[EBB Sightings] golden eagles

around 3pm today while heading down deer valley away from Antioch city limits just past Empire Mines road by the golf course entrance we saw a huge bird glide over the road above the truck so we pulled over. it was an eagle i assume golden since it didnt have a white head but i guess it could be an immature bald eagle, whats the things to look for on those?
anyway we watched this eagle heading east high along the hill line right towards some hawks in the distance that quickly stopped hunting and started harassing the eagle who turned around and started heading back our way. the next thing we know a second eagle shows up and they start doing some flybys then the one flips upside down right underneath the other and they flew togeather like that for about a minute, maybe trying to grab each others feet? was this a mating ritual?  they then flew out of view and we headed on to Round Valley park on Marsh Creek Rd.

after about an hour at Round Valley we went back to the car n were watching the black headed junico n loggerhead shrieks flirting around while a meadow lark sang in the tree. we then spotted a white tailed kite hovering overt the hill across the street from the parking area, after a few min of hovering there he did a sick long dive which started with it doing this spinning with its wings back then gained control fell more and disappeared in the grass. as were were starting the truck to leave figuring the show was done over the ridge where the kite was came a big old eagle who started doing a close sweep of the hillside. dunno if it was one of the eagles from earlier or not but i got the impression it had seen the kite go down for a kill and had come over looking for an easy meal.
twas a very exciting day despite the drizzle  
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Mike "troll" Dame
http://miketroll.buzznet.com/user/
Arachnid Wrangler
Antioch, Cal.