Today is a cloudy day, but you can feel Spring. The air is calm, the water glassy but the snow on the mountains remind us that winter still has a hold on Southeast. Last spring was the first one for us in Juneau and every day brought new sights and sounds in our little tidal basin. What we found most interesting, however, were the eagles and we spent countless hours watching them. The eagles are now EVERYWHERE again; in fact, there is one that sits on the stop light pole every morning on the way to work. Off our deck, especially during low tide, we are seeing eagles swoop and soar among the tall sitka spruce trees and up into the seemingly endless sky. The bright white heads are easy to spot in the dark green trees even though the recent snows have left snow-covered branch ends that have tricked us from time to time.
The ones without a white head (and golden beak and feet) are the young eagles, which reach full maturity and coloration in four to five years. In the case of eagles (rather than some other bird species), both male and female have full coloring but females are bigger. That is because the male eagle said "I have to lose a few pounds", stopped drinking beer and lost 20 pounds. When we came home from church today, hoping to catch an Ohio State loss (I mean, watch some NCAA basketball), Bill called me out
from under the laundry and kitchen detail (really, I was reading the Sunday paper) to have me look out the window. There, just under our deck, were EIGHT eagles - a few more were a little farther away and even more flying in the sky. The
pictures here are of that "group" of birds of prey. In a gathering of a few, it is called either a "convocation" or "aerie" of eagles but we just say "WOW - what a lot of eagles!" Enjoy the pictures (and come see your own eagles in Juneau!)
Today is a cloudy day, but you can feel Spring. The air is calm, the water glassy but the snow on the mountains remind us that winter still has a hold on Southeast. Last spring was the first one for us in Juneau and every day brought new sights and sounds in our little tidal basin. What we found most interesting, however, were the eagles and we spent countless hours watching them. The eagles are now EVERYWHERE again; in fact, there is one that sits on the stop light pole every morning on the way to work. Off our deck, especially during low tide, we are seeing eagles swoop and soar among the tall sitka spruce trees and up into the seemingly endless sky. The bright white heads are easy to spot in the dark green trees even though the recent snows have left snow-covered branch ends that have tricked us from time to time. 
from under the laundry and kitchen detail (really, I was reading the Sunday paper) to have me look out the window. There, just under our deck, were EIGHT eagles - a few more were a little farther away and even more flying in the sky. The 
pictures here are of that "group" of birds of prey. In a gathering of a few, it is called either a "convocation" or "aerie" of eagles but we just say "WOW - what a lot of eagles!" Enjoy the pictures (and come see your own eagles in Juneau!)
