About Bald Eagles

We were out on Harris Lake yesterday, only a month away from our country’s 250th anniversary.  The day when great patriots made their decision to to live as freemen, declaring independence from the tyranny of England.  A decision they knew would place their lives, families, fortunes and livelihood at grave risk.

Out on the lake Jackson, Victoria and Charlotte spotted Bald Eagles – the symbol of our independence. A few days before, an eagle had flown towards me while driving the Excursion down Berke-Thomas road. As it went up and over, it’s wingspan was wider than the truck!

The Bald Eagle’s name has nothing to do with having no feathers on its head. The name comes from an Old English word “ piebald ” which means “white patch” and refers to their bright white heads.  But those white feathers come only with age.  The juvenile Bald Eagle has brown head feathers which turn white when 5 years old.

Wingspans of adult Bald Eagles can be between 6 and 8 feet in width, They can grow from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 feet long, weighing between 6 and 15 pounds.

The Bald Eagles’ eyesight is 8 times better than ours.  They can hunt for food from more than a mile in the air. The eagle’s vision extends into into the ultraviolet spectrum of light, which our eyes cannot see. When we look at the lake, we see a reflection. When they look at the lake, they see below it. 

The Bald Eagle is also know to take advantage of other fishing birds, waiting until they catch a fish only to swoop down upon the bird, taking its meal away.

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Bald Eagles mate and remain faithful for life. They build the largest nests in the world – starting small then adding new layers each year. The largest eagle nest ever found was 10 feet wide, 20 feet tall and weighing 3 tons. Eventually the structures get so heavy they  fall out of the tree, and the couple has to start over.

The Bald Eagle as America’s Symbol

Many stories abound that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey, not the eagle, to be the symbol of the new nation.  This is not really true.  In his practical yet ironic style, Franklin wrote to his daughter about the controversy over America’s motto and symbol, using it to highlight human nature and the state of affairs that brought America’s freedom, and would remain as she grew.

  The gentleman who made the voyage to France to provide the ribbands and medals; has executed his commission. To me they seem tolerably done; but all such things are criticised. Some find fault with the Latin, as wanting classical elegance and correctness; and since our nine universities were not able to furnish better Latin, it was pity, they say, that the mottos had not been in English. Others object to the Title, as not properly assumable by any but General Washington, and a few others who served without pay. 
Others object to the bald eagle, as looking too much like a Dindon or turkey. For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this injustice, he is never in good case, but like those among men who live by sharping and robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: the little king bird not bigger than a sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. 
He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the king birds from our country, though exactly fit for that order of knights which the French call Chevaliers d’Industrie.4 I am on this account not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours. 

Benjamin Franklin in a <a href=”https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-41-02-0327″>1784&nbsp; letter </a>to his his daughter Sarah Blanche<br>

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE 4 TYPES OF EAGLES FOUND IN AMERICA