A fantastic eagle outing was had by all last week, the sun was shining and the eagles performed beautifully!
As we made our way towards the eagles nest the children checked every tree we came across looking for the eagle’s nest, when they finally laid eyes on the treasure there was an audible gasp at the shear size of the nest.
Eagle nests can be as heavy as a small car and as deep as 2 meters. This nest has been abandoned due to human interference but the eagles still use this tree as a feeding spot. I chose not to take the children to the new active nest, the eagles have young and need peace.
We did however spot an eagle and using our scope we could see the features in great detail which made the children gasp with excitement! We sat opposite the nest and took a look at the life story of a bald eagle. Bald eagles are on a comeback after being nearly wiped out through habitat loss and DDT, their populations have swelled along the coast over the past few decades.
With a wingspan of up to 8ft they are a sight to behold. I brought along some finger feathers and a replica eagle wing that we measured against the children. Nearly all were smaller or just the right size as the wing of an eagle, the children couldn’t quite believe it and wanted to be measured against it many, many times just to make sure that yes 1 eagle wing can in fact be the same size as them!
We explored the skull of the eagle and again the children were amazed by the size, the strength and the sharpness of the beak. We looked at what the bird eats and how it eats by tearing and swallowing with no chewing involved. The children thought it was a good idea to have a crop to store extra food in the throat and wondered if it was possible for them to evolve to have one, a good place to store treats was the general consensus. Eagles have a poor sense of taste and smell and happily munch on a rotten
salmon, however they do prefer their waterfowl to be alive when taken. Eagles in our city will mostly feed on the most readily available food – birds. Next a cast of an eagles footprint and a talon. I asked the children why they thought the eagle has such large feet discussing why balance is important for perching, why the feet have spicules, bumps, that run along the underside( to help with holding onto slippery fish), and why the talons are so long and sharp. The children measured the cast along their hands and
again gasped at the shear size.
We headed under the nest to check out what the eagles had been enjoying for their dinner. We found many, many seagull feathers, pigeon feathers and the leftovers of a cormorant. We also found a pellets that had been coughed up by the eagles. Pellets consist of everything that the eagle cannot digest like bones, feathers and fur. This pellet consisted of the small feathers of the newly feasted upon cormorant. Great excitement!
We then headed along the shore to find a lovely place to sit to have snack and listen to a story. We headed down the dock where cormorants flew past on their way to collect food for their young and a seal appeared every now and then.
After our story we headed into the daisy meadow to play some games. Eagles are opportunistic hunters and will steal food from others. A few eagles had to fly to a feeding zone either the pond or the ocean where we had some lovely fat ducks and salmon waiting to be eaten. Once the eagle picked up a food they had to try to get back to their tree before an opportunistic eagle swooped in to steal their catch. Very fun game with lots of giggling and a few very unlucky eagles.
We then checked out the amazing eyesight that an eagle has. Eagles can see up to 8 times better than humans which is quite remarkable. The little ones perched in a tree with their backs to me while I placed 2 silvery fish down onto the ground a little away form their perches. Of course everyone could see the fish when they turned around so close to where they were, I then moved backwards placing the fish intermittently as I went, everyone turning around to see if they could still see the fish.
Soon of course the children lost track of the fish. I asked everyone to run forward to where I was standing with the fish and turn around to look at their perch again. They could not believe that the eagles would of been able to see the fish from where they were perched.
We then went off to explore the ponds spotting many red-winged blackbirds along the way and a magical blue heron.