Mid August 2020 - Mark Moeller's Blog

Another week in isolation and another 545 photos to slog through. Guess it’s time for another blog post.

Why Not?

I was casually asked “If everyone in Moody Point dyed their hair purple, would you?” So of course I said “Yes.” This is an unequivocal answer. “That’s good, I would hate for the purple dye to go to waste.”

So that is how I joined the group of people at Moody Point with purple hair.

You don’t suppose I got hoodwinked as it seems I am the only one with purple hair in Moody Point?

Unfortunately, it seems like the dye is washing out pretty quickly. What color should we try next? Meg has suggested blue. We are looking forward to your suggestions. Perhaps rainbow?

Saga of Bruiser

Bruiser is the name we gave a brown eagle that perches at the mouth of the Lamprey River as it empties into Great Bay. Because the bird was dark brown with out any mottled white, the question arose if it could be a golden eagle. We did a little research on the internet and discovered bald eagles and golden eagles are about the same size, with the golden eagles being slightly smaller in stature but about the same weight. We are in a transient range for golden eagles and they tend to be quite solitary. The fact that bruiser continues to hang around suggests that it is a juvenile bald eagle.

There still is my perceived size difference conundrum. The internet suggests that female bald eagles can be about one third larger than the males. So Bruiser is likely a juvenile female bald eagle, a really big baby girl. If so, it will take a couple years for her to grow into her final colors.

There are other eagles around the point as it is a popular perching site. Bald eagles are more social than golden eagles.

You would think that being the largest predatory bird around would have its perks. But apparently other smaller birds take exception to having the larger bird around. I think these are crows harassing Bruiser because of the size difference. Blackbirds will also harass eagles.

Bruiser and Friends

Bluejay

Last blog we caught the bluejays molting. They exhibit a phenomenon were they lose all their head feathers at once and looking bald. I had hoped to further document this but when they are bald, they tend to be shier than usual and as a result it was tougher to get pictures.

Boids

The birds are around but the hawks are back since it is after nesting season. So the birds are much more cautious and don’t tend to hang around as much. It is not unusual to hear a hawk calling in the sky. The bluejays aren’t the only birds transforming. It seems to be a season of change.