He's got some pluck: Common gull launches aerial attack on unsuspecting EAGLE

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

A peck on the beak: This fearless common gull launched an attack on a white-tailed Sea Eagle in the skies above Norway, before stealing some feathers and escaping the bird of prey

They're a common sight wheeling through the skies above seaside towns, swooping on unsuspecting visitors and swiping bags of chips.

But this common gull clearly has bigger ideas, after tackling a full grown white tailed eagle in Norway.

The plucky bird swooped on its not-so eagle eyed victim and pecked at its head during an astonishing aerial duel.


This is a hoot: This image of a Great Grey owl was taken in Tornio, Finland

And it was the gull that came out on top as it managed to steal some of the eagle's feathers before making its escape.

This photo was one of many taken by Markus Varesvuo, 45, has part of his new book Birds: Magic Moments.

They are the product of scrupulous planning and hours of waiting for the right shot.


Peckish: This bright orange Hoopoe was pictured after catching an insect in its beak in Pusztaszer, Hungary

Mr Varesvuo told Metro: 'At worst I sit doing nothing for days, when the birds never come.

'Or I sit 24/7 by the computer wading through hundreds and hundreds of pictures.
'It is rewarding, exhilarating, and can offer the purest kind of beauty quite unexpectedly.'

He does not use a flash, relying on natural light to capture his images.


source: dailymail

Bold vet gives a bald eagle the peck of life, performing 'mouth-to-beak' resuscitation

By DANIEL BATES

Drastic measures: Vet Jeff Cooney performs 'mouth to beak' on injured bald eagle named 'Patriot' after it was brought in after being hit by a car


A vet has been hailed as a hero after performing ‘mouth to beak’ resuscitation on an injured bald eagle when it stopped breathing.

Jeff Cooney clamped his lips onto the stricken bird’s beak and repeatedly blew air into his mouth until his chest puffed up and down.

Minutes later the eagle - nicknamed Patriot - came to life and suddenly began breathing on his own.


Stricken: Two days after being admitted to the surgery in Bend, Oregon, his condition suddenly worsened whilst under anaesthesia


The bird had been brought in to see Mr Cooney by two concerned members of the public who found him by the road side after having apparently been hit by a car.

The eagle had suffered, among other injuries, a dislocated shoulder and paralysed right leg.

But two days after being admitted to the surgery in Bend, Oregon, his condition suddenly worsened whilst under anaesthesia so Mr Cooney was forced to improvise with the ‘mouth to beak’ resuscitation.


Recovery: Patriot's condition has started to improve, he has gained 10 per cent of his body weight and is eating fish like crazy (file picture)


The bird’s condition has started to improve and will hopefully recover now, said Mr Cooney.

‘He has gained 10 per cent of his body weight and is eating fish like crazy.

‘His attitude is greatly improved, and he’s starting to act like a normal, rambunctious bald eagle.’

source: dailymail

The (one-sided) battle of bird and beast: Chained wolf and golden eagle fight to the death at hunting festival

By Matt Blake


Easy pickings: All this wild wolf can do is wait until the eagle swoops back in for the kill, its razor-sharp talons glistening in the sun


Chained to a post in an open field, this wild wolf can never have felt more vulnerable.

He is used to being the hunter, never the prey.

But now all he can do is wait until the eagle swoops back in for the kill, its razor-sharp talons glistening in the sun.


The helpless animal leaps from side to side, snapping at the giant bird in a vain bid to scare it off.

But this eagle is a well-honed killing machine, trained to slay its prey by the nomadic eagle hunters of Kyrgyzstan.

It is the climax of Kyrgyzstan's ancient hunting festival 'Salburun', in the village of Tyup some 370km from Bishkek near Issyk-Kul lake on May 1.

Desperate: The helpless animal leaps from side to side, snapping at the giant bird in a vain bid to scare it off

Celebration: It is the climax of Kyrgyzstan's traditional hunting festival 'Salburun', in the village of Tyup some 370km from Bishkek near Issyk-Kul lake on May 1


No contest: This eagle is a well-honed killing machine, trained to slay its prey by the nomadic eagle hunters of Kyrgyzstan


The two-day festival draws the regions best hunting dogs, eagle and falcon hunters from all over the nation.

The program of the festival includes falconry, hunting with eagles, archery, and ambler races.

But this is the final event of the festival and draws the biggest crowds.
It is a gruesome battle to the death that almost invariably ends in the eagle's favour.

Wolves are considered a manace in rural Kyrgyzstan, responsible for killing horses, sheep and cows.


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Get your claws off my takeaway! The amazing aerobatic manoeuvres of eagles tussling over a fish supper

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Wanna flight? Photographer Ray Morris' amazing shots show eagles being almost forced onto their backs as attackers gain an aerial advantage


Wings outstretched and talons exposed, relations between bald eagles can get pretty raw when salmon is on the menu.

Photographer Ray Morris has captured the stunning aerobatic manoeuvres of the birds of prey tussling over salmon-rich territory.

His amazing shots show eagles being almost forced onto their backs as attackers gain an aerial advantage.

The images were taken at the Nooksack River in Washington, a site rich in spawned-out salmon. The fish make easy pickings as they usually are worn out after migration efforts and most die within a week of spawning.


Rich pickings: One of the eagles bares her claws as she tries to force her rival to drop her catch at the Nooksack River in Washington


Ray says: 'I am lucky because the Nooksack is a river local to me. A run of chum salmon come to spawn and eagles feed on the spawned out salmon, which makes for an amazing spectacle.


No messing: After a lengthy tussle, she finally forces her oppionent to drop the salmon. Bald eagles can have a wing span of 6 to 8 feet and fly at about 20 miles per hour


'When the eagles come to feed it can be a very frenzied scene. They will fight with the other birds, feed, take-off and then return for more. It can be very hard to keep up with the action'

The eagles fly to Washington when the weather cools in the Fraser River Valley in British Columbia. The abundance of spawning chum salmon means this gathering of bald eagles is the largest in the lower 48 states of the U.S.

Bald eagles can have a wing span of 6 to 8 feet and fly at about 20 miles per hour.

The females are the larger of the species, weighing an average of 15 pounds. The males average 9 pounds and have a slightly smaller wing span.


source :dailymail

Bald eagles have landed 10 million fans online as spy cameras stream live video of their chicks being hatched and fed

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Loving attention: The proud parents of the two baby bald eagles guard their newborns in the nest 80ft up a tree overlooking a trout stream in Decorah, Iowa. One more egg will be hatched this week


Here's a bird's eye view of two bald eagle chicks hatching that has caused an internet sensation.

The live feed from two spy cameras has attracted 10 million views - so many the site crashed after the first eaglet emerged in Decorah, Iowa on Friday.

Three eggs were laid in the nest 80 feet up in a cottonwood tree overlooking a trout stream, in late February.


Hatched: A secret camera streams live video of the bald eagles keeping watch over the newly-hatched babies


The first baby started to emerge from its shell last Friday. The second hatched at 5.30am today and the third is expected later this week.

Every move the chicks are making, from feeding and being kept warm by their parents, is being filmed minute by minute by the cameras hidden under leaves.

The Raptor Resource Project is streaming live video to the web, where people from all over the world can log on and peek at the eagles.

The surge in traffic meant access to the stream was sketchy while Raptor staff fixed the technical glitch.


Resting: The eaglets have been fed and now the parents take turns to sit on the nest and keep the babies warm


Project director Bob Anderson, who controls the camera angles with a joystick from a nearby shed, said: 'It's so big everybody's having problems.

'It's huge, the world loves it. I have had bird cams for 20 years ... I'm in shock, I'm in awe.'

Anderson recently took on two volunteers to help man the cameras so he could get some sleep and respond to hundreds of e-mails from eagle fans around the world.

The video feed reports more than 100,000 people are watching at any given time. One of the cameras - the size of a grapefruit - is equipped with infrared light for night-time viewing.

Since they first built the nest four years ago, the pair of eagles have raised eight chicks.

During last year's nesting season, the site recorded 10 million hits and about 78,000 unique visitors who watched three eaglets hatch then.

Briton Sue Thomas, 66, has been watching the nest from her home in Norfolk.

She said: 'We have it on all the time. It's just lovely to see what the little baby eagles are doing. It's amazing to see creation going on in such a happy way.'

The eagles, like most native to Iowa, do not migrate and live in the nest year-round. The chicks should be with them until July.



Live video chat by Ustream


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That's one way to pluck a pheasant: Incredible pictures show a bald eagle swooping to grab its next meal

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Lunch on the go: Chris Bailey captured this amazing photograph of a Bald Eagle making a meal of a pheasant


This pheasant turned out to be not so plucky when a hungry bald eagle swooped down and took it away for its lunch.

British-born photographer Chris Bailey had been taking some snaps of a brace of pheasants in the snow when the large bird of prey ominously loomed into view.

In one swift movement it picked one of the bewildered birds up by the scruff of its neck with its lethal talons and flew off with it.

Stunned Mr Bailey, 54, tracked the eagle which carried the game bird to a quieter spot where it promptly made a meal out of it.

Mr Bailey captured the dramatic moment on camera on the snow-covered fields of South Dakota, US, where he lives and works as a service director for Ford.

'I was out taking some pictures of ring-necked pheasants and I noticed this bald eagle swoop down from out of the sky,' he explained.

'I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

'He came down and picked one of the birds up, flew around and returned to the same spot and proceeded to eat it in front of me and devoured it.'


Catch of the day: The eagle swoops to prize the bemused pheasant from a snowy South Dakota plain


Mr Bailey added: 'I was worried that I didn't get the pictures at first because the eagle flew away from me with the pheasant but when I later looked at the pictures I realised they were very good.'

'We have seen more and more birds of prey go after game birds. They are normally fish eaters but many of the lakes have frozen over in the cold weather.'

The bald eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus in Latin - has a wingspan of up to 96 inches, can reach speeds of up to 45mph and can live up to 30 years.

Its diet normally consists of fish like trout or salmon but it also goes after small mammals such as rabbits, hares, beavers and deer fawns.


Meals on wings: This unfortunate pheasant was plucked away from its companions by a hungry Bald Eagle


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The eagle has landed... on my windscreen! Bird smashes into 60mph truck (but flies again after making miraculous recovery)

By Daily Mail Reporter


Crash landing: The young bald eagle's head pokes through the windscreen after a truck hit the bird at 60mph in Bear Lake, Idaho. It suffered internal bleeding but no broken bones


With its head stuck through a windscreen after being hit by a truck at 60mph, nobody gave the young bald eagle much of a chance of survival.

But the bird nicknamed Wiegle - short for 'Window Eagle' - has made a miraculous recovery and is flying high again in the wilds of Bear Lake, Idaho.

The eagle's battle for life began after it was hit while feeding on a dead deer on the road and flew in the wrong direction as the semi approached.


Fly away: The bald eagle, nicknamed Wiegle, is set free into the wild after a month of treatment


Amazingly the young female suffered no broken bones, but had internal bleeding. First it was taken to Idaho Fish and Game in Pocatello before being driven toTeton Raptor Center in Wilson, Wyoming.

There it was nursed back to health for a month before Wiegle proved she was ready to be released as she flew, ate on her own, and was able to navigate and land.

Finally, she was released back to her Bear Lake home.

Teton Director Amy Brennan McCarthey said: 'This return to the wild qualifies as the most remarkable among our success stories.

'We are very proud to play a role in giving this eagle a second chance at freedom.'


Source:dailymail