More from the Raptor Release

[centuryplant]

This Bald Eagle's gravitas is slightly undermined by the piece of duckweed stuck to the top of his bill. I had noticed him earlier standing in a wading pool they'd set up for him; he acted like he was trying to catch something in the water, but I didn't see what, if anything, he'd actually come up with. I suppose they might feed the eagles live fish as a form of environmental enrichment.

I assume the water also plastered his feathers down over his bill like that. Either that, or bald eagles have discovered comb-overs.

"Is there something on my nose? Why does everyone keep staring at my nose?"

While I was taking photos I heard a Raptor Center volunteer repeatedly tell children that female eagles are larger because they lay eggs, and therefore have "a larger cavity." I wonder what the kids understood "cavity" to mean in that context.