Early last spring, while paddling with my friends, Paula and Jim, we saw several adolescence bald eagles. While full-sized, their young age was clear from their brown coloring, especially the absence of white “bald” heads.
Jim, a recently retired teacher, found his friendly foray into Socratic dialog to be short-lived. He opened by asking when the birds would graduate to the more familiar adult look. It was answered by my well-considered and very-thoughtful, “Uh, I dunno.”
It seems that eagles wear youthful duds for about five years, about 1/4 of their average longevity.
Last week, on the Muskegon River’s North Branch Workaround, this five-year-old was happy to model almost grown-up attire.
