An Eagle Story

On tiny Minor Island, an extention of small Smith Island located north of Port Townsend, west of Whidbey Island and south of the San Juan Islands, there are some very interesting residents.

This pictures shows the pair of Bald Eagles surveying their territory. At the base of the tower you can see a pile of sticks which is the only known Bald Eagle nest built on the ground. In the past many young have hatched in this nest but this year there are no babies.

Also on Smith and Minor Islands and the narrow stretch of land that connects them there is a population of Harbor Seals, gulls and other migrating birds and marine mammals.

On this day the eagles took off with their eyes on the islands below watching for opportunities for a meal.

Minutes later one of the eagles returned to a group of Harbor Seals where there were two newly born seals. The seals, all but the two babies and four of the adults scattered into the water.



The eagle calmly walked the beach, turned and pretended not to watch, perhaps in an effort to get the adult seals to let down their guard.

We watched for several minutes and the eagle continued to patiently wait.

As we left we knew that whether or not the eagle got one of the two babies that day, or later, the eagle would eat and baby Harbor Seal would be on the menu eventually. Hard to think about, but natures's way.