the pretties raptor we saw was this White-tailed Kite.  Kites also like grasslands and can hover while hunting for small mammals.

9 comments:

Vickie said...

Awesome! I just caught on to your Birding Bumbles. ;)Love it!

Margaret said...

Very nice! Must have been a treat to go there!

Ann at Beadlework. said...

Lovely to see these birds of prey. I often spy some on the motorway going into Edinburgh. They sit on trees at the side of the road, it's easy to spot them at this time of year. When we were driving in this morning, I saw three deer grazing in a field above the motorway. It was a lovely image as the sun was shining and it was a sparkly, frost morning.

Carol said...

Wow--such majestic looking birds! How lucky you were to see them in person, Beth!

Maggee said...

Have not seen too many up close, but they are pretty amazing too! In their predatory way!

Poppypatchwork said...

They don't live at the edge of your garden then. Great photo's.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

I so envy you Beth...just the other day I told my husband that I hope before I die, I get to see a bald eagle in the wild. That is my greatest wish...
There is a program that has relocated Bald Eagles around here, but I've never seen one before. One day...hopefully! In the meantime, I live vicariously through your photos :) Thank you!

Melanie said...

Wow. That's so awesome to get the chance to see so many at once.

Catherine said...

Amazing pictures!!