Eagle eye

Eagles aren't that common in Kalamazoo and when I visited the Kalamazoo Nature Center on Friday I certainly wasn't looking for one. Yet, the moment I stepped on the observation platform overlooking the Kalamazoo River valley, my eye was drawn to the white feathers on the head & tail of a Bald Eagle and I immediately knew what I was looking at. From the observation deck, you can literally see for miles so the eagle was just a small shape, barely more than a dot, about a quarter mile away. Yet its black & white feathers stood in sharp contrast to the grays and browns of the landscape. Of course, the eagle's vision was much better than mine, but it seemed too focused on a dispersed flock of hundreds of crows to pay attention to me.

Later, when I looked for the trail name on the Nature Center's map, I saw the observation deck was on "Raptor Ridge".