Lone Eagle

"Celebrate your success and stand strong when adversity hits, for when the storm clouds come in, the eagles soar while the small birds take cover"
- Unknown

We pass by a well-known bald eagle's nest on the way to our daughter and son-in-law's house, and we always slow our speed to perhaps catch a glimpse of an eagle in the nest. (I wrote of it in October 2007.) We've been lucky several times to see its white head peeking out, but never out of the nest, not even in flight.

Today our luck changed and I can't tell you how exciting it was to see our national bird perched and then soar above our heads. I had my camera with me, as usual, but it doesn't have the zoom power to reach an eagle's lofty environs. That doesn't mean I didn't try, but please forgive the poor quality of the photos. I wanted to share at least a bit of the thrill with you.

There is a dirt lane that leads back to the nest area, which is on

the banks of the Auglaize River. The nest has been here for years.

As we walked back the lane, we got closer to the perched eagle
(seen at the top of a tree to the left of the nest). At the same
time, two Vs of geese flew over.

And there he sat - regal - and watching over his territory.

Then he took flight, over our heads, to tree a couple hundred feet to
our right. After a brief rest there, he returned to his original perch.
When we returned home by the same route, he was gone.

An eagle becomes fully mature at four to five years of age. When full-grown, the adult eagle is actually slightly smaller than the juvenile eagle due to the number of feathers lost in the molting process. Even in adulthood, bald eagles are among the largest birds in North America.

In terms of coloring, male and female bald eagles are virtually indistinguishable. At all stages of life, the male and female cannot be told apart except generally by size. An adult male bald eagle generally measures 3 feet from head to tail and weight between 7 and 10 pounds. The male's wingspan is about 6 1/2 feet. As with most birds of prey, female adult eagles tend to be larger than males and can weigh as much as 15 pounds, with wingspans up to 8 feet.¹

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¹The American Bald Eagle - Recovery From Near Extinction