Bald Eagle December 2019

I’ve now painted over 100 stories about the Salish Sea. One species has been lurking in my bin – I’ve been saving it for a special time, so this one is about bald eagles. You’d think eagles would have been somewhere in the first dozen, but I got side-tracked by a few others over the years. So, here it is: Bald eagles can swim. Eagles commonly swoop for fish, flying at up to 100 miles per hour. With their enormous 2” long claws that are capable of 1000lbs of gripping pressure, they swoop and grab their prey. Sometimes, they don’t realize how big the fish is, and, wham, they grab it and get pulled into the water. Like us, they sometimes misjudge things and have to realize that whopper meal was just too big. Not to worry, these birds are good at swimming and, while it doesn’t look so graceful, they can do a pretty fair butterfly stroke. They can also take off again while in the water, but once feathers get really soaked, they must find shore to dry off before flying again.

To me, bald eagles and golden eagles are about two emotions. We, as a nation, saving them from extinction and the interesting lives eagles live given a chance. In the 1970’s bald eagles were on a quick path to extinction because of pesticides, illegal hunting and habitat loss. It was rare to see one, but we got it together and the Endangered Species Act was passed which provided a roadmap to bald eagle restoration. The same has happened with the black-footed ferret, whooping crane, gray wolf, American crocodile and others. That law is currently under serious threat, but I’m betting thoughtful and caring people will stand up, vote, and we won’t continue to go back to the dark days when bald eagles were almost a memory. Do you hear me? For me, eagles represent the good we can collectively do when we work together. And, without people we’ve elected working together in the spirit of democracy, no matter how messy it is, bald eagles would likely be gone from our lives today.

Larry Eifert paints and the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.