Bald Eagle, Henne

I easily could have missed this sighting. The large raptor made no sound whatsoever, but a few minutes before I noticed the shape soaring high in the sky, I'd heard the tell-tale screams of either a Red-tailed Hawk or a Blue Jay with delusions of grandeur, and I could have simply dismissed the bird as a commoner. No need to even take a picture. But there was something odd about the profile, so, just to be on the safe side, I fired off several shots. It soon drifted off, and I gave it no more thought until I got home and downloaded the day's images. When I looked more closely, I noticed those unmistakable "fingers" on the edge of each extremely long wing. It was clearly more eagle than hawk, and when I enlarged the picture and brightened it—the exposure against the flat sky was off and the underside was too dark overall—I spotted the white head. For some reason, the tail was red, but that might have been an artifact... or the result of back-lighting from the late-afternoon sun. In any event, my photographic and birding instincts proved correct; my harvest was a Bald Eagle, a rare treat this far inland.