Happy July 4th

Let's celebrate with the Bald Eagle- the US national symbol

There were Bald Eagles on San Juan Island. They haven't overrun the island, but most days I would see at least one. One of my first sightings was at Cattle Point, at the southeast corner of the island. Even with a telephoto lens and some cropping of the photo while processing, this is as close as I could get.

We drove through a residential area in hopes of a better look of that bird and we did get a bit closer.

Also near Cattle Point, a different Bald Eagle was known to use the lighthouse for its perch.

We went on a whale watching trip and one tiny island we passed by has had a pair of nesting Bald Eagles on it for several years in a row. Female Bald Eagles are generally larger than males, a common characteristic for many birds of prey. This happened to be a tough shot to get. Besides the distance from the island, we were on a fast moving boat rocking up and down rapidly in the water. It was tough keeping this image in the center of the camera's viewfinder much less keeping it in focus. I'm glad with what I got.

One morning, we took a walk to Third Lagoon which was just past Cattle Point. There, we saw a Bald Eagle. I don't know my trees well but the tallest trees on the island were Douglas Fir and also Sitka Spruce. The Eagle perched in one of those very large trees.

At one point it took a loop around the lagoon on a fishing search but came up with nothing and landed in a different tree.

It continued to search for fish in the lagoon.

One afternoon we were at False Bay on the west side of the island. False Bay is a Marine Preserve known for its mudflats at low tide. It is owned and managed by the University of Washington. While we didn't venture out on the mudflats, we did enjoy a nice long quiet morning on the beach at the Bay. We could hear an Eagle calling regularly from the south side of the bay but couldn't spot it. Suddenly, we saw a Common Raven chasing the Bald Eagle across the bay. The Raven was screaming the entire time across the 3/4 mile width of the bay. While the photo itself is not a great one, I like it because it tells a story.

We visited Jackson Beach on our last day on the island. It is a long, sandy beach in the town of Friday Harbor. When we arrived we drove to the end of the road to use the public bathrooms. While parking the car, a Bald Eagle appeared and landed on the boat house next to us. It was great to have such close views of this magnificent bird.

Sometime later the Eagle flew off, circling the water a few times before disappearing in the distance. It was a nice little good-bye for us.

For more about Bald Eagles, check out the Cornell Lab’s AllAboutBirds Bald Eagle page

History.com has a nice summary of how the Bald Eagle became the National Bird and a symbol of the United States.