Bald Eagles

By D. Bruce YoltonEagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Extralimital

During the winter, about an hour north of Manhattan on the Hudson River, you can find Bald Eagles.  On Saturday, Teatown’s Hudson River Eaglefest 2009 was held along the river.  I drove up with James O’Brien and Ben Cacace and we ended up seeing over sixty eagles!  (We might have actually seen more, but we didn’t count the eagles we saw on the west side of the river to avoid double counting.)

We birded both sides of the river from Croton-on-Hudson on the east bank, up to George’s Island and Bear Mountain and down as far as Haverstraw on the west bank.

Map
The early morning view from George’s Island Park.
The view across the river from George’s Island.
There was a nice mix of adult and juvenile eagles on the river.
If you count closely, you’ll see ten eagles out on the river.  This photo was taken about two miles south of Bear Mountain Bridge on the east side of the river.
Fishing!
More Fishing!
Eagles were not the only ones riding the ice, the Greater Cormorants were too.