365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Garbage Pigeons
Day 110: East coast friends think I'm exaggerating when I say that Bald Eagles are almost as common as sparrows in the Pacific Northwest. Well, here's the proof. There were at least thirty perched in the trees west of the Kapowsin landfill this morning with another thirty circling like vultures overhead, adults and juveniles in roughly equivalent numbers. It's a popular hangout for them, and long ago inspired me to start referring to them as "garbage pigeons." I doubt that my readers need to be assured that I love birds in general, but there are a few species which incur my disdain: Band-Tailed Pigeons, Starlings, and yes, Bald Eagles. I've often puzzled as to why the species was chosen as the National Bird, but I begin to see the logic as I follow current social and political trends. After all, this less-than-majestic denizen of the dump chooses to feed on garbage rather than putting out the effort to find something better, more substantive. Yes, Baldies are a good icon for much of today's American public.
Labels:
Bald Eagle,
Haliaeetus leucocephalus,
Kapowsin,
landfill
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