Bald Eagle

We had seen some bald eagles from afar. For example, on a tree top on the shore when we were on the whale watching cruise. The way we knew it was a bald eagle was because the guide told us and because we could see the white head. We actually supposedly saw a younger one, whose head was not yet white, but we didn't know what to look for. (The bald eagles heads turn white when they are 6 or 7 years old.)

I had always known that they were big birds. But in my mind that meant something different than the reality. My idea of a big bird was something like a big parrot that you see at the zoo. I don't think I even envisioned a flying bird as big as a peacock. That was definitely an error on my part. Bald eagle are huge. There was a visual about their wing span. I know that they far exceed Doug's wing span but I think it said they can have a wing span in excess of 8 feet!

There was a bald eagle in a cabin display at the top of the tram in Juneau. The forest rangers had been notified that there was a wounded eagle. When they found her she had a gun shot wound in her beak. She survived the (serious) injury but she was left blind in one eye. Therefore she could not be released into captivity. They built her a small cabin to show her off and let people learn from her. The front of the cabin was just bars. If you were dumb enough to, you could reach through the bars and try to touch her! There was a forest ranger there to watch and only about a dozen people could fit on the porch at a time, but it was still extra amazing to be able to be so close to her. You can see how big she was in these pictures.

This is a picture of the tram station where she was (plus a nice sea plane in the foreground). The tram top is about a third of the way from the left edge at the top of the trees.