Prompt #3 - The White-Headed Salt Eagle

The White-Headed Salt Eagle

There's no mistaking this bird for another, unless it's a juvenile, and then you might guess it to be a small golden eagle.   But if you look more closely, and its legs are not feathered, it's a young White-Headed Salt Eagle, more commonly known as the Bald Eagle. Or scientifically known as Haliaeetus leucocephalus, which translates in Greek to hali: salt, aeetus:eagle, leuco:white, cephalis: head.

We live in the company of many eagles, both Bald and Golden in our valley, especially in the winter.  Bald Eagles are spirit birds for me, as I will explain later.

Eagles mate for life and usually nest in the tops of large trees.  In Winter, when the deciduous trees near the rivers are bare, it is easy to see the wide woven nests, which can be 10 feet across and weigh a half ton.  Eagles have a sense of place, and though they travel great distances, they usually return to breeding grounds within one hundred miles of where they were born.  

Breeding bald eagles usually lay one to three eggs a year, and the eggs hatch after 35 days.  The young eagles fly within three months and are sent on their way about a month after that.  When the eagles fledge, they are as big as adults, they can gain ten pounds in 10 weeks.  The juvenile eagles are brown with mottled chests, not white-headed.  It takes 4 to 5 years for the birds' feathers to change to the white head and tail that makes them  so recognizable.  

Wintering eagles often roost with other bald eagles on the same tree at night.  We see these eagles most often on trees very close to the rivers, or in the rivers, or on roadkill.  They are opportunistic feeders, they eat fish, waterbirds, small mammals, and carrion.  Eagles need to eat about 11 pounds of food a day in the winter, and they use their exceptional vision to swoop down and attack their prey.

Adult Bald Eagles are not as large as Golden Eagles, but the females may weigh up to  14 pounds and have a wingspan of 8 feet.  The females are larger than the males, who weigh up to 10 pounds and might have a wingspan of 6 feet.

Most often we see these birds on or in the rivers, or squabbling over dead deer.  Last Sunday, I saw a bald eagle perched on a newly-killed deer, right off the side of the road.  I was able to observe three eagles competing for the kill.  They chirped and swooped at each other.  I will try to include a photo I took, where you can see the bloody face of one of the eagles.

They are a sight to see, whether perched on the limb of a tree, or flying.  They bear wind and wonder on their wings.  I have often felt that these birds carry strength, and spirits.   We seldom see bald eagles from our land, because we live up off the valley floor, well away from the river.  I have said before in other posts that I feel the presence of my son when I see hawks and eagles.  One of the most remarkable times was the first Christmas time after Evan died, which was a very hard time for me.  My daughter and husband had left me home alone with a Christmas tree to decorate, and I was in such deep grief that I couldn't imagine sorting through those ornaments, especially the ones that had been made by Evan.  So many memories!  It really was too much to bear.  But I noticed a movement out the front window, and through the snow falling, on the pine tree closest to the living room, I saw a bald eagle settle itself on a limb.  It stayed there for a long while, and I sat and watched it, and felt inside myself something that resembled solace.  I was not alone.  I sent a silent greeting out to this bird, who so reminded me of my son.  I was grateful.  I carried on the best I could.