Coopers with European Starling

Coopers with European Starling
Originally uploaded by bowtoo

I went looking for eagles for the first time today. I had heard of a chain bridge up near Newburyport (about 40min north of our house) where eagles come during the winter.

They are attracted to the open water - it is warm enough that it doesn't freeze over. Apparently as the winter deepens and the lakes nearby freeze, the eagles make their way over.

They are large, majestic birds and we saw a pair from fairly far off but they didn't come close enough for any good shots. In the end we decided to call it a day, but not before stopping at a couple of roads on the way back to Rt1 South to see if we could see the eagles across the river from the opposite bank.

We stopped at a second road and had just decided to call it a day when I noticed some movement on the ground in the yard next to where we were standing.

There on the ground was a hawk devouring a recently caught bird. We all (Garrey and Tom - two flickr friends) thought at first that it was a pigeon, but when I came to look at the images at home it turned out to be a European Starling.