Eagles over the gardens

The eagles are here every day.  They have at perch in the tallest tree on the shore of Gardens at Waters East. Lake Michigan provides a great source of fresh fish which they hunt daily.  Always a joy to see our national symbol soaring here over the gardens.

These photos were taken this past week just north of the gardens. I watched them “doing their thing” but at the time I did not have my camera.  Thanks to my neighbor watching at the same time, he had his camera and was able to take the photos.  Thanks to him you too can enjoy these dramatic shots form here.

The bald eagle “American Eagle” is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to 4 m (13 ft) deep, 2.5 m (8.2 ft) wide, and 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) in weight.^[2] Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years.

Bald eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning of the word, "white headed". The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25 percent larger than males. The beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown.

The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States of America. The bald eagle appears on its seal. In the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the contiguous United States. Populations have since recovered and the species was removed from the U.S. government's list of endangered species on July 12, 1995 and transferred to the list of threatened species. It was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States on June 28, 2007.