7 ms·

I go birding in a spot near Astoria, Oregon and have counted over 70 individual bald eagles from one spot, some trees will have 20 alone perched in them.

abakker 6y ago
I was going to say a similar thing. On one drive from SF to Spokane I was driving through central Oregon in the winter. There must have been a bald eagle on every other fence post for 10 miles at one point. counted over 100 birds of prey, most of them bald eagles.
gcheong 6y ago
Grew up in Astoria (70’s - mid 80’s) and never saw that many at once. Would be interested to know where your spot is :). Although I’ve never seen them I’ve seen pictures of Snowy Owls at the South Jetty. https://www.jack-n-jill.net/blog/2012/12/south-jetty-snowy-owl https://www.jack-n-jill.net/blog/2012/12/south-jetty-snowy-o...
- fsckboy 6y ago
  hate to get this discussion back on topic, but the headline for this article is "population soars": you're talking about 40 to 50 years ago!
- bliteben 6y ago
  wireless road: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1296120?yr=cur&m=&rank=mrec https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1296120?yr=cur&m=&rank=mrec This hotspot is relatively new so the larger lists aren't associated to it.
steve_adams_86 6y ago
According to national eagle center, "The average eagle needs between ½ and 1 pound of food each day.". So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that area. https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-diet-feeding/ https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-diet-feeding/
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that area. I mean, you could almost certainly harvest more than 70 pounds of ants a day without making a dent in the ant population. Eagles can't eat ants, but "pounds of life" doesn't mean much.
  - steve_adams_86 6y ago
    For sure, you're right, I just find it fascinating how much life is out there. If I try visualizing 70lb of small creatures for eagles to eat, it suddenly seems kind of crazy to think of all those creatures and so much life cycling in such a small area where these things hunt. The earth is just covered in life.
- bliteben 6y ago
  A lot of farmers dump oyster shells on their fields. This attracts quite a bit of gulls and seems related but I am not really sure what the food sources there are. Also this is a seasonal occurrence.

abakker 6y ago

I was going to say a similar thing. On one drive from SF to Spokane I was driving through central Oregon in the winter. There must have been a bald eagle on every other fence post for 10 miles at one point. counted over 100 birds of prey, most of them bald eagles.

gcheong 6y ago

Grew up in Astoria (70’s - mid 80’s) and never saw that many at once. Would be interested to know where your spot is :). Although I’ve never seen them I’ve seen pictures of Snowy Owls at the South Jetty. https://www.jack-n-jill.net/blog/2012/12/south-jetty-snowy-owl https://www.jack-n-jill.net/blog/2012/12/south-jetty-snowy-o...

fsckboy 6y ago
hate to get this discussion back on topic, but the headline for this article is "population soars": you're talking about 40 to 50 years ago!
bliteben 6y ago
wireless road: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1296120?yr=cur&m=&rank=mrec https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1296120?yr=cur&m=&rank=mrec This hotspot is relatively new so the larger lists aren't associated to it.

steve_adams_86 6y ago

According to national eagle center, "The average eagle needs between ½ and 1 pound of food each day.". So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that area. https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-diet-feeding/ https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-diet-feeding/

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that area. I mean, you could almost certainly harvest more than 70 pounds of ants a day without making a dent in the ant population. Eagles can't eat ants, but "pounds of life" doesn't mean much.
- steve_adams_86 6y ago
  For sure, you're right, I just find it fascinating how much life is out there. If I try visualizing 70lb of small creatures for eagles to eat, it suddenly seems kind of crazy to think of all those creatures and so much life cycling in such a small area where these things hunt. The earth is just covered in life.
bliteben 6y ago
A lot of farmers dump oyster shells on their fields. This attracts quite a bit of gulls and seems related but I am not really sure what the food sources there are. Also this is a seasonal occurrence.