What began as a relatively calm encounter taking pictures of a gorgeous Bald Eagle sitting on a power pole soon turned into a rather dramatic scene as two more eagles appeared and drove off the first.
A friend let me know about a pole sitting eagle in the north Denver area suburbs. I hot tailed it there and took many pictures of the raptor – including some fun ones when a hawk shared the power pole with the eagle for a while.
As I am taking pictures, I notice the eagle is focused on something above. Taking my eye away from the camera and looking north I see two fast moving objects in the sky – more bald eagles!
It soon became clear that these two new arrivals did not appreciate the presence of the first, perhaps because they considered the adjacent prairie dog colonies their home hunting ground.
The aggressor eagles made numerous circles around the first, getting closer with each one. The original eagle was clearly feeling threatened as it began to ‘puff up’ and got very anxious.
The aggressors then took a couple of dives at the pole sitting eagle. They never did make contact but the threat was enough that the sitting eagle flew off with the other two giving chase into the distance and out of sight.
It was an absolutely extraordinary experience with bald eagles passing 20 feet above my head and something I will remember forever. Below are the highlights of what was an action-packed 5 minutes.
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