Eagle Mania

Our eaglets are getting quite big!  They’re spreading and flapping their wings.  Before you know it, they’ll be catching the wind with them too.

The adults still bring food, but they’re ripping and tearing dinner apart on their own.  One day, an adult and an eaglet played tug a war with a hunk of meat.  The adult won, before flying to a branch above the eaglets. (I took thirty pictures of that scene, but not one came out . . . see?  Not all my pictures are . . . well . . . picture perfect)

I see the adult eagles quite often when I kayak, but never know where I’m going to find them these days. Especially now that the eaglets can be left alone for longer periods of time.

My favorite sighting so far this year happened one gorgeous, quiet spring morning. I was paddling along when I rounded a corner to an adult eagle resting on a log which lay just  below the surface of the water.  It almost looked like he could stand on water.

I wish I’d witnessed this scene before finishing the edits to Mystery of the Eagle’s Nest.  I stilled, almost forgetting to take photos of this grand creature  It took a sip of water, then stared across the water, its reflection mirrored below.  A fisherman slowly meandered up the shoreline from the other direction, toward us, and the eagle turned to look at him.

Then silently spread his wings, lifted off and flew off along the log . . .

out over open water . . .

to a quieter spot on the lake.

The fisherman never looked up.  Never heard, and so, never saw that graceful exit.

That vision stays with me still.