Bald Eagles continue to be at the top of the birding agenda since Friday, with an abundance of eagles making a stopover at area lakes. A local survey Saturday revealed a high count of 166 Bald Eagles! In the midst of a spring storm Sunday, 2 young eagles appeared to be play-fighting as they winged above an updraft of wind created along a grove of trees. The chance to observe and photograph a pair of Tundra Swans in close quarters just a half mile from the office provided a special thrill during a localized birding period Friday afternoon. Even with a deeply overcast sky, the chance to photograph a female Merlin during a wind storm last Thursday was too much of a good thing to pass up, even though the resulting photos needed to be improved by using some simple photo editing techniques. By brightening the Merlin photographs using photo editing software, the colors and highlights of the mini-falcon were improved appreciably.

166 Bald Eagles! That was my count just north of home during a Saturday noontime survey, with most of the eagle action centered on 2 lakes, 1 frozen and 1 with a few small open water areas, located 4 and 7 miles north of my office. My first view at the Corner Lake was of 6 Bald Eagles assembled at an apparent food source, grappling for position on the ice, but when I continued to a hilltop vantage point I counted 57 Bald Eagles total. Knowing the lake 3 miles farther north could hold more, I continued to Carlson Lake, where I counted 44 Bald Eagles, with another 32 in the trees that extended from the lake to north of my friend Wendell’s farmhouse.

I continued to circle around the area surrounding the lakes, seeing more eagles in groups of 3, 2, or 1; all adding up to 166 Bald Eagles! That’s more than 4 times the highest number I’ve seen in this area before, and that record count was during fall migration. My survey was the result of a text I received from Wendell the previous evening that simply read: “70 eagles today.” I had visited Corner Lake 3 times that afternoon, but didn’t see an eagle. I thought it might be a prank text, so called Wendell to get more info, but after talking with him I couldn’t wait to do my own count Saturday.

While surveying the area for eagles, I could see the birds were very fluid, moving from lake to lake, with some spreading into nearby areas a couple miles away, then returning 1 by 1. I headed back to the 2 lakes about dinner time, when I only saw 9 eagles at Corner Lake, but counted more than 60 on the ice at Carlson Lake with others perched in nearby trees – yes, the eagles were very fluid but centered on the 2 big lakes. By late Saturday a storm was in full force, with a strong north wind blowing inches of new snow around, and I feared I would be homebound for a couple days after enjoying a few excellent days of birding Wednesday through Saturday.

Friday’s 4-mile Birding Territory

As morning and early afternoon clouds were breaking up I saw my opportunity to slip away from my Birding Wire responsibilities to see if I could intercept some birds to photograph. At Melody’s Marsh, just a half-mile south of my office, more than 200 White-fronted Geese were assembled during mid-afternoon, mostly resting on the edge of the ice, with some foraging along the opposite shore, or swimming in the 60 feet of open water between the 2 surfaces. There were a few Canada and Cackling Geese mixed in along with some Mallards and Redheads, so plenty of photo subjects, but I knew I should survey the entire west side of the marsh before settling down to photograph.

Indeed, a few hundred feet farther down the west shore, 2 big Tundra Swans materialized, and instead of staying at the far side of the marsh as others have done, this pair was feeding just 40 feet from the western shoreline in beautiful blue water near the edge of the ice – What Luck! I was a little surprised that the swans weren’t overly concerned as I parked nearby; they kept feeding and I appreciated spending some quality time with them in close quarters.

The swans eventually climbed onto the ice to begin preening and that’s when I departed to swing back to the geese and ducks to check for other photo ops. The geese and ducks were similarly trusting, and I spent some time photographing before being drawn farther down the road. As I passed the Tundra Swans, I waved and pledged to return. A couple hundred yards down the way, a big flock of small brown songbirds was active along the roadside, and I stopped to ascertain what I expected, that they were a mix of Lapland Longspurs and Horned Larks. From that point forward I observed more and more large flocks of these birds, some flocks were species specific, some were a mix of the 2 species.

Before I reached the 2 mile mark south of home, I could see the silhouette of 2 eagles perched on the edge of a thick stand of trees. As I drove closer, 2 eagles materialized into 4, and soon I realized there were 7 Bald Eagles (6 perched in the same tree) including 4 adults and 3 immature birds ranging from 1 to 3 years old. How could I turn this into a primo photo opportunity? But I’m going to stop my description of my Friday photo drive, which only extended 4 miles south of my office, and refer you to this week’s Bird Photography feature to read the rest of the story and see the best of the photos I managed to take that exciting afternoon.

Cloudy Merlin Photo Ops

The day before, as heavy clouds consumed the sky with a 2-inch snowfall approaching, I checked the bird action a few miles south and north of home, and just before I reached my office again, I spied a bird that could be a Merlin, or it could be a Sharp-shinned Hawk, perched low in a tree. Merlin it was, and as I turned around and prepared for an approach the mini-falcon flew to the edge of an open field, where it perched even lower on a lone weathered post on the edge of a marsh. In spite of the poor lighting conditions, I felt I needed to make the most of a rare opportunity to try to photograph this Merlin.

The resulting images were not striking at first, but I knew I might be able to improve on my low-light field images in my computer’s digital darkroom. By cropping extraneous landscape I enlarged the image of the female Merlin, then tried to brighten it a bit to whiten the white colors and brighten the tan shades. It worked out pretty well considering there was such low light, just gray gloom. But what luck to find the mini-falcon, to get some nice photos of it perched before a pleasing background, and to improve the images without taking away from the natural colors or overall look using my photo editing software (Paintshop Pro).

Outside Views

At my feeding station, excitement came in small packages last week with Thursday yielding the most out of the ordinary sightings, starting with a Pine Siskin, an individual of the Oregon race of a Dark-eyed Junco, and a male Common Grackle, which appeared for just a moment and was gone. The female Purple Finch was on hand Thursday too, as she was throughout the week, usually in the company of House Finches. Back to juncos, I had an average of 3 Dark-eyed Juncos regular at my feeders up to Monday, but suddenly I had more than a dozen at times that stormy day. Yesterday (Tuesday), a lone American Tree Sparrow stopped by for a look below the feeders as I was completing this issue for publication. I’m surprised that I didn’t detect any woodpeckers during the past week, and the nuthatches seem to be down to 1 Red-breasted and 1 White-breasted Nuthatch.

After 3 days of strong north winds a blowin’, a bit of snowin’, and temperatures that dropped into the way-too-cold range, I’m hoping things get back to March normal by the time you read this. There are still many Bald Eagles in the area, and it will be interesting to see how they behave in the coming days; I hope most stick around a while! Till next week, enjoy this Easter week to its fullest, and work in some birding during any time you can spare – Have Fun!

Article and photos by Paul Konrad

Share your bird sightings and photographs at editorstbw2@gmail.com