I had heard rumor of an off-the-beaten-path place to bird. It was called either Possum Point, Cockpit Point Rd, or more simply, the Point. It is in the lower part of Southern Prince William County, Virginia, and is mostly, if not all, on property owned by Dominion Power. This past Saturday I decided to investigate, it was not a waste.
Greg and I arrived at the Point at 0545. We drove down the road to a wonderful, over-whelming, dawn-chorus. When we first stopped the car we were greeted by armies of singing Wood Thrushes and a lone but beautiful singing Gray-cheeked Thrush, a lifer for me. The action did not ever really let up even though the morning was cloudy.
Just as we had deceided to leave we were walking along and I was telling Greg how I could pretty much guarantee that he would get his life Bald Eagle that day. Suddenly I hear the cry of an Osprey, jsut as I turn my head I hear the weaker but unmistakable cry of a Bald Eagle. As we wheel around to look we see a full adult Bald Eagle on the verge of locking talons with an Adult Osprey! The Eagle moved down the road and landed on a bare branch. THe Osprey continued to dive bomb the Eagle for about 5 minutes before the Eagle moved away. We watched the Eagle land on a remote power tower. Upon scanning the area we see that there is another Eagle on a tower a little further away. Greg saw his Eagle and wow what a show!
Consider that an adult Bald Eagle weighs in at around 9lbs and an adult Osprey at 3.5lbs that was one brave Osprey. My theory is that the Eagle either passed to close the Osprey’s nest, which was very near by, or the Eagle made an attempt at some nestlings/eggs. This seriously angered the Osprey and made it drive the Eagle away. It reminded me of a sight that I see so often this time of year, a Northern Mockingbird chasing a Crow away, dive bombing it and pecking at its back. I guess the weight difference is actually much greate with the Mockingbird and Crow: American Crow ~18 oz, N. Mockingbird 2.4 oz, a ratio of 7.5:1 where as the Eagle to Osprey ratio was 2.6:1. But seeing the much larger birds go at it was somehow much more awe-insipring.
Our final tallies for the day were: 89 total species seen; 17 Warbler species (listed below):
* Common Yellowthroat
* Pine
* Worm-eating
* N. Parula
* Cape May
* Yellow-breasted Chat
* Prairie
* Yellow-throated
* Blackpoll
* Black and White
* Magnolia
* Yellow
* American Redstart
* Canada
* Wilson’s
* Ovenbird
* Black-throated Blue
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