birds and life
...ctic regions. Bald Eagles are very sensitive to disturbance of their feeding and breeding areas by humans, and it is only in isolated or protected regions where they now occur in large numbers. Bald Eagles make very large nests at the tops of trees close to water where they can get fish to feed their chicks. Bald Eagles prefer to catch fish from streams and shallow water by flying low and snatching them out of the water with their feet! Early Eskimo and Indian hunters would look for flocks of eagles to tell them where the salmon were swimming, because eagles have better eyesight than we do. When they see many fish close to the surface they will flock together to catch them. Bald Eagles also will eat dead fish on the shore, and many good places to find them now are near fish canneries and city dumps. Early Arctic people would make traps for eagles using dead fish and a hidden net to trap them. Bald Eagles leave the arctic in fall and migrate south to warmer climates because they find it difficult to find food in winter. Snowy Owl Nyctea scandica Snowy Owls are found only in the Arctic, and are seen most commonly sitting very still on the tundra. Snowy Owls are about the size of a Great Horned Owl but are different in that they will hunt during the day and that they have two different colors of plumage depending upon the season. In summer, Snowy Owls are brownish with dark spots and stripes. In winter, they are completely white. These changes in appearance are so they can hide when they hunt, so that Snow Owls can sneak up and catch the small mice and birds that they eat. In summer, they blend in to the tundra colors and look like shadows; in winter, they look like the snow covering the ground. During the spring breeding season, owls will also feed on eggs of waterfowl, including geese and swans which are very much larger than they are. They have to be very quick to take an egg from a swan! Snow Owls breed on the tundra and are very good at hiding their nests and eggs. The nest is made of dried tundra plants and the eggs look very much like the surface of the tundra. When parents come to incubate the eggs or feed the chicks they will move slowly and carefully so that a fox or raven won't find the nest. Snowy Owls do not fly south in the winter, but will stay wherever there is food to eat. Tufted Puffin Fratercula cirr...