APRIL 28: Pride out early

[NewMexiKen]

This morning, about 7:30 AM while I was photographing warblers in the wetlands of west Miramar, Pride, the male Bald Eagle from the Pembroke Pines nest flew over quite low. Pride may be identified by his rather compact and tapered body and relatively shallow gape. It does not extend much behind the eye, while that of the female reaches halfway or more under her eye. Lately he has also shown some wear or minor damage to the flight feathers at the tip of his left wing, visible in this photo. I could not see the black mark on his outer feather which is another of his unique characteristics.

He was heading towards the large lake in Sunset Lakes subdivision. Eagles have occasionally been seen roosting on Lighthouse Island in that lake.





FYI, This handsome male Cape May Warbler was one of the species I was watching. A "factoid" of interest is that "The Cape May Warbler breeds in boreal coniferous forests, where it sings, feeds, and nests high in the spruce canopy...Although the first illustrations of this species were based on birds taken in Canada, its English name refers to the locality from which Alexander Wilson first described the species—Cape May, New Jersey—where it was not recorded again for more than 100 years... (Ref: Cornell Lab Birds of the World)