Where Eagles Soar

I'm always excited to see a bald eagle in my neighborhood!  

Bald eagles pass through Colorado every winter, stopping for a short time before moving on to their next destination.  Some stay and nest. Last year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported more than 200 occupied nests statewide and more than 90 on the northern Front Range from Denver to the Wyoming state line. There was a popular eagle cam located at Standley Lake Regional Park in Westminster, Colorado. Still, sadly in May of 2021 the cottonwood tree that supported the nest split in half because of age, and the nest fell down and the eaglet in it was lost.  It was a loss for the many who enjoyed watching resident eagles on the live cam feed raise their young. Bald Eagles keep adding to their nests each year, and often the structures get so heavy they eventually fall out of the tree, and the birds have to start over. There are hopes the Standley Lake eagle couple will return and build a new nest this spring.

Bald eagles are not really bald--their heads are covered with white feathers.  It is believed that the name came from the Old English term "piebald" which means "white patch."  An adult male is around eight to nine pounds, while a female is larger at ten to fourteen pounds, Their wingspans are six to seven and a half feet.  

The female eagle lays one to three eggs and incubation takes around 35 days with both the females and males keeping the eggs warm.  It can take up to five years for an eagle to develop its characteristic white head and dark brown plumage.  As juveniles, they are different shades of brown. They often nest near water as their favorite meal is fish or waterfowl, although they will also eat squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, muskrats, and roadkill.

They also are known to have "eagle eyes" which give them eight times sharper vision than humans and enable them to hunt at a height of 10,000 feet and also see into the ultraviolet on the spectrum which enables them to better see fish below the water.

The proliferation of bald eagles in Colorado, despite an increasing human population along the northern Front Range, has prompted Colorado Parks and Wildlife to launch a four-year study on why this is occurring.

The interesting YouTube video above shows how some of the bald eagles are being tracked by Colorado Parks and Wildlife with transmitters, to learn more about their migration, habitat use, and hunting practices to see if population growth in Colorado's most densely populated corridor between Denver and Fort Collins is interfering with their activities. 

We had more snow last week and a few days of sub-zero temperatures from an "Arctic Blast," but this week we should be back to normal with a blue sky and sunny, milder days.  

Friends from the east will be visiting us next weekend and staying with us a few days before a ski trip.  It will be fun to see them after a long time and reconnect! We will have good weather to take a few drives and show them around our area. 

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