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It is still February and today it is snowing in the Tennessee Valley. This once again makes me think of bald eagles. February is the month the females lay their eggs. It does not matter if it is snowing or not. Bring it on!
I recently received an email from our friend and bird chaser Betty Thompson in Kansas. And what else? She sent eagle photos taken in the snow at Lake Afton due west from Wichita.
Historically, bald eagles nested in Tennessee but stopped between 1961 and 1983 because of the pesticide DDT. When that was banned and had time to flush itself out of our environment, eagle nests reappeared in the Volunteer State. And they quickly dispersed to find new lakeside habitat even going into historically new territory to the west, the Jayhawker State.
The first bald eagle nest ever reported in Kansas was not until 1989.
And they are still there, doing fine.
The photo at the bottom is of a younger eagle. The National Symbol does not start to molt into its adult/sexually active plumage until they are 4- to 5-years old.
(It is believed that the term "jayhawk" came into usage in the 1800s and is a combination of a loud blue jay and a screaming kestrel.)
Thanks, Betty!
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