Bald Eagles are born with a bad attitude and it never improves. Today I took one of the meanest birds wearing feathers back to where she was found and released her. SNAKE was hesitant to come out of the transfer crate but when she did she wasted no time heading away from me. Amazingly enough, when I pulled up at the ranch there were two balds sitting in the trees right next to where we were driving. They took off and landed in another tree some distance off.
SNAKE flew off and headed in their direction and even landed in one of the nearby trees. As you can see from the photo, she flew with strength and determination. If you look at the bottom photo you'll see three dark spots among the branches. SNAKE is in the tree on the left, her mate is on the right and the one in the middle appears to be a chick of last year that is for some reason still hanging on in the area. Altho my deafness didn't allow me to hear it, the others there heard all the birds calling back and forth to each other.
Also, the tree that SNAKE is sitting in has a large nest to the right and a bit below her. Apparently she is truly home again.
Note: One of the people at the release took lots of photos and put it on a site. Go to this site and see them, great shots. http://reddirtinmysoul.com/2011/01/13/the-story.aspx
This was a funny, and happy story to read. You really had me laughing with your first sentence. How great, that Snake if back home again! Maybe there will be new young successfully raised next year, that wouldn't have been without your care. As a side note a bald eagle flew low over our back yard, then over the roof, and out across our front field today. He/she was much lower than they usually fly over the house. What a thrill, it was just luckmthat I happened to be looking out the window at the time
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