Golden Eagle Soaring

On the sixth day of our week in Arizona, we started our morning at Cochise Lake on the outskirts of Willcox.

The absolute highlight was this adult Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), which circled majestically high over the small lake for at least 15 minutes. Three times virtually all of the hundreds of ducks on the lake took flight--the last time when the eagle took a long dive--unfortunately toward the opposite end of the lake.

Always rare, Golden Eagles mainly reside in open areas of the western U.S., although a few are regularly seen in migration at hawk watches across the east. They are also present in Europe, although now mainly limited to a few mountainous areas. We had adults and an immature in Eastern Switzerland in August 2009 (that would be a good blip archive image).

Afterward we headed about 35 miles east to Chiricahua National Monument in the Chiricahua Mountains--a fascinating area of pillars and other vertical rock formations (reminiscent of Bryce Canyon, although less colorful and much smaller in scope).