(no subject)

[camwyn]

Had flight school today. Am deeply and profoundly irritated with the trouble I am having when it comes to getting hovering right. I will take it as a personal triumph when I finally beat that; frankly I think it will be easier to get autorotations right. I'm doing better on turns and landings, thankfully. That, at least, is improving.

Also, I saw a bald eagle.

Seriously. Thought it was a vulture or something at first; I was trying to turn and I got distracted by the sight of a large bird and started climbing, which I was not supposed to do. The instructor asked what had my attention and I pointed to the bird... at which point it leveled out (the bird, not the helicopter) and I saw that it had a white head and a white tail. Its body was dark brown above and below, but it was very definitely white-headed and white-tailed.

Bald eagle.

Don't know if it was down from the population I know exists in Maine, or if it was from one of the 36 territorial pairs the Audobon Society has established around the Quabbin Reservoir and had just flown eastward for some reason, or from somewhere else, but it was very definitely a bald eagle that I got to share the sky with today.

Comments

[in_the_blue]

When I lived in West Newbury we saw bald eagles quite frequently. There are a lot of them on Plum Island, and in the whole area, really. They love the waterways in the northeast.

Aren't they spectacular?

[camwyn]

They really are. I've seen them in the wild before- in the Pacific Northwest, in Alaska, and once around the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Never expected to catch sight of them near me.