“A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there… Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.”
~Michael Chrichton, Jurassic Park
Aquila chrysaetos
April 9, 2008 at 2:37 pm (Wyoming Field Season)
When I spot the Golden Eagle, I stare in awe. It doesn’t matter how many I’ve seen by now. I’m still impressed by the sight. Every time.
Maybe it’s simply the incredible span of the wings, or the residual novelty of the sight. A Golden Eagle! I’ve never seen one in the wild back home. Yet how often I see them now, here in Wyoming. I see many of them on every trip to the Gas Hills.
I watch this one flush from its perch on a rocky outcrop as I drive by, all massive grace and power. A subadult by the looks of it. The body and wings are a dirty black-brown that looks messy from below, bits of white still persisting in the underwing, and the base of the tail still displays the striking deep strip of white, a sharp contrast against all that brown brown brown. Spectacular!
Watching it, I can’t help but think of Athena, a resident female Golden Eagle at the California Raptor Center in Davis. She had been my favorite there from the day I had the chance to hold her. Despite her missing wing, she was impressively large and heavy. I held her that day, hugged against my chest, arms tucked tight against her sides and one remaining wing. In both hands I gripped her legs, arms held straight to keep those talons as far away and under control as possible. Ah, those talons! Those Talons! Now there’s intimidation for you, up close and personal. Those were talons more and befitting a bird her size. And large she was, or seemed to me then. After all, even with my hands straight down, her head was tucked just barely under my chin. Legs to head she was as long as my arms.
And that, that, my friends, doesn’t even take into account the wingspan!
