On the shoreline to the left of the four-year-old bald eagle you can see what he is interested in. He has flown in to get himself a piece of a carp carcass. In some ways I think the plumage of a four-year-old bald eagle is quite stunning. As to the youngster’s desire to have a piece of that dead carp, well, that’s on the eagle’s brunch menu but not mine!
This 2-year-old bald eagle made a powerful horizontal launch past Captain Doug and I. We were totally ignored as the youngster set out along the lake’s shoreline to challenge another immature bald eagle.
You can hear the wind and see the rock ‘n’ roll of the boat as Captain Doug and I watched this fledgling bald eagle at Jordan Lake. Like all youngsters he was curious about everything that was going on around him.
There was enough coolness in the air while Captain Doug and I were cruising the lake that it stirred up the bald eagles. The youngster that is at the top of the first photo is a two year old and it is chasing one of this year’s fledgling. In the second photo that is the same two year old to the left and the same fledgling to the right. They were having a good time chasing each other.
A four-year-old bald eagle, to me, often has very interesting plumage patterns. They are in the process of finally attaining the totally white tail and head and a body cloaked in deepest dark brown feathers that at 5-years of age marks their maturity. Captain Doug and I found this youngster landing as if she owned the whole cove. I’m sure that’s what she thought.
Up the Haw River yesterday flew a very determined immature bald eagle. I could see as it banked and reversed course at the tail race of the Jordan Lake Dam that the youngster was one of this year’s fledglings. Fly young one fly, learn how to fish successfully and survive.
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