CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011
BALD EAGLE SIGHTED IN LIGONIER, PA.
Watching the big birds soar through the air is a glorious experience that makes me wish I too could soar like they do. It also makes me wish I was accomplished at identifying the beautiful creatures flying freely.
True, I’ve photographed osprey. But I’ll admit—the only reason I know they are osprey is through their nests, which I locate high up on roosts adjacent to power poles (constructed by power companies to protect electric wires while still allowing a place for the raptors to perch).
My neighbor Dan called me tonight. He began the conversation by telling me that he sighted a majestic bald eagle this weekend.
And he sighted it here in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.
He was headed to the middle school to pick up his daughters, who had been on a school function. As he drove to the school he saw a large bird soaring over Mill Creek. He was impressed by the size, and taken aback when he realized it was a bald eagle.
If he had any doubts, they vanished when the eagle swooped right over his car.
A couple of other women were in the parking lot. One had a camera. He asked her if she photographed the bird. She hadn’t, because by the time she realized the bird’s identity she didn’t have time to position the camera. The bird just flew too fast.
Dan said he once participated in a hawk watch on a beach in Connecticut when the birds were migrating. They caught the thermals and rose into the air, he said.
He had a cool experience in Canada. He watched a bald eagle take a fish from an osprey as they flew through the skies.
But his coolest experience happened in Newfoundland, where he was on a bicycling trip. There were dozens of bald eagles flying about, he said.
Still, he was pleased to spot one of these majestic birds right here in Ligonier.
And I am pleased to have the opportunity to spend time observing and photographing osprey. Perhaps someday I will locate a bald eagle nest. Then I will shoot that bird.
Thanks, Dan, for sharing your observations.
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ADDITIONAL READING:
Osprey in New York’s St. Lawrence Valley
Googins Island, Maine: An Osprey Sanctuary
Osprey in Southwestern Pennsylvania
Don’t Sneeze or Whistle! It might cause a storm!
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