Bald Eagle

Last Saturday the Aububon Society of Portland (Oregon) hosted a Raptor Road Trip at Sauvie Island. A map was given out at the start which showed 4 locations at which volunteers had set up spotting scopes and located any birds in the area. There were Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, and much to my delight someone had located a Prairie Falcon. Also there were Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, and big variety of ducks. I think the thing that impressed me the most was the huge turnout of birders. Many of them brought their children to insure we will have future birders. Pictured here is an immature eagle in flight and having breakfast. There were several eagles in the area and while I was retrieving my camera my son-in-law saw 12 soaring overhead. Awesome!

Roosevelt Elk

The elk pictured were second only to the bison in numbers before the west was settled. Hunting almost drove this huge animal (male bull can weigh up to 1000 pounds) to extinction. Theodore Roosevelt helped save the elk with hunting restrictions and by starting wildlife refuges where they are protected. Consequently, they were named Roosevelt Elk.
The Roosevelt Elk are different from the Rocky Mountain Elk in several different ways. The Roosevelt Elk have much stockier bodies than the Rocky Mountain Elk. Also, the Roosevelt Elk's antlers are much thinner and the spread between the two antlers is much smaller than their Rocky Mountain counterparts. The reason for this is because the Roosevelt Elk's home turf is heavily forested. It would be difficult to run through these massive forests with antlers that have a very wide spread. While visiting the elk refuge, we were able to hear them vocalize, which is called bugling. It is a truly astonishing sound. We also were able to see the bulls jousting with their antlers. You could hear the clack-clack-clack of the antlers engaging. These jousts were just practice for the real thing during the rut season and were fairly low key but very fun to watch and hear.
The pictures shown here were taken at Jewel Meadows Wildlife Area in northwestern Oregon. There is a herd of 200 to 300 which live there year round. They are fed in the winter months which makes viewing easier. Interestingly, the wildlife area is operated with funds generated from the sale of Oregon hunting licenses and tags.