Birds of Prey

I led a very fun field trip for high schoolers - we saw as many raptors in the two hours of their visit as I usually see in a week! Besides the usual pair of Red-tailed hawks that hang out by my office, they also spotted a juvenile bald eagle and a male Northern harrier during our walking tour. Despite seeing harriers pretty often, I'm always in awe of how they move - skimming so low above the brush and grass that they always look like they're going to crash.

Photo taken by Arman Werth during the field trip

The ghostly gray adult male Northern harrier is a pretty rare sight compared to the females and juvenile males, both of which are mostly brown with a distinctive white patch above the tail.

On the driving tour, we got to watch the acrobatic antics of juvenile bald eagles. First we saw one of them killing a duck. Eagles will actually sit on top of a duck and hold it underwater until it drowns. We were all leaning out the school bus windows with anticipation to see the raptor tear apart its kill when another eagle swooped by and chased the first one away. A third eagle flew around and joined in on performance. All three of them chased each other back and forth, gliding up and swooping down very close to the bus. It's one thing to read in a field guide that bald eagles can have wingspans of 7-8 feet, but it's quite another to see an extreme closeup as they tumble through the air barely out of arms' reach and realize that the distance between their wings is greater than the height of my whole body. I'd guess that the juveniles we saw were at least 6 feet across. We never did see any of them eat that duck, though.

Photo taken by Arman Werth during the field trip

Later that day I used the Pimp Your Druid guide to solo Heroic Magister's Terrace and Heroic Sethekk Halls. No mounts, but I did get the pheonix hatchling, which is pretty cute - and soloing Kael'Thas is great fun. Every Druid should try it!