The Eagle

I mentioned in the last post that I grew up in a small town that is located next to a river. The river is on a list of nationally protected rivers. It's reassuring to me that the beauty of the area is being preserved. There is a lot of wild life there, from birds to deer and also a few bear. Although it's infrequent and I've never seen one, there have even been occasional cougar sightings. This post isn't quite as exciting as a cougar sighting, but I did have the privilege of getting some fun photos of an eagle. My brother still lives in the small town where we grew up. He happened to mention that there were a few eagles feeding on a deer carcass in the field next to his house. We were able to time it just right and drove up as one was having a late afternoon meal.

Abundance of deer means deer getting hit by cars which means birds of prey get an easy meal. It also means that sometimes they will feed near the road...I took a few shots from the car. Aren't you glad that I didn't include the one's with the deer carcass?

I wanted to get a little closer shot, so I slowly got out of the car and walked towards the eagle. I knew that it would fly away, but also figured that it had been feeding at the same spot for days and that would come back as soon as I left...so I didn't feel like I was harassing it.

Anyway, I was able to get a little closer when it decided that was enough and it took flight.

What a sight...it was huge! The wingspan was incredible. Strength, beauty and grace.

A short flight across the field...

...to the protection of the trees.

Instant cameoflauge!
He landed in a tree about 50 yards away, waiting for us to leave so he could finish his meal. My brother said that there have been up to 3 feeding at a time...a hundred yards from his house. How cool is that??