T.G.'s Photography Blog

  A bald eagle is on the lookout while eating a fish at Murphy's Island.   Murphy's Island at Syracuse, New York, has become a winter-feeding ground for bald eagles in recent years. The Island is on the southeastern corner of Onondaga Lake and this part of the lake doesn't freeze over in the winter because of a nearby wastewater treatment plant. Due to the lake not freezing over by Murphy's Island bald eagles, as well as other birds, can fish the lake's waters. The bald eagle tears at the fish's remains while perched in the tree at Murphy's Island.   Murphy's Island is not an actual island. At least not that I can tell from satellite imagery of it. The "island" is surrounded by Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Creek, another creek (name is unknown), and CSX's railroad tracks . The island sits across the tracks from Destiny USA Mall. Murphy's Island can be accessed by a newly opened trail extension to the Onondaga Creekwalk trail.  While still in...

 While looking out of my dining room window this past week, I spotted a hawk flying above the forest behind my house . It soon quickly swooped down and landed on a branch of a dying ash tree at the forest's edge.  Juvenile red-tailed hawk After researching what type of hawk this one was on Cornell University's All About Birds website , I believe this is to be a juvenile red-tailed hawk. Juvenile red-tailed hawks don't have red tails yet, but some do have dark bands across their tails like the one seen here has. I also believe this is a red-tailed hawk due to the dark patagial marks on the front edge of its wings (you can see those better in the last photograph below), as well as its other colorations.  A juvenile red-tailed hawk perched on a tree branch. The Central New York area is at the northern edge of the red-tailed hawks year-round habitat. This time of year the red-tailed hawks that spend the warmer months further north in Canada are starting to migrate a little fu...