Bald Eagle Antics

Just in case you're not sharing my current obsession with plants, I thought I'd throw in a post about some bald eagles I observed today. There was a dead animal for them to scavenge in a farm field, and that attracted at least five (that's the most I saw at one time, there may have been more) bald eagles to the area. They took turns swooping in from the trees surrounding the field, chasing each other way, vying for position, and occasionally, almost as an afterthought, remembering to interrupt the social gathering to eat some of the meat.

Here's an adult surveying the scene:

At one point there were three eagles in one tree, but it was difficult to find an angle where they were all visible. Here you can see an adult and a juvenile behind it:

When an eagle descended on the prey the others were quick to action, chasing each other away. Here's an adult in the process of doing a barrel roll, clawing at a juvenile its pursuing out of the area:

This shot is a little blurry, but I wanted to share it anyway, as its a cool shot of one eagle legs-down ready to land next to another, who is sitting in the field by the animal:

One of the juveniles finally came up with a good idea - fly away with some of the meat in tow! It looks like its carrying a leg: