We startled a bald eagle during our hike along Lake Michigan last Sunday.
It was a large adult, hard to tell whether male or female. We estimated the wing span at well over six feet across. Females are actually the larger bodied of bald eagles, so a more experienced bird watcher would have known for sure.
After only a few graceful sweeps of powerful wings, the eagle settled into a gently banked glide. I was too slow with my camera to get the shot, but we figured she would swing back toward shore.
For the next 10 minutes or so, we watched this beautiful creature ride the wind.
Not that you could see the wind. Since she was rising up over the huge lake, there were no trees swaying or limbs bending to add perspective. There was only the slow spiraling path of this giant bird, wings extended and locked. She flew on and up, with confidence and purpose unknown to us.
Although unseen, we could easily trace the busy air currents around her. The eagle would bank and slowly spiral up, like someone ascending the nearby lighthouse staircase. Then she leveled out until the next updraft took her curving up and up and up.
Soon she was disappearing from view, a hundred yards up, two hundred yards out over the big lake, then further, a black cursor being typed across the backdrop of clouds. Then she was gone, only an unseen trail of wind-crafted spirals left in the sky.
"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8
What do you believe?
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