I've seen bunnies at this beach before. If they seem healthy enough I just ignore them (except one time I tried to coax one out from under the rigs used to roll Lasers down to the beach at the Sailing Centre; it looked kind of freaked out and I wanted to get it back to the field).
This was in October and Mama & Papa were taunting me by flying around in the fog and generally being unphotogenic. It's funny because I was focussed on capturing this bunny, and didn't even notice that the little bird had snuck in there. I was quite surprised when I got the prints back.
Same day, two bunnies feeding on what's left of the blackberry bush leaves.
Now I know the bunnies are cute and appealling, but it's best not to get too attached to them. Someone told me they saw one of my eagles fly down into the enclosure that the Parks Board people use to dump all the leaves they gather and branches they cut down, coming back up with a bunny in it's claws. I was glad I wasn't there that day.
But I did see recently, under one of the trees that my eagles like to perch in often, fluffy fur strewn everywhere. It could only have been from a bunny.
I don't know what kind of bird this is, it's the same one -or the mate- that I captured by the bunny earlier. Since my eagles were just sitting in the tree tops shrouded in fog I decided to get some shots of this pretty bird.
Then I ran out of film and had to reload. Wouldn't you know . . . at that moment when I had my camera open with no film in it was the moment that one of my eagles chose to swoop down, fly around, and circle me really close. Almost like it wanted to know what I was up to. I didn't even look up, just made that frustrated sound "tch!' and kept loading my camera. Because I didn't want to allow myself to be haunted by the FANTASTIC shots I just missed.
Sometimes I think they wonder what I am up to all the time, hanging out below them for up to an hour. I had hoped they would become accustomed to my presence, but they don't seem to trust me at all. So many times I have turned to walk away after waiting for them to fly off for over half an hour, after two steps I take a look back and, sure enough, they fly away. Like they are determined to out-wait me.
I know that they take turns guarding their territory - one will feed while the other keeps an eye out. Sometimes the one waiting calls to the other, "Hurry up! I want to eat too!" and when the other shows up the first one flies off right away. So maybe those times they out-wait me it's because they think I'm going to go after their nest, or try to take their territory. So they don't leave first.
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