Four Eagles in One Day

Well, it could be one pair of eagles seen twice. No one I talked to seems to know how many pair of eagles live around here. I drove over to Ridgefield Refuge via my daughter's friends' property. They are the ones with the eagle nest on their land. Just as I got to their drive, a pair of eagles bubbled up from the trees playing, then cruised in formation overhead until splitting up. One went North, one flew South and then returned to the trees landing with it's huge talons spread. (I love my new binoculars!) About 20 minutes later I was driving through the Refuge and saw two eagles perched on a tree near one of the lakes. A bit later I passed a young eagle on a branch close to the road. I could see the other tree, now with only one eagle. The young eagle looked ragged as it was trying to grow in its white head feathers and soaked from the pouring rain. The other mature one was so impressive with white head and tail feathers. There was so much standing water in the Refuge, only a few wood ducks were swiming. The swans and other waterfowl were hunkered down in groups in the water with head under wings. One day I watched a young eagle swooping over the swans just to get a rise out of them. Today I think they wouldn't even have cared. There were about 1000 (for real) cackling geese huddled together in a field - all standing withtheir heads looking in the same direction, no umbrellas. And there was one huge Nutria in the grass near the road munching away on the grass totally oblivious to the rain or me.