This past Saturday, my partner and I were in Point Richmond and spotted a bald eagle flying high overhead. The white head and tail feathers were unmistakable, and we stood there, staring in awe.
I saw my first bald eagle 15 years ago in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. I could not believe my eyes or ears. It is such an iconic bird, yet for the first three decades of my life, they were endangered. I was never sure I’d ever see one.
I can’t remember the first time I saw one here in Northern California, but they no longer surprise me. Heck, there was even a pair living in Piedmont last year, just a few miles from where I live. It still feels special, though.
The very next morning, two flew high overhead while we were doing our regular habitat restoration at Skyline Gardens. They were accompanied by a turkey vulture, a red-tailed hawk, and an irritated raven trying (and eventually succeeding) to chase the large raptors away. I couldn’t believe my luck as I stared up at them in wonder.
About ten years ago, I saw Corey Arnold give an amazing presentation at Pop-Up Magazine about how bald eagles were seen as pesky flying rats in Alaska because of how they picked through trash en masse. It muted my awe of bald eagles a little bit.
But not that much. This morning, I wondered what Matt Kracht’s The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America, which my nephew had recently given me for my birthday, had to say about bald eagles. I wholeheartedly agreed with its assessment:
Is this bird flawed? Hell, yes — it’s a bird. But it stands for the promise of something good. Please, don’t even get me started, because this is the best motherfucking bird there is. Period.
Not to burst your bubble but have you heard their call (not the Red Tailed Hawk that does the voice over in car commercials…) and their several parasitic behaviors, primarily kleptoparasitism—stealing food from other animals? They do look cool though.
Benjamin Franklin famously advocated for the wild turkey instead of the bald eagle. Franklin criticized the bald eagle’s “bad moral character”!
It doesn’t burst my bubble — several raptors are kleptoparasitic, as are corvids and gulls — but it definitely forces me to examine my anthropomorphism. A few years ago, I watched several crows bully an injured pigeon. It was hard to watch, but is it fair to apply a human ethical stance toward birds? Questions worth pondering!
I’ve only seen one once. I was driving in S. Florida! Who knew we had bald eagles? And it was flying right next to my car at eye level for a while. It was a thrill!
Wow! That must have been amazing!