On our morning walk yesterday, we witnessed something that
proved once again that Nature is messy and often violent: a bald eagle being
chased by an osprey, whose nest was nearby. We weren't sure what bad thing the
eagle had done, but I suspect the osprey had caught a fish for breakfast, and
the eagle flew by and tried to steal it.
Although I'm not aware that eagles eat the eggs of other
birds, it's possible that's what caused the osprey to rise up out of its nest
and take pursuit. But it's not really nesting season yet, and ospreys are just
now returning to the nests they had last year - to check them out and, if need
be, add a few sticks here and there.
Last year, I was driving along a busy highway near here when
traffic came to a stop in both directions, and some people got out of their
cars to look. It seems that a bald eagle had swooped down and was making a meal
of juicy road kill.
Stealing other birds' food and eating what cars have run
over are not what you think of when describing our national bird. Benjamin
Franklin once wrote in a letter he was sorry the bald eagle with its low moral
character had been chosen as the national bird of the United
States of America . He personally favored the
wild turkey.
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