The Eagle Has Landed

I headed out as always to take the dogs for a romp in our now usual spot on the Caribou spit of land. As I drove onto the spit a grasshopper leaped onto my windshield and caught a lift. At least he didn't come in through the window since we may have ended up in the bay if he had.

After that little hitch hiker departed I glanced to the left and saw this. At first it was sitting on the beach but as I slowed it took off. It is an adolescent Bald Eagle. When it took off it tried to take a 'body' with it but dropped it in its hurry. It landed again just at the end of the spit where I normally walk the dogs so I pulled up very slowly, turned off the truck and got out, leaving the dogs where they were for the moment. It kept looking at me and picking at the rock it was standing on, eventually it decided to fly away across the bay to the trees.I have seen bald eagles here before but never this close. It seemed curious what I was doing and not really scared, just thinking. Maybe it was thinking about the meal it had dropped. I was curious what it had been lunching on and went to take a look mainly to make sure it was definitely not something I wanted the dogs to go anywhere near.

Sometimes it's sad being right. It looks like a Great Blue Heron - they are both protected species - though not from each other.