a penguin?

When Paisan starts to growl and bark furiously in our house, the kids run to the windows to see what's out there. Today, we saw an animal waddling down the middle of the road right in front of our home. At first, Ivy and I both thought to ourselves, "Is that a penguin waddling down the road in New Hampshire?" Then, I thought, "A penguin! In New Hampshire! Now that's news! I must go get my camera!" (For a few moments, I really thought it was a penguin! :) Wouldn't you???)

Well, it turned out that the animal was NOT a penguin, but it was a bald eaglet (a baby bald eagle)!
And, it had a broken wing...
After seeing that the animal was injured, I called Nathan to see what could be done to help it. Nathan called the local Fish and Game officer and then the adventure began... For the rest of the afternoon, Ivy would not stop talking about this injured bird. She offered MANY prayers up to the Lord for this bird, too. (She is so sensitive and so caring and so compassionate like that. It is so comforting to see that she knows Who to turn to in times of distress and concern.) Well, it turned out that the Fish and Game officer was going to come over to try and capture the injured eaglet the next morning. By this time, the eaglet was scared down into the woods and perched itself at the edge of the woods by the river. SO, we needed to pray that the Lord protect this eaglet through the night from the roaming fox that we have around our neighborhood.

Morning came, Nathan and the F&G officer snowshoed down into the woods and found the eaglet. It was still alive! (God answered our prayers!) BUT, they weren't able to capture it as it got spooked and flew down onto the ice. However, the F&G officer determined that where this eaglet's wing was injured and the condition that it was still in would make the bird a perfect bird for demonstrations and instructions and worth the effort of calling in a bird scientist (or whatever the person was titled) to trap it and catch it. Unfortunately, by the time this guy made it to our neighborhood, the eaglet went elsewhere.

Now that I am writing this MANY weeks after the event actually happened, it turned out that the farmer who lives a few miles down the road from us (the farmer where we go and see his cows-Farmer Webby) saw the injured eaglet in his field, walked right up to it, and captured it four or five days after our efforts to catch it around our home. By then, the injured eaglet was too far gone, and they had to put the bird down. :0( Coincidentally, though, that very same day that Farmer Webby caught our eagle friend, the kids and I were driving in the van to get Ivy to her dance lesson where we had to drive past Farmer Webby's house. As we were passing his house, Ivy remarked, "Mom, I think I saw the eagle back there."

Upon identifying what this animal was exactly, we actually learned a couple of things about bald eagles which I will share with you. We learned that baby bald eagles don't get their mature colors (a white head and brown body) until they are about 5 years old. We also learned that adult male and female bald eagles actually have the same coloration only females are usually bigger in size than the males.

But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. ~Isaiah 40:31