Corvus Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Well, I've been just dying to post this, as I love birds of prey and this is a rare thing to see. We go up to the Nushagak river in Alaska every year to fish, and we spotted the rare and majestic Stellar Sea Eagle! This is a real treat because they are very, very rare in Alaska. Why? Simply because they don't live there- they live on the coasts of Russia. My dad is pretty sure that there must be less than ten, and the Wildlife staff I work with agree. And we were lucky enough to discover that one lives near our camp! Now, this particular bird has been spotted a few times up near our camp, and you can see the story here. Some of these sightings have been blown way out of proportion, and one guy said that he saw a monster with a wingspan the size of his piper cubs'. Anyway, here are the pictures. We know that this is a Juvenile, because of the mottled color and the the dark beak. Unfortunately, this makes him very similar to a juvenile bald Eagle. How do you tell them apart? I see a few major differences. The first, of course, is the size- The Stellar can get up to 18 pounds, and absolutely dwarfs the Bald eagle. Just an amazing picture, I'm lucky we got it. We climbed into a boat, went upstream aways, and drifted back down, clicking pictures like mad. You can see the huge beak, and the mottled light brown of the feathers, which sets it apart from a Juvenile Baldie. This was directly in front of the camp. He was winging his way off of the bank, where he had gorged himself on salmon carrion. This is another thing that sets it apart from the bald- it's wings. Due to the long secondaries of the wings, this gives them a paddle shaped appearance. This guy was a frequent flier (excuse the pun) at our camp, prefering a tall tree opposite of our camp. I spent more time watching him through binoculars than fishing- I don't really fish, anyway, for two reasons. I have a general fear of sharp objects in general, like a fishhook, and I'm really bad at tying knots. Also, I never actually kept a fish, only catch-and-release when I had to-, but that suited me just fine. I had the round marks from the binoculars around my eyes to prove it. X-D I just go up there becuase it's, well, Alaska. ;-) Anyway, that kept me busy, because I was listing off all I knew about eagles and birds of prey in general to any who would listen. X-D Lastly, a picture of our happy camp: Wow, we have cabins and... what's this?! Stairs?! What's next, a sauna?! Oh, wait- that's the small one below the flag. X-D Funny what you can do with some extra wood, an old stove, and a days worth of boredom with your cousins. X-D It actually worked... My Maj gallery of pics. (when moderated) I have some larger pixel ones, so if anyone wants to zoom in on their computer. Quote
SirNadroj Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 A magnificent bird! You are very lucky! I myself own a baby parrot, so I can appreciate this. (My parrot's pictures can be found here: http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...opic=1634&st=75 Quote
ZeekyBoogeyDoog Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 A very majestic bird. Congratulations on finding it! Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.