BALD EAGLE! yikes!

[B tH <soylentgreenistrex@yahoo.com>]

I live within a quarter-mile of what once was the largest entirely-excavated 
man-made lake in the world.  I am sure by now Lake Paul Wallace has been 
surpassed - it's still a fair-sized lake.

So anyway about an hour ago I was outside checking on the canteloupes when this 
huge shadow goes over me - it's either aliens landing or a hawk, I think - lots 
of red-tailed hawks and a few ospreys here.  But I look up and it is a BALD 
EAGLE - white head, white tail, and it was low enough to distinguish the eye.  
He/she made a few passes completely ignoring me (pretty sure it knew it could 
take me out at any time) and then the little light bulb goes on in my head - 
GET THE CAMERA, STUPID!
I got back out and it was cruising much higher in the air - managed to get two 
pics with very little color on the bird.   This is only the second time I've 
seen one in the wild - the other instance was in the late Seventies at NASA in 
Florida when one took off out of a tree looking like a small Cesna aircraft.  
Huge birds.

I went searching for some info on them on the web and came across two 
interesting statements - one that they may be as old as 28 million years as a 
genus and that they are the second largest eagle in N.A.   When I was growing 
up textbooks listed the bald eagle as number one, but now the roles of it and 
the golden eagle are reversed?  They find a huge golden eagle specimen in the 
recent past?

Anyway, the avian-dino descendent thrill of my day!  Some good bird-watchers 
with a telephoto lens could probably get some good feeding shots of them out on 
the lake.