bald eagle!

[1crowdedhour]

I know a photograph would be nice to prove my words, but there is a bald eagle sitting in a tree less than a block from my house. A very calm bald eagle, ignoring those of us in the neighborhood who come out to gawk at him. I can hardly believe my eyes.

Comments

[batwrangler]

Yay! Eagles are so cool.

[1crowdedhour]

They are! They are brilliant! And hard to impress.

[chaoticgoodnik]

How awesome. :) In the wild I've only seen red-tailed hawks up close.

[1crowdedhour]

They are wonderful too, and I have a huge soft spot for them, as they were by far the most common raptor where (and when) I grew up. This was amazing to see it so close -- and so long.

[msmoat]

Huh! Brilliant. I see them flying overhead fairly often at certain times of the year. And once, I saw two (well, really one, the other was just watching) harassing geese and ducks on the pond where I run. Very cool for one to be so near to you!

[1crowdedhour]

Wow!

I never fail to get a thrill from seeing one, and this was the closest ever, bar the raptor center.

[pameladean]

The docent at the eagle rescue center in that town I can never recall the name of told us that bald eagles are at the top of their food chain, so they are not really much impressed by people. This is unfortunate when they are eating a kill in the middle of the road and figure the car should leave them the hell alone because nobody messes with a bald eagle; but it's very nice when they loftily ignore you so you can look at them.

Eric and I saw one soaring over Minnehaha Avenue just north of the Rainbow, but I haven't seen one in this neighborhood.

P.

[1crowdedhour]

I had to veer around one eating roadkill on I-90 when I was coming home from the cemetery meeting once. He (or she) was not one bit worried about traffic zooming by. (Of course, down there, there isn't all that much traffic to zoom.)

It's spring (for some definitions of the term) so perhaps they will check out the nesting sites in your neighborhood too. Could happen!

[pameladean]

Fortunately for the eagles, there is not much traffic to zoom.

They must need pretty large trees, and seem to prefer a swamp or ravine if not an actual river. The first ones I saw were in northern Minnesota, lording it over a large marsh. They didn't like Raphael and me much. I think we offended them.

It's a pity we don't still live closer to the river. Bald eagles had not made such an amazing comeback when we lived there.

P.

[saoba]

They really are something, aren't they?

We get great bue herons during the wet season here, who always look vaguely disgruntled. The red tail hawks are here year round, and there's ospreys nesting along the river that runs just blocks from our house. Our neighborhood has been raven central the last couple of years, which is kind of cool,

I've gotten (almost) used to spotting the eagles when we are at the coast. But the last three years I've seen bald eagles here in the valley, clearly hunting and I suspect scouting for nesting sites. And it is so cool.

[1crowdedhour]

It is! (Ospreys and herons and ravens! Woo!)

When I was a kid, bald eagles were vanishingly rare. I still get a thrill out of seeing one even at a distance, even though there's a nesting pair two miles south of here. Just never gets old. And to see one at such close quarters! Amazing.