Bald eagle sighting

We have been watching for the bald eagles. Last year we began to see the first pair of them in mid February, though for a few days we couldn't quite believe our eyes.  "Are there eagles on the island?" we demanded of anybody we could find to ask. "Maybe," they would say. "Could be." These were not satisfactory answers. I'd stare out the breezeway window for minutes on end, looking. And once, as I pored over the eagle picture in my Birds of North America, I thought I saw the real thing winging past, as if to teach me a lesson about where to look. So this year we have been ready, and waiting.

I thought I saw one earlier this week. It glided over my head while I was hanging out the clothes, but I couldn't make a definite claim to it.  Yesterday, though, Greg saw it flying along the shore, heading south toward the cove, in the direction of its nest. Though it seems that it's hard to miss an eagles' nest, it being nine feet wide and all, we haven't yet found it.  Maybe this year we will make a wider, more thorough search. 

I do not think it coincidental that for two years in a row we have sighted the eagles in mid February.  They have their patterns, and slowly we will learn them. 

As spectacular a creature as it is, the eagle does not call attention to its arrival. It just arrives, and it's up to us to notice it.    

Image from Birds of Nova Scotia, courtesy of The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History.