Meet our eagle. This spring he has enjoyed perching on trees close to the house and terrorizing the ospreys nesting on the west side of the house.

We’re in the middle of an ongoing ospreys vs. eagle war.

When this picture was taken one recent afternoon, the eagle was making the ospreys absolutely crazy with worry. In fact, starlings and sparrows and robins joined in to shriek their panic to anyone listening. We assume the eagle is after the osprey babies, tasty morsels in a nearby nest.

He refused to be intimidated and sat there waiting for an opportunity that never came. As usual, the ospreys tried to chase him away. He ignored them, but eventually gave up. For the moment. I think he enjoys causing trouble.

Another evening the ospreys and eagle were fishing, soaring in circles over the lake. The eagle dropped his recently caught fish and the osprey wasted no time trying to retrieve it. War ensued and eventually the eagle reclaimed his meal. From what I’ve read, eagles enjoy swooping in on ospreys who have just caught a fish to them drop it. Then the eagle grabs the floating fish and takes off. An easy meal, and called “pirating” by folks who know such things. This time the osprey attempted the maneuver. How they avoided colliding I’ll never know, but there were several close calls.

Thursday night we gathered around our first campfire on the beach and witnessed an epic battle. The eagle once again swooped over the osprey nest and one of the ospreys lost his mind. He went into full “attack mode”, chasing that eagle over our heads at full speed. The eagle rolled over on his back, talons up, ready to defend itself. Screaming, they disappeared into the trees on the eagle’s side of the cove. Long minutes later the osprey zoomed back to his nest.

They continue to fight over fishing rights, but we haven’t seen the eagle perched on one of our trees lately.

Friday afternoon this guy showed up:

The huge heron stood on the neighbor’s dock for at least thirty minutes, maybe longer. He looked perfectly content to gaze out at the lake and was not the least bit bothered by passing boats. This was a first for me, as I’ve never seen one so close.

Otherwise our little cove remains quiet–just us, the birds and the deer–but we hope for the return of neighbors for the 4th of July weekend.

Family is on its way, too! Yippee!