Bald Eagle

It's bald eagle season, because the salmon are spawning in the rivers here. This eagle was sitting in the treetop directly behind our garden yesterday, and in this picture had just taken off in flight. To have Bald Eagles in the backyard makes me almost grateful for the pine-bark beetles that killed out the top of this ponderosa pine -- it's a great place for birds, especially birds of prey, to sit and survey the area. Which means we can sit in the family room and watch them. Because it was late afternoon, the picture came out very dusky and you can't see that this Eagle has its adult plumage, and therefore looks like what you would recognize as a Bald Eagle. Juvenile eagles do not have mature plumage, with the familiar white head, until they are 5 years old.