The Visual West - Image 1
Drive the back roads of Delta County, Colorado, these days
and you have a good chance of spotting a bald eagle atop some old cottonwood
tree, or sometimes on the ground in a pasture of cows, tearing into some
nutrient rich afterbirth. Baldies show up every winter here, and seem to be
increasing in numbers. Participants in last week's local Audubon Society Christmas
bird survey counted 34. I spotted this one in a tree below Mt. Lamborn around
Thanksgiving. Getting close was a
challenge – on foot I scare them
off their perches from several hundred yards away. For this shot, I motored slowly
to the tree on a four-wheeler and the bird never flinched.
To see more images from me and other Western photographers, go to our Flickr group.
Paul Larmer is HCN's executive director.



