The Bald Eagle that kept returning to the same tree

A few months earlier, I had started paying more attention to another hobby of mine: finding out which birds were actually living around me. Shortly before that, I had bought a new camera and a better lens so I could also photograph subjects that were farther away.

I looked on Google Maps for promising birding locations near the apartment where I was living at the time and ended up at Union Bay Natural Area on Lake Washington. I was expecting a few smaller songbirds and, with some luck, perhaps some less common ducks.

Only a few metres into the park, however, I realised what I was looking at: a Bald Eagle, closer than I had ever seen one before. It was sitting in a tree roughly 40 metres away and remained there for the entire afternoon. In that moment, I became aware again of just how different this part of the world was from the place I had come from. An encounter like this in the middle of Zurich would be difficult to imagine.

On later visits to Union Bay, what was very likely the same Bald Eagle kept appearing. It used the same tree each time and usually even the same three branches. On one occasion, a second Bald Eagle was sitting in the tree as well.

Seeing it there repeatedly reminded me that even a relatively large city such as Seattle can contain small pockets of nature right inside the urban area. It was also one of the first moments that showed me how much the city had to offer beyond the things I had initially associated with it.