Nation's Birds at the Northwestern Corner of the Lower 48

Just a nice moment from my day. We were scouting out our impending field studies route with a trip to the Makah Nation's lands near Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point of the lower 48 states. The Makah have a museum housing artifacts from America's version of Pompeii, a village that was overwhelmed by a mudflow about 500 years ago. The fine-grained mud protected and preserved fabrics and wood artifacts, which are usually quickly decayed in this wet environment.

We were driving the beautiful road along the coast when I saw this pair of Bald Eagles on the tidal flats. We have a few eagles back home in California, but I've only seen a couple of them. It was kind of a neat moment.

We meet our students in a couple of days, and we'll be hitting the highway with an exploration of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. You can no doubt expect pictures soon!

A Bald Eagle, a Raven, and a Turkey Vulture Were Having Lunch Together...No, Really!

To my birding readers: how is this for an odd scene? It's the strangest bird picture I've ever taken, and the first ever of a bald eagle. I imagine they've been in our area for awhile, but until today I had never seen one south of Lake Tahoe. We were driving up through the Sierra Nevada foothills between the Gold Rush towns of Hornitos and Mariposa, and came across the group of scavenging birds. Mrs. Geotripper saw a pair of eagles in the Don Pedro Reservoir area two weeks ago, so I am wondering if they have moved into the region permanently.

I am also wondering if the coyote was shot (I certainly hope not poisoned) since I'm guessing that coyotes are too big to be attacked by the eagles. The scene was playing out in a large pasture allotment along Hornitos Road at an elevation of about 1,100 feet.