Standing Guard #4

by Bruce Bley

Title

Standing Guard #4

Artist

Bruce Bley

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

I took this photograph of a bald eagle this yesterday while visiting Lawrence Park between Sterling and Rock Falls, Illinois. The eagle have made a remarkable comeback in our area because of laws protecting the tis bird. The Rock River which flows between the two cities of Sterling and Rock Falls allows the eagles to have an abundant food source during the winter. There are times when a person could see anywhere between 2 to 20 eagles at a time.
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.

The Bald Eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to 4 m (13 ft) deep, 2.5 m (8.2 ft) wide, and 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) in weight.[2] Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years.

Bald Eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning of "white headed". The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are larger than males. The beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown.

The Bald Eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States of America. The Bald Eagle appears on its Seal. In the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the continental United States. Populations recovered and the species was removed from the U.S. federal government's list of endangered species on July 12, 1995 and transferred to the list of threatened species. It was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States on June 28, 2007.

I hope you have enjoyed this photograph and will share it with others. You can see more of my work on my homepage. Thank you for visiting and please comeback as I add to the various galleries.

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December 28th, 2013

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