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ADOLESCENT BALD EAGLE      |
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The solid black colouring with the white head and tail appear between the 4th and 5th year ......They live to be 20-30 years old......
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The adolescents are often larger than the adults.....probably because their feathers are fluffier......Look how sharp her beak is at the end.....Watching her tearing into an octopus is edifying.....
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Magnificent! Years ago, the largest birds in our area were hawks and owls. Then a huge lake was made just south of us and other birds started showing up. One of them was the turkey buzzard, and it's arrival created quite a stir in our locality. No one seemed to know at first, what they were, and all kinds of tales circulated about them that first summer they appeared. Tales like them carrying off small animals and perhaps could even steal a baby left in the yard. Some folks speculated they were some type of condor, driven here by the wildfires out west. When it was established what they were, the rumors stopped and they became just a part of the wildlife of our area. Bald eagles were not in our area, but we could travel west to the bluffs near the Mississippi River to see them in their winter nesting areas. Now, they have migrated to our area, and although not a common sight, they are frequently sighted soaring high or seated in the top of a tall tree. My daughter was fascinated, because where her husband had lived nearer to the Mississippi, they saw them frequently, and she was thrilled to find them now here. She even went nest hunting and found a few, but only viewed them through the zoom lens of her camera or binoculars. I wonder why they migrated over into our area? I'm glad they did though, because I find it fascinating and rather uplifting to spot one. Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.
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Magnificent! Years ago, the largest birds in our area were hawks and owls. Then a huge lake was made just south of us and other birds started showing up. One of them was the turkey buzzard, and it's arrival created quite a stir in our locality. No one seemed to know at first, what they were, and all kinds of tales circulated about them that first summer they appeared. Tales like them carrying off small animals and perhaps could even steal a baby left in the yard. Some folks speculated they were some type of condor, driven here by the wildfires out west. When it was established what they were, the rumors stopped and they became just a part of the wildlife of our area. Bald eagles were not in our area, but we could travel west to the bluffs near the Mississippi River to see them in their winter nesting areas. Now, they have migrated to our area, and although not a common sight, they are frequently sighted soaring high or seated in the top of a tall tree. My daughter was fascinated, because where her husband had lived nearer to the Mississippi, they saw them frequently, and she was thrilled to find them now here. She even went nest hunting and found a few, but only viewed them through the zoom lens of her camera or binoculars. I wonder why they migrated over into our area? I'm glad they did though, because I find it fascinating and rather uplifting to spot one.
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1/16/2021 12:23 pm |
Interesting. When I was in the Aleutians in Alaska eagles were everywhere. I've seen so many but I always just assumed the lack of the white head was a male/female thing. I just loved to watch these wonderful birds fly right in front of me and snatch a big salmon out of the creeks. I saw this hundreds of times and it never got old. I've had them land on a rock as close as 10 feet from me before, closer than you can get in some zoos.
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When i was in High School, I worked in Salmon canneries in the Summer. There were a lot of eagles around as the fish-boats unloaded their catch. A huge flexible tube was lowered into the boat's hold and the fish was sucked into stainless steel tanks on the dock beside the cannery. From there, the fish were emptied into buggies and sorted before being processed.......At the end of the day, the tanks on the dock were cleaned and the lids left off to air it out........One beautiful morning I was the first person there and as I came around the corner of the building to the water side, there were several eagles vying for space around the top of an open tank.......Somehow, a huge salmon was left in the tank overnight and the eagles were trying to get it........They couldn't use their usual methods, because they couldn't take off from the bottom of the tank and one eagle had tried......He was stuck in the bottom of the tank and couldn't get out, but was eating the Salmon and the other Eagles wanted some too........It was a huge, raucous mess......I ran to a back door and told the bosses what was going on......by the time I got back out, there were twice as many Eagles circling the cannery and screaming.........landing on the roof and on the boats and the hoists on the dock, taking off, landing, circling, screaming........Quite a circus......We picked up brooms and shovels to stave them off so we could get to the tank and see what needed to be done to get the eagle out of the tank........We got him out with a landing net.....A couple of the men got gashed by the Eagle's beak, but all in all, it ended well and the guy who was responsible for checking the tank learned a lesson......... Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.
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I've lived in Eagle country most of my life and I've never heard of anyone being attacked by an Eagle....unless they were already dead....
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WOW..... that must have been a wild experience..... exhilarating and also a bit scary.
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It wasn't scary, it was exciting......and the most fun I had at that cannery......What was scary was being a robot all day....... At one point, we needed a bit of extra income, so I took a job in a sewing factory and my job was to stand at the ironing board and press the self belts after someone else sewed them, someone else turned them right side out, and before they were then sewn to the dress. Talk about boring and feeling like a robot. Most of the women there were older and had nothing to talk to this youngster about, so I worked in silence. It was midsummer, very hot and humid standing over a steam iron, and I was pregnant. One day I passed out from all that and they laid me off from the job, but made it plain I would not be recalled. That was my only taste of factory work and I hated it. From then on, all my work was in people service, mostly nursing. Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.
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I believe I understand what you mean, and can relate. When I was first married, I was in nurse's training, but I didn't want to be in school and take on a whole new life also, so I quit, saying I would return later. At one point, we needed a bit of extra income, so I took a job in a sewing factory and my job was to stand at the ironing board and press the self belts after someone else sewed them, someone else turned them right side out, and before they were then sewn to the dress. Talk about boring and feeling like a robot. Most of the women there were older and had nothing to talk to this youngster about, so I worked in silence. It was midsummer, very hot and humid standing over a steam iron, and I was pregnant. One day I passed out from all that and they laid me off from the job, but made it plain I would not be recalled. That was my only taste of factory work and I hated it. From then on, all my work was in people service, mostly nursing.
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Beautiful, can't remember the last time I saw an Eagle, sad to say. 
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Interesting. When I was in the Aleutians in Alaska eagles were everywhere. I've seen so many but I always just assumed the lack of the white head was a male/female thing. I just loved to watch these wonderful birds fly right in front of me and snatch a big salmon out of the creeks. I saw this hundreds of times and it never got old. I've had them land on a rock as close as 10 feet from me before, closer than you can get in some zoos.
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