The majestic bald eagle lives throughout a very large territory – almost all of North America and parts of Mexico and Canada, with the largest concentrated population of about 30,000 birds found in Alaska. It builds its nest in a high tree, spanning a space of nearly 4 ft by 2 ft, with some nests recorded up to 8 ft wide. This large bird of 13 lbs can live up to 30 years. And it’s history with our country goes back a very long way. Although Benjamin Franklin wasn’t a fan of the bird (he favored the turkey to represent our country), the bald eagle was chosen by the Second Continental Congress to be the national symbol in 1782, a choice that finally became official in 1789. On August 9, 2007, bald eagles were removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species and are now no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act. However, bald eagles remain protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act).
I thought of the bald eagle recently when I saw a very large bird fall into the Schuylkill River. We were driving over the river on the Girard Avenue Bridge and could see people trying to save it. aybe they realized it might be a bald eagle, our national bird.
I thought that Russian narrative poetry writer Mikhail Lermontov would have described it best, when he pictured how a majestic bird had floated above our world through caravans of clouds and worlds of scattered constellations:
Soaring laughing screaming with delight, never caring, never mindful of the night
or that his majestic manner would please the river gods
Who would resist him and all his might.
Is this the demon still searching for his love so far from home for ever after, for ever?