Look what I've got in my backyard

[Marcel]

Well, almost. This is about 2 miles from my house. We've got a family of European white tail sea-eagles, two youngs and their parents, nesting there. Think of them as the European variety of the bold-eagle. They're pretty rare. There are about 12 of these magnificent birds in the Netherlands and 9 of them live in my neighbourhood. We don't see them much, but this evening I hit the bullseye. All 4 of them were together. THey had just catched a fish and the young ones were eating. Then one of them started to tease the geese, so we got a good view of the bird. Unfortunately it's quite far from my position, maybe a kilometre or so, so bit too far for my 300mm lens. I had to crop and enhance a bit, but the pictures are clear enough I would say.

For the ones wondering. The little bunkers are Dutch "kazematten" from the WW2 era. THey were part of the Waterlinie, the 2nd line of defence in 1940. THey're everywhere here on the island of Dordrecht.

 

[Shinpachi]

Nice environments there, Marcel

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man, that's awesome!

 

[Wurger]

Agreed.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Beautiful birds. Nice pics.

 

[Gnomey]

Very cool!

 

[A4K]

With all mate - magnificent birds! Thanks for posting!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Excellent Marcel! Hopefully they will keep multiplying.

 

[Capt. Vick]

The original fighter planes eh? Thanks for posting!

 

[GrauGeist]

What a treat to catch rare birds on the wing like that!

Even if you didn't have your camera with you, I bet it was great just to watch them.

Great shots, thanks for sharing!

 

[bobbysocks]

that is so cool! eagles just started making a come back up where we have our summer camp....and a family of bald eagles took up residence in the city (Pittsburgh). someone put a web cam on them so you can watch them 24/7....maybe you can do that in your spare time...lol

 

[Tracker]

Great Pics!

Man has always since the beginning of time tried to fly as gracefully as the birds.

 

[Marcel]

What a treat to catch rare birds on the wing like that!

Even if you didn't have your camera with you, I bet it was great just to watch them.

Great shots, thanks for sharing!

Yes, they are great to watch. The adults seem to have a wingspan of 2.5 metres and when standing on the gorund they are about 70 cm heigh.Very impressive. We call them "flying barndoors" here.
I don't know if it's the same with bald eagles, but when they're on the ground, the geese act peculiar. They all swim to the spot where the eagles are sitting and swim as close as possible to them. That, while they are prey no 1 for the eagles. Almost if they are challenging the eagles. I would expect them to flee, but they only do that when the eagles are flying.

 

[GrauGeist]

The geese and other birds will remain close to Bald or Golden Eagles like that, here, too...it is thought that as long as the Geese remain close to the Eagles, airborn raptors won't attempt an attack. Moving from the Eagle's proximity (or fleeing), makes them a target.

 

[Capt. Vick]

I have heard the same thing about cheetahs, that they only attack moving prey.

 

[Marcel]

Nice environments there, Marcel

Yes it is. I actually live in an urban area, the west side of The Netherlands. But I live right on the border of that and the border is pretty nice. On the other side of the river we have an area called the Biesbosch. It's a maze of little rivers and canals and on our side there is also a smaller piece like that. We have history, Dordrecht is the oldest town in Holland, ww2 stuff and a unique nature, what would anyone want more. And hardly any tourists as they are stupid and only go to Amsterdam