Bird Fight

When the local crows raise a ruckus around my house in town, I grab the camera and race outside. The dog barks as she is left inside and wants to join whatever I am up to. For a moment in the air hangs impending chaos and curiosity.

The neighborhood crows I liken to a watch committee. They are everywhere and vigilant, especially in nesting season. My neighbor Dave's maple hosts at least one nest that I know of. They have harassed and driven off hawks, falcons, eagles, and even a racoon.

When they do so the 'caws' are steady and increase rapidly in number as more are recruited from what seems like many blocks away. Get out early enough in one of these arial scrums and you can some streaking in from blocks away.

This morning there was a loud commotion overhead of crows but also the keening sharp snip of an osprey. Every few days I can expect to hear an osprey and their calls I have become attuned to, and this becomes another excuse to rush out with a camera. Often, they are circling high overhead in pairs or more just talking it seems.

Today was different, as I looked up into this swirl of black bird figures directly overhead. I was taking it in while trying to photograph at the same time. It is very difficult to look through a long lens straight up, track birds, and not fall over. The mass moved slightly further north and as I snapped away hoping something might be in focus as the drama revealed itself a little more.

An osprey had caught a nice fat trout. Apparently, the bald eagle thought it should be his because, well the eagle is bigger. So, a much larger bald eagle was chasing this poor osprey trying to take its food.

Meanwhile the crows seemed to decide that having two predators in the area was unacceptable, so they were cawing and harassing these birds. There were I would guess upwards of 20 crows involved.

The osprey's mate was also involved (one without a fish) and before the bird cloud moved on to the north a second bald eagle joined the fray.

What follows are the photos I was able to get in the mayhem. Not perfectly sharp but good enough to get a sense of the drama.