Bald Eagle
After mating the female usually lays two eggs ivory white with a granular surface: It does happen but rarely they will lay three eggs. Very early in the season the pair of eagles undertake family cares. In Florida the female lays her eggs in December or January while in the States of the Midwest she lays the eggs in February or March and in districts further north a little later in the year.
The Bald eagle's range is in the United States from Alaska to Southern California and northern Mexico. The bird breeds in suitable location throughout its range.
In flight or at rest the Bald Eagle is majestic, its white head and tail lending dignity to its im-posing form. The Eagle as a raptor has inspired many literary tributes.
Tennyson's two stanzas refer presumably to the Gray Sea Eagle of Europe that sometimes visits the western hemisphere, but might well have been ad-dressed to our Bald Eagle.
"He clasps the cage with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands, The wrinkled tea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunder-bolt he falls."
In prose perhaps nothing finer has been written than Mr. Burroughs's expression:
"He draws great lines across the sky ; he sees the forests like a carpet beneath him he sees the hills and valleys as folds and wrinkles in a many colored tapestry; he sees the river as a silver belt connecting remote horizons. We climb mountain-peaks to get a glimpse of the spectacle that is hourly spread out beneath him. Dignity, elevation, repose, are his. I would have my thoughts take as wide a sweep. I would be as far removed from the petty cares and turmoils of this noisy and blustering world."
The Bald Eagle frequents the shores of lakes and rivers.
His food consists largely of fish and he very seldom or never nests at any great distance from the food source. Most of his food is dead fish gathered from the surface of the water or from the shores of lakes and rivers but when he cannot find the dead fish he often robs the Osprey forcing it to drop the fish it has just captured. Sometimes the Eagle fishes for himself but he is not an expert fisherman. Oc-casionally he joins the Crows and Ravens when they are feeding upon carrion.
Frequently birders see the
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