Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Bald Eagles Galore!

I headed out this morning to do a mellow 3-mile run on the bike path. A light snow was falling and the path had not yet been plowed, so there was a little over an inch of fluffy snow on the ground. My road screw shoes gave me plenty of traction, but I was glad to have to step aside for the plow at the 1 mile marker. The 3 miles went by in exactly 27:00, not fast but not too slow. As I was getting back in the car, an immature Bald Eagle flew overhead.

Work today was a trip up to Rockland, to visit the Farnsworth Museum and hit the galleries in town. We had lunch at the Thorndike Creamery - tomato, basil and goat cheese pizza topped off with (well, not literally) a scoop of ice cream for dessert. I chose Pumpkin and it was quite tasty.

On the way home, as we were driving through Thomaston, I noticed a number of large birds soaring off to the right, beyond the trees. One of the birds had the distinctive dark body and white head and tail of a Bald Eagle. I continued to look as we drove on, and there were at the very least five other mature Bald Eagles roosting in the trees at the edge of the fields. Wow! I wish I had been driving by myself or with Snowman, as I would have stopped by the roadside to soak in the view of these majestic birds. In looking at the map of Thomaston, I realized that what the birds were circling over must have been the St. George River. In the past, Snowman and I have stopped several times at a small park along Rt. 90 which has a bridge over the river and a great view of a set of falls. Depending on the time of year and time of day, we have seen large groups of birds circling and swooping into the river for fish in this area, which is really cool. I can only assume the birds were circling along a similar stretch of river. Neat!

4 comments:

Jamie Anderson said...

Awesome! I love bald eagles! (some people don't though, hee hee).

Great job on the run!

R. Ian Parlin said...

My parents have some land in Warren (next to Thomaston and the Georges river) and we've seen many bald eagles in the area. My uncle claimed to see 12 in one day but he was probably drunk.

middle.professor said...

How timely - NPR had a story today about the success of bald eagles in maine and how they will be taken off the threatened list!

Sparkplug said...

Ian, I wouldn't be surprised if your uncle was right (drunk or not). There were a lot of birds I just couldn't pinpoint as we were driving along. Very neat, regardless! I think it's great to see them rebounding so well.