Freedom to Fly
By ice rivers
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Last night, I dreamt that I could fly sorta.
My flying was more like walking on air, very pleasant. Some folks call this phenomena astral projection. I wasn’t hungry.
Most of us, I'm lookin at you Steve Miller, think romantically about flying especially when we observe and contemplate the soaring of a bald eagle or while projecting and sleepflying.
Few of us consider the flight of the eagle to be what it is, a life long search for food.
That search becomes intensified after the birth of an eaglet. The eaglet receives incubation from the mother for the first three days of its life before it is joined by at least one and sometimes two eaglets with mouth(s) to feed. Thus begins a nearly unprecedented sibling rivalry for survival.
The first born has a huge advantage. First off, he is more fully incubated which means he's bigger and stronger and better adapted to the nest than his rivals. When the parental eagle returns to the nest, they drop off the food and the eaglets compete for it. The eldest of the eaglets usually wins this competition and grows stronger while his brethren starve and grow weaker. As they grow, the eaglets continue to fight for ring even as the nest is growing smaller because they are getting bigger especially the eldest. By now the weaker brethren is not only starving but being pecked to death by his nest mates even as the nest if filling up with eagle excreta.
After five or six weeks, the adult eagles leave the nest and find another place to root. They don't bother with child care. They leave the kids to battle it out
At this point the weakest of the three is killed by its brothers as the parents look on without interfering. If the surviving weaker of the eaglets makes it to eight weeks, that eaglet is trying like hell to get outta this place too soon and away from the constant pecking and poking and bullying. Here is where many eaglets attempt to fly for the first time and usually fall to the ground, if not pushed out of the nest by bro bro. An eagle out of the nest becomes prey for foxes, coyotes, mountain lions and other predators. The parent eagles don't even bother to try to take the fallen eaglet back into the nest although they will bring it food if they find enough in their flights.
Meanwhile back in the nest, the surviving eaglet has learned to crap outside of the nest. Nobody teaches him how to do that, he just figures it out. Same with flying itself. There is no instruction from parents
Upon reaching 8 weeks of age or more, the eaglets start start flapping their wings to develop muscle strength. They flap their wings in place and perform jumps on the nest. Then they start learning how to take-off and land skills by bounding from branch to branch branch to branch. This is the period where most eaglets miss a landing and fall to the ground. Whoops.
The eagle parents do not teach the eagle babies how to fly. When the time to fledge approaches, the parents may encourage them to get the hell outta the nest the nest by flying around the nest while vocalizing.
Field observations indicate that up to half of bald eagle fledglings end up on the ground.
The one that survives imitates the parents in flight and learns all about drafting. He follows his parents everywhere and for the first five weeks, they wii continue to feed him until everybody gets sick if the dependence and the eagle survives on its own.
Next time of if ever you see an eagle in flight; remember he didn't get there while waiting for a bus. Through struggle, starvation and sibling rivalry; he's earned his wings and his freedom to fly.
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