A Young Bald Eagle Oddly at Rest

 

A young female adult bald eagle looks down at the people below.

The only explanation I can give for the bald eagle that I photographed yesterday being so tolerant of people is she must be young and foolish.

Who else would put up with humans just forty feet below her for hours and hours?

I realized when she flew in that something must be a little off about her. I was sitting on a bench by a wide creek when the geese started cackling and rushing this way and that, either flying away or rushing for cover on the bank. The eagle flew almost directly over me and the geese and settled on a thick branch. I got up and hustled to a spot where I could photograph her through the thick-but-still-bare trees.

She didn't seem to mind at all.

I hustled from point-to-point looking for different views. The eagle moved to another more-comfortable branch and then did something I was very surprised to see her do: she ripped up lichen off the branch and ate it. She did this several times. I had never seen an eagle eating lichen before, and I wondered if this was normal behavior or if she had gone totally bonkers.

After all, there were people walking by below her. Some had stopped to stand beside me to see what I was photographing. Still, she perched up there and ate lichen. We humans didn't make a bit of difference to her.

I thought at first that she was so tolerant of people because she must have just breakfasted well. Maybe she had stopped by a squirrel's nest or attended a fish fry somewhere up the creek and was satiated for the day.

She just sat up there eating lichen and ignoring the world below.

I had the odd thought that maybe that's how I'd end up, considering my opinions about humans in the current state of the world.

I'd end up nuts and alone and eating lichen.

Yest, she is eating lichen.