My Enemies' Enemy

There are a trio of Osprey nests north of my house and a favorite fishing location for some of the adults  to the south. During this summer Osprey made dozens of sorties to and from. Return trips included a variety of fish. Young salmon, small Starry Flounder and ugly green bumpy fish were the most common. Others were too difficult to identify.   The Osprey were often followed by Bald Eagles some distance behind both coming and going. Where ever you find Osprey you will find Bald Eagles looking to steal from them.

My resident family of crows took offense to the first few intrusions when the Osprey first returned from the south but quickly recognized them as no threat.  Bald Eagles, Ravens and Red Tailed Hawks were rarely given a free pass. My clan of crows is just one of dozens along this flight path.

On a beautiful Sunday morning and an Osprey flew South overhead. I walked into the house grabbed a coffee refill, the camera and a chair on my way back out.   I adjusted the camera for the conditions settled in and few sips later a large southbound eagle appeared. Instantly two of the three crows were on her. She turned to the east and took cover in the tall Douglas Firs that crest the ridge line.

Just moments later a north bound Osprey appeared. She was higher then normal and climbing fast. As I found her in the viewfinder I saw why. The eagle that had just passed was ambushing her.

The Osprey had a pretty good altitude advantage going into this ambush but the prize in her talons was now a serious problem.

It only took a few powerful wing beats and the eagle closed the gap. The Osprey increased her angle and began spiraling clockwise upward. This cut her airspeed and the eagle closed to within inches of the flounder.

A change of tactics was needed and needed fast. The Osprey turned sharply and began to spiral downward counter clockwise toward the east.

At first this maneuver gave the osprey a burst of speed that left the eagle far behind. Once the eagle nosed down she closed that gap in seconds.

The Osprey has had to deal with this before and while fancy flying might eventually get her safely home with her fish. She had a better idea.

She simply flew head on into the trio of pissed off crows rising up to drive the eagle away.

After a couple orbits to "rest" the Osprey pulled up sharply into another clockwise spiral. In these few moments in crows cut the corners and closed in on the Eagle.

Too much work for the Eagle. The Osprey kept her fish. The Crows defended their home front. The Eagle reset the trap. This drama played out several times this summer. Following the same basic flight path the attacks varied with the Eagles sometimes chasing Osprey that did not carry fish. But they only attacked them as they headed North, toward the nests of both.

You never know who your friends are.

Frog Blog Two

We had a very pleasant summer this year.  A long sunny dry spell with a few cool breaks and some disappointing thunderstorms near the end.  

One thing stood out. I had only seen three Pacific Tree Frogs in the yard for a four month period.  My "go to" frogs over the front door were gone. the fountain frog was gone. Yet there were salamanders with gills in spring fountain outback.  I did not see the mother Gardner snake but I did see one of her male suitors ( she had three last year) and three baby snakes. 

Life is cyclic. Not every year is going to be as good as last or next for that matter.  But I really wanted to work with some frogs.  My “Frog Blog” blog from a few years ago was fun and I wanted to collect more photos of their diversity and more of their ability to change to match their environment.  They have been hard to come by in the past few years.  With the dry summer it looked like it was going to be on of those really bad years for the frogs.

My first blog about frogs was in 2008.

http://birdmandea.blogspot.com/2008/08/frog-blog.html

My hopes were rekindled when I walked past this unassuming gas pipe at the corner of my house.  He didn’t think anyone could see him. We had just had three days of heavy rain. The rivers were running and the Coho were jumping at the dam. I’ll get to them soon.

I saw him. That meant the moisture was bringing  them out. That night I did a sweep of the garden but found nothing but slugs.

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A few days later we took a walk in the Nisqually Wildlife refuge.  I left my camera home.

Yes, It never fails.  

Along the board walk near the twin barns there was a short stretch where there were scores of frogs sunning themselves in a rare 90 degree August Sunday afternoon. The remainder walk was are rare and pleasant treat.

The next morning I started early planning on being back at the frog location when the heavy morning fog burned off. The day before we had seen the frogs at 1:30 PM so that was my target time.  I maximized the morning and was on on the spot with tripod and two cameras at 1:00.   I started taking pictures under a dismal grey sky. There was more fog then the day before.  Over the next hour I took these photos as the sun burned through.  Some were taken with a macro lens some with a 100 - 400MM.  They are mixed up but will give you a glimpse of their varied packaging.

Warning, there are a lot.

Among the frogs were a few other notable creatures.

Even the portable restrooms had their own frogs.

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Which did you see first. The frog or the the snake? 

Here is a short video of the snake looking for the frog.  It is on my Flickr page, still trying to figure out all of this computer stuff.  Frustrating.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030@N07/9785690872/

Age check.  what song had the lyric,

“ And he who made kittens put snakes in the grass”

Think it over, no cheating the answer will be at the end. This Eden has it’s serpent. 

Things are good or bad but never either for long. What was a bad year for the frogs in my yard on the hill by the sea was a good year in the marsh on the delta.

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The rivers are full of crocodile nasties

And He who made kittens put snakes in the grass

http://www.songlyrics.com/jethro-tull/bungle-in-the-jungle-lyrics/

Bungle in the jungle.  Jethro Tull.  

I'll start working on "Frog Blog Three" with the next frog i see.