Eagles

Eagles have cropped up in a lot of conversations lately. The newness of seeing active nests and mating pairs aloft seems to have been overtaken by familiarity, maybe too much of it.

We were visiting a young couple in Maine last month, one of whom is in the Coast Guard. He referred to eagles as "endangered sea gulls", a common term among the "Coasties" up there. Efforts to reintroduce the Great Comorant in Maine a couple of years ago were stymied by eagles eating the chicks.  Apparently it is easier to go after young birds than dive for those tricky fish.

A couple of months ago a home owner in the midwest suddenly lost her electricity. When she went outside to find the problem, she spotted a young fawn hanging over the power line to her house (quite dead). A disappointed looking bald eagle was sitting in a nearby tree. No one had seen her carrying the fawn, but the link seems there unless the fawn had learned to fly.

Going after this big a prize is probably rare, but it happens. On a local call-in show, the host was disputing stories of eagles carrying away young goats. A woman who raises goats called in and pointed out just how small goats are when they are first born. She had seen larger hawks go after them, with success being rare but proven.

Our national symbol seems to be as flexible as humans, converting from a diet of fish to being an omnivore as convenience dictates.