bald eagle flight

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By Spectacular Fail!

Jordan Lake: Spectacular Fail! You are seeing the second of three attempts that Mom Godiva the bald eagle made early this morning on a huge striped bass. She had snagged it the first pass and had to drop it. This is her second attempt. Godiva came around, set her talons, and the impact apparently was so great – her weight of about 12 pounds against the approximate 2 pounds of the fish – that the interaction flipped the fish out behind her. Do not feel too badly for Mom Godiva. She came back around the third time and actually got a very good grip on the huge bass and took it back to the shoreline. There she ate her hard earned breakfast.

By Hershey

Jordan Lake: Somehow, even though I have rendered Hershey into black and white, our eyes and our souls feel and fly with his majesty. Interesting how that transformation works …

By Upside Down

Jordan Lake. These two young bald eagles came boiling off the shoreline way to my left. You are seeing the third of the rollovers that occurred in front of me as the two bald eagles passed by. That is a four year old bald eagle that’s being really aggressive and the one that’s upside down is a three year old bald eagle. They were still tumbling and jostling for supremacy when they went screaming around the corner and out of sight.
#baldeagle #immaturebaldeagle #JordanLake #JordanLakeStatePark #BEverettJordanDam #HawRiver

By Hershey’s Hover

Jordan Lake, Dawn. This is the third hover that Hershey had done inside of four minutes. He came dashing off of the shoreline, went into a hover, looked, pulled out, circled around. He did that same hover, half dive maneuver once more. You are seeing the third hover that he held for more than 4 seconds. You can also see that he once again did not actually go after whatever it was in the water that had his attention. I sure wonder what it was that had caused the repeated attempts!

By Jaunty Tail Feather

Jordan Lake. This 4-year-old bald eagle certainly has a startling tail feather! In the first photo, the topmost tail feather is a solid deepest brown down the outermost edge. I don’t usually see eagle tail feathers colored exactly like that. It does make her look rakish and sporty. I wish that she would keep that tail feather coloration throughout her life. However she is a four-year-old and in the midst of her molt. So I imagine in another 6 to 12 months she will have the solid white head and tail of a fully adult bald eagle.

By Eagle 0, Fish 1

Jordan Lake: I was watching Mom Godiva on a speed run up the main lake, heading north. I did not expect her to go fishing. Suddenly she did an almost 270° turn and had her feet in the water before I could catch up with her. As you can see maybe Godiva was a little too hasty in her fishing? That’s a big fish. She didn’t quite get a grip on it and flipped it out behind herself. The fish didn’t mind Godiva’s disappointment. Eagle zero, fish 1.