ODE TO THE EAGLE

With the Fourth of July hard upon us, America’s national bird calls out for attention and appreciation.

The bald eagle appears on the Great Seal of the United States and other government seals including that of the Federal Reserve System on the front of most bills and some quarters. It is the only eagle unique to North America.

It’s a great bird, despite what Benjamin Franklin told his daughter in a letter from Paris in 1784. As every schoolchild knew when they taught such things, he said he preferred the turkey as a national symbol. He called the eagle “a bird of bad moral character” and said it was “too lazy to fish for himself” and survived by robbing the osprey. He said it was “a rank coward” and was easily driven from a perch by the much smaller kingbird. Ambassador Franklin called the turkey “a much more respectable bird” and “a bird of courage.”

Mr. Franklin may have been wrong, according to observations by Mainers who live along the coast and on offshore islands and see a good deal of bald eagles. They have some good stories to tell.

Islanders once watched as sea gulls squawked and dive-bombed an eagle perched at the top of a maple tree, trying to drive it away. But the big eagle stood firm, ignoring the loud pests.

A resident of the north shore of Little Cranberry Island watched curiously as a bald eagle flapped its wings furiously some distance offshore, apparently in an unsuccessful effort to fly. Finally, it spread its wings in the water and swam to shore in a perfect breaststroke. It had been holding a big cormorant in its talons and had been unwilling or unable to let it go. Once on shore, the eagle pecked the cormorant to pieces and flew off.

A ferryman saw a pair of ospreys eluding an eagle. One of the ospreys held a fish and the other rode shotgun, shielding its comrade from the swooping eagle. In that case, Mr. Franklin seems to have had a point.

Islanders tell another story, possibly apocryphal, about a man who was arrested for killing and eating a bald eagle. He told the outraged judge that he was lost in the woods, was near starvation, and ate the bird only to save his life. The judge relented and let the man off with a warning. But then he called the defendant back and asked him how the bald eagle tasted. The man replied, “Oh, about like a cross between a California condor and a spotted owl.”

That was before federal authorities removed the bald eagle from the list of endangered and threatened species last year. It had been close to extinction in the late 20th century in part because of pesticide use.

Now it is once again thriving, worthy of observation, jokes and patriotic respect.