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.

Jordan Lake: This osprey youngster is one of this year’s fledglings. The male osprey has caught himself a nice sized fish. He is certainly perfecting his fishing skills!

Jordan Lake. Hot? Yes, indeed hot! About 20 minutes after sunrise the sun had already burned most of the blue right out of the sky. Then, this two year old bald eagle showed up, panting. She perched and looked at me and then out towards mid-lake. The youngster stayed about 4 minutes and then flew around the bend and deeper into a heavily shadowed cove. I decided maybe she was smarter than me about the heat and so I soon gathered up my equipment and headed home.