Eagles in distress or just in love? We’ll never know

When Anne Scott-Markle heard a bald eagle flapping in a big ponderosa pine near her rural Columbia Falls home last Thursday, she thought something may have been amiss.

She could see the bird, which appeared to be in distress, flapping its wings, but it seemed to be stuck in the tree.

This was about 9 a.m. and she started making calls to find out if there was anyone who could help. She tracked down an arborist with a boom truck that could get high enough to help the bird and also contacted staffers with Wild Wings Recovery Center in Kalispell, who are experts in helping ailing eagles and other birds of prey.

By the time everyone was assembled at her home it was 2 p.m. and the bird, or what actually turned out to be two birds, were still in the tree, still apparently stuck. Scott-Markle suspected a piece of twine or some other thing stuck in their talons.

As the boom truck lifted however and got within 10 feet or so of the birds, the two birds separated on their own and flew away.

There was no twine visible. Perhaps, Scott-Markle surmised, it was simply the throes of love.

“Once  there were two, it made more sense,” she said.

According to Cornell University’s “All About Birds” bald eagles are powerful fliers—soaring, gliding, and flapping over long distances. In one of several spectacular courtship displays, a male and female fly high into the sky, lock talons, and cartwheel downward together, breaking off at the last instant to avoid crashing to earth.

Perhaps this pair did crash a bit, into Markle-Scott’s tree. The only ones that really know are the birds, and they seem to have survived just fine.