Woke up and went kayaking with my olderst sister, Lindsay, on Onota Lake in Pittsfield. She has spotted bald eagles (2 adults and 2 young) there on many occasions so we thought we would scope it out. The lake's surface was as smooth as glass today.We set off and paddled down and out of the cove and were kayaking down the middle length of the lake. Suddenly, we saw an adult bald eagle soaring in circles nearer and nearer to the lake's surface. With our front row seats, we watched it scoop the water to catch a fish. It was so amazing to be in that spot at that exact moment. That's when I started thinking about my day and how if we had left a minute earlier or a minute later, we would have missed this. The adult eagle flew behind us to what my sister called its favorite tree, because she always sees it perched there. Next, one of the baby eagles mimmicked the adult by circling the lake's surface but did not scoop and flew over with its parent in the tree. We think it was teaching the young how to catch fish. We turned and paddled over to the tree and were able to get extremely close. We stayed there for quite a while watching and taking pictures of the two eagles. The baby was very talkative and and did a lot of calling, to which we could hear an eagle calling back from the opposite width of the lake. We decided to kayak over to the other side of the lake to check it out, because that is where the nest is known to be. The nest was giant and actually sits high in a tree in yard of a lakefront house. It must be so cool to be those homeowners - I'm sure they have fabulous pictures! There, we sighted the 2nd baby, who was still calling across the lake to its sibling. It was getting extremely hot out on the lake, so after all the sightseeing, we paddled around and under tree limbs for fun and shade. We kayaked for an hour (not including the stopping and picture taking)!
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