Bald Eagles in Coeur d' alene, Idaho

I always get overly excited to go see the bald eagles in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  They come every year staring in November.  It has become a Christmas tradition for Mike and me.  I bought a new lens for my camera which added to my excitement.  More zoom.  The last count of the bald eagles was over 200.  I keep track you know.  

This years eagle viewing was a bit different.  You know the poem The Night Before Christmas?  Well, there are a couple of lines that describe the eagles this year.  One line is, "Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse."  I would change that too, not a creature was stirring not even an eagle.  The other line is, " The children were nestled all snug in their beds."  Changing that too, the eagles were nestled all snug in their beds (the trees).  I had about 6 pictures of the bald eagles flying last year.  None this year.  I didn't get to use my new lens on flying eagles.  You could see the eagles in the trees but rarely did they fly.  They were really tucked in!  Thus, we have several pictures of the same birds.  We were there about 2 1/2 hours.  We learned later from two different people that the fish they come to eat were much bigger this year so they didn't need to feed as much.  We still had a great time for sure.  The pictures were scarce but not the viewing. 

The way you feel standing in nature, seeing the trees, the lake and the the bald eagles is truly supernatural!  It is.  That feeling pours out of all of God's creation supernaturally and we are blessed with experiencing it.  You just can't describe it.  Why?  Because it is supernatural! 

We focused in on the first eagle we saw.  They weren't hard to spot but many weren't in places to take pictures. This one was.   A lot of these pictures look similar or exactly alike.  I was just practicing with my zoom lens.  I deleted a lot for the blog.  I love that I could get pictures like this without putting a camera on Mike's spotting scope.  You can see all the feathers.  So cool.

 I like this one.  You can see the talons! In these pictures the eagles don't look really big because of there is no frame of reference.  They are huge.  Mike had my camera and was taking pictures with his spotting scope with my camera in the scopes viewer,  I shouted, "Mike look behind you!"  A huge bald eagle was flying right over him.  Close so close.  Unfortunately my camera was occupied.  I will never forget that picture of the eagle flying right over Mike!

 The Gleason's on another Gleason adventure!  Another fact we learned about the eagles was they are the most active from 9 AM to 11 AM and 1 PM to 3 PM.  They must take a lunch break?  Or maybe a nap since the fish are so big and they don't need to eat as much.

 I love, love this picture!

 This eagle is really, really old.  If you click on the picture you can see it bigger.  The white feathers aren't as white anymore.

 A boat for a bald eagle tour.  They got a show for sure.  Like I said not many eagles were out and about but there was one that flew around this boat for awhile.  The few bald eagles we saw flying were a good distance away.

This is lens practice.  I had it zoomed as a far as the lens would go and just took picture of this bald eagle as I walked closer and closer.  Picture 1

 Picture 2

Picture 3, and it looks like the eagle moved but it didn't.  Just a different angle and getting closer to the tree.

 Picture 4

 Picture 5 and I am having a ton of fun! JOY.

Mike took these.  He was brave enough to cross the narrow two lane street and stand on the edge of the road.  It's against the eagle watching rules but he is still around to tell about the experience.  Thankfully.

 I like this picture.  Exactly what I described.  All nestled in their beds.

And the tradition continues with lunch/breakfast.  We tried a different place this time.  We had been here before.  A family we met eagle watching said they have the same tradition and this is where they always go. Good choice.

Baseball stuff! Fun.  The picture in the left corner of the big one is Don Larson signing this big picture that hangs in Micheal D's.  Don Larson is a professional baseball player that played for many teams.  He lives in CDA.

Off we go!  Home sweet home.  I love this time of year.  Everything points to the birth of Jesus.  Christmas lights, Jesus the Light of the world.  All the love and gifts, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.  Celebrating His birth makes me so happy.  I just want everyone to know what an amazing unconditional gift of love we all got the day Jesus came into this world.

On the way home just after getting on the freeway we were blessed with a huge eagle flying over us.  I could see all the eagles tail feathers it was so close.  God loves to show me bald eagles because he knows I just love seeing them.  He cares about what we care about.  There you have it.  The end!