30 October 2016 - Golden Eagles and Wildlife

I had some major fun yesterday. I was out birding and happened to see two golden eagles flying over the ridge. Naturally, I pulled over and grabbed my binoculars.  To my amazement I found myself watching a bonding display. Golden eagles tend to mate for life, but they have bonding rituals which include nest building. During the fall, in their territory they will build as many as three nests high in the cliffs.  At the start of the nest building, the male will fly in with a stick, the female will fly with him and check it out. 

Then he will drop the stick and execute a straight down dive to catch it. It is spectacular to watch.  Here you can see he has just let go of the stick. The  dive was just too fast for me to capture.

Then he gets serious and starts hauling really large sticks into the nesting site.  

Meanwhile she is arranging the sticks to her liking. 

 

While autumn is gorgeous around here, the falling temperatures bring wildlife in closer.  Nothing like taking a hike and running into moose--especially during the rutting season when the males are feisty. Just back away...slowly. 

Coyotes are easier to spot as the grass dies back.

  Occasionally you can come across the big bucks.

Hikes in the upper elevations reveal pikas on the rocks. At this time of year they are guarding their haystacks--their winter food supply that is drying in the sun before they haul it into their den. These cuties are not much larger than a big hamster. 

I have come to discover that yellow-bellied marmots are everywhere. This guy looks so happy soaking up some sun on his hot rock. 

Speaking of rocks, while it isn't wildlife, it is wild! Here is an entire boulder covered with fossils. It is all by itself, a single boulder somehow thrust out of the earth. Quite beautiful. The largest fossils are about an inch long. The boulder is probably eight feet across and four feet high. 

Life is a smorgasborg and you never know what will be served up next.