In the Wind....

Last year I got visited in the woods several times by baldies. If one of them gets close enough this year, I'll try to take a picture.

They're very beautiful & so graceful.
You're lucky. I'd love to experience that.

Well, I didn't mention politics in my other post cause he was so much more than that to me. But, in reading where others did I found it admirable that that they could say "We didn't agree on politics, but..." That just made it all the more apparent to me that he was loved and respected for his ability to verbalize his views without injuring anyone.

BTW, if you were to pass, cjhsa, I would say something like "We didn't agree often, but I enjoyed him being here to share his views. I will miss his presence. He brought me many smiles and even an occasional out loud laugh and for that I am thankful. My heart goes out to his family"

Even the Cubs would know my saddness of the loss and say "Oh, the gun guy? That's too bad. Dad had so much fun bantering with him."

Just as I'm sure anyone in your family that would think to check A2K, anyone that knows it plays a part in your life, would also be aware of the characters here from your having talked about us... I'm sure it is the same for J. She already knows us through Timber. I'm confident she knows we loved him very much.

And with that...

For the record I did visit that thread and signed the guestbook.

Im not gonna get in cj's swamp, snood covered it very well .

Azymythe

The bald eagle is a scavenger /predator , youve added the words "rather than" between scavenger and predator and have thus modified your own source link (thats not good technique to try to validate a point). They call it the "fish Eagle" in Iriquian language, because it dives and captures fish along the top of the. water. Ive seen this many many times inAlaska, along the Boundary waters, in Maine and nearby my home in the Susquehanna/Conowingo pools.

As far as the DDT issue, that was old news . The population of eagles bottomed out about 1978 and through reintroduction of "hacked" eaglets , the population along the eastern PA/NJ/Del/NY area has increased almost 1000 fold since the early 1980s. In 1979 , for example, there were 2 breeding pairs of eagles in the entire state of PA. Today there are almost 500. BTW, an eagles crop is not modified like a buzzrds, in that it doesnt have the mix of flora to be able to digest carrion, its food needs are that it can eat fish but have you ever seen eagles on an old rotted carcass? I havent. Ive mostly seen eagles dip to the water and gracefully pluck up a fish just like making a handball shot. They will fight each other for a catch and it can get rather nasty but they are definitely not part of the primary scavengers. Ive seen a pair of eagles catch a running rabbit and then carry it waaay up and drop it and actually play mid-air catch with the by-then , dead rabbit.

aquinney, that brought a little lump to this old grizzled throat. Well said, I hope cj isnt as cynical in real life as he sounds here. I like talkin with cj and sometimes agree and many times disagree (same with Timber, who was conservative and Im more liberal) We managed to verbalize our divergent paths of many opinions without merely resorting to name calling. Its one of the things we learn as we get older, how to craft a convincing argument. Timber was a master, cj is not. However, that doesnt mean that cj doesnt have hope. He's but to pick up tricks and remember rule one, the Abe Vigoda rule
"Its only business, nothing personal".

By the way cj, that was an excellent shot of the eagle in flight at the opening of your thread. It brought a tear to my eye. A picture of an eagle will never be just abird Therell always be a Kevin Oconnor there in the frame, soaring . .

I watch eagles harass herons right in front of my cabin. They're just trying to steal fish - makes it easier.

I've had Ashcroft's "Let the mighty eagle soar..." stuck in my head for several days. Any other time that would really bug me. But, now I can take pleasure in knowing it's also stuck in yours.

I thought your tribute was fitting and thoughtful. I think Timber, a former marine, would have felt honored to have a 21-gun salute.

I envy you that you've seen eagles in the wild. If they return and if you're able to take a picture, I hope you'll post it here.

Yikes! I ...
I thought this thread was about blind patriotism, glorifying eagles beyond what is realistic.

Then I went and read a bunch of stuff about this guy Timberlandko, who recently died.
He writes well. He cares about things. He says his mind and shares it
with everyone.

You guys fight tooth and nail here, like family at Christmas. Are you all related?




Eagles cover a lot of ground searching. The ground is not always pretty
but they ... sure are something to see.
I've seen five at a time, diving into rivers, spiralling up canyons,
calling far to each other, and travelling a ways beyond the forest.
I don't know where they go.


(PS - My first paragraph, the first words in this thread, were outside of the quotes. But it was actually from
http://www.nature.ca/NOTEBOOKS/ENGLISH/ebldeagl.htm
My fault, and my apologies for not attributing it. Sloppy fish, and, thanks for the feather).

Everybody got a feather?

We have eagles soaring over our property most days, they nest nearby.
I used to look forward to Timber's posts, it turned out our homestead / home-life had some things in common.

We have eagles that nest on the lake where me and the boy cubs go.
I'm always struck by how, even though they are graceful and beautiful, if you really look at them you can see that they are basically brutal killing machines that do what they do without thought for anything beyond filling their current need and are damn good at it. Not a put down, just an observation. We are what we are. I guess that makes the Eagle a good representative of the USA or at least the new one.

well all have eagles in our life. whether they are real eagles are symbolic ones. Though i am not i don't inform myself in politics I did go through some of the post Timber wrote, he was a very knowledgeable man. He stuck to his guns and when he thought he was right you knew it.

If anything Timber's picture should be posted here instead of that of an eagle. For he portrayed the qualities of what most people connect to an eagle when they see them.

A free spirit, going where the wind would take him, Timber stood for what he believed and tried to make maybe not the world, but at least his world, a better place.

i am saddened to hear of his passing.