Countdown 365 ~ T -222

Eagles and Brown Bears

It has been a few days since I last visited the Eagle nursery. After spending a couple of hours with them today, I am guessing that they are preparing themselves to fly the coop. Keeping the rapidly growing eaglets fed has become a full day chore for the parents, keeping them away from the nest for longer periods of time. I also noted today that the Eaglets are napping for shorter periods between their exercise periods. Today, I was able to observe the early stages of the self training efforts in the art of flying. The dominant Eaglet of the three continues to show her aggressiveness in learning to fly while the other two observe the operation. This afternoon, one of the adults made a quick stopover at the nest, just long enough to see how the little ones were doing. All three of the siblings watched her as she made her launch and flew away.

Today, being windy, each of the Eaglets would take turns standing on the edge of the nest and extending their wings facing into the wing. I am assuming to get the draft and the feel of the wind beneath their wings. After this exercise was completed, the dominate one decided to take it a step further and try a little airborne exercise. The first step was to stand on the edge of the nest, extending his wings into a "V" formation in preparation for flight.

The next step was to drop the spread wings, catching the draft for the lift off,

To assist in the take off, a small jump is required for the lift off

Not willing to take off into the wild blue wander, the feet return to the security of the nest, and then the next jump a little higher.

Then the next jump, a little higher! The two interesting things to note is that the siblings are watching the proceedings very closely and with each jump, his wings are at different angles, very similar to the takeoff procedure of the adults. All three of them spent most of their "awake time" working their wings and jumping.

Hallo Bay Being a sport fisherman, I found it fun to watch the Brown Bears fishing at Hallo Bay. Several of the bears reminded me of the techniques and personalities of a few of the fishermen that I have known.

This good looking guy was in a hurry to get the best observation spot on the river to watch for returning salmon.

Upon arriving at the "sweet spot" he promptly sat down, to watch for the sign of the fish,

At the right time, spotting the movement of a salmon, he charges into the river

He was fast, with more water splashing with each running jump

Closing in, the salmon is within his grasp, you can see the back of his target about three feet in front of him.

Unfortunately, he got "skunked" on this attempt and the "big one" got away, as in many fishing stories. Some of their techniques are quite unique. The favorite being, after spotting the fish, dive into the water despite how deep it is and try to push the fish towards the bank and into the shallow water where they can pounce on them. I have several shots, showing the bear almost totally submerged in their effort to catch their prey.