Eagles of the Northwest Passage

The ethereal butterfly flitting from one blossom to another in search of Spring nectar.An airbrush of radiant sunlight floats across the rugged face of a snow capped mountain to purge the darkness of yesterday and raise the hopes and aspirations of tomorrow.A long dark shadow floats above the canyon of rolling sagebrush,boulders and bramble bush with a wingspan of nearly seven feet.The bald eagle hovers miles above in midair,spinning like a windmill in the wind,swerving and changing directions in the blink of an eye.The airborne symbol of the Republic eyes its prey ,a creature from a distant migration that somehow found itself separated from the flock.Bewildered and wounded,it became the next meal for the swift and cunning hunter from the sky.Glowing like a radiant super nova,bending light like a flower and bursting into brightness,the eagle bolts into a downward dive and quickly snares its prey.Haliaeetus Leucocephalus is the species we admire for its beauty and it genteel appearance but there is so much more to this extraordinary bird than you could imagine.Its just an ordinary hunting bird that loves to fish in the roaring river rapids of Canada and the icy waters of Alaska where the salmon runs occur yearly.It doesn't grow white feathers on its head and tail until it finally
reaches maturity.(Which is about 4-6 years)Although it has been misunderstood as a species because of its hunting technique of sitting in one spot for hours waiting for a fish to come near the surface,this patience is exhibited by only one animal in the whole world:the bald eagle.The eagle can see both in front and on the side by rotating its eyes ,which are about the size of human eyes.Like much of the human species,the bald eagle mates for life and usually keeps the same partner for 20 years
or longer.The female is usually larger than the male weighing in at 12 pounds to the eight or ten pound male.The eagle builds a very large nest in the high branches of trees or in the cavernous cliffs of a mountain that is sometimes four feet wide and six feet deep and the female lays 2 to 4 eggs.Another hunting technique of the eagle is soaring above the pristine waters of a lake,where the fish are plentiful and diving into the waters from a distance.Few people know that an eagle can see fish swimming several feet beneath the surface of water from mid air.The eagle is the national symbol because it is more human than any species of bird and its complex arsenal of speed,patience, and keen eyesight makes it worthy of the honor.The once frozen icy shores near Baffin Bay have become the promise and the transportation route of the next century thanks to global warming.Eagles continue to fish among the icy waters and now the ice is beginning to melt.The Northwest Passage links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.A whole new world of rapid transportation is about to begin thanks to global warming.


Future of the Northwest Passage

Commercial use of the Northwest Passage might be a very useful benefit of global warming. Should this become a viable shipping route commerce could speed up rapidly in the great northwest.It could become a game changer saving billions of barrels of oil and reducing transportation cost enormously.