Plenty of Osprey - and some Eagle Action

The Osprey were out in full force yesterday - I witnessed a pair (from an unknown nest location) mating - the male was nice enough to bring a fresh fish later as well.  The birds on the nest on the banks of the creek shared a fish and flew to their favorite snag across the way to enjoy, while an interloper Osprey came and harassed the established pairs.  For the most part - the Adult BE was sitting in the nest (not as noticeable as the subadult usually is) with the other bird sitting on a nearby tree, preening.

For awhile, the subadult disappeared - we saw a brief chase by an osprey from a nest probably 1 mile to the north, then the bird was gone again.  While waiting for something to happen, one of the Ospreys on the snag across the creek started chirping and took off like a rocket in our direction - we turned around and as expected, the sub-adult was on its way back and the Osprey wasn't having it.  After making its presence known, the Subadult called a few times (as seen in one of the images) and then landed on a tree nearby the nest and well, that was about it.

When Osprey had fish in the area, the subadult wasn't around so there were no chases for food to be seen.  The Eagles were also quite tolerant of a couple boats that passed by - not even acknowledging the noise from the boats (or those working on boats nearby).  At one point, another couple came with their cameras, took a few shots and left.  The most interesting thing we saw was one one of the osprey was eating its fish - a crow landed in the tree, one branch beneath and called incessantly, apparently begging for scraps but the Osprey kept on eating, not even bothering to move or chirp at the intruder.

I hope to get there today - but there of course are no guarantees.  In a week I'll be off on vacation - so I may not be down to check out the Eagles for some time. Lucky for me, I'll be going to a place that has the highest concentration of Bald Eagles in the lower 48 - Seattle and the San Juan Islands!  I'm very much looking forward to it, and can't wait to see these birds in numbers, instead of number 1 and number 2.