On my first birding trip of the year this month I aleady fell into a bad habit—making assumptions!
My friend and I saw two huge birds in a tree near a marsh. They were very far off, but from a distance they looked like cormorants, so that’s what I assumed they were.
As we slowly made our way down the road looking for birds and critters, my friend said, “Are we sure those are cormorants?” I’m so glad she asked because when I got out my binoculars I realized they were definitely NOT cormorants.
They were immature Bald Eagles! The large, hooked yellow bill gave it away.
After watching them for awhile we left the area and had lunch. We came back about 45 minutes later and they were still sitting in the tree! Eventually they took off and we got to see them fly.
