Golden Eagle...Check

Another early year birding goal is find a soaring Golden Eagle from the deck of our house. Today, the viewing and weather conditions are just right [tad unseasonably warm :-)]. Here is the view (looking east) from our home in Lolo, MT looking across the Bitterroot River:

This Sapphire Mountain range 'foothill' is unnamed on topo maps I've looked at. There is a canyon on the northeast corner (left, out of frame of photo) called 'Cahoot Canyon'. Nice connection as I'm certainly in cahoots with the foothill for finding soaring hawks over the ridge :-). I usually start scanning the ridge at 10:30 am knowing that thermals are forming/rising air from wind. Today, I first looked at 11:15 am and within five minutes saw an immature (23rd bird species for the year) soaring westward (photo from earlier 2011):

Here's another photo from earlier 2011of higher quality (overhead at home):

Can you imagine soaring like this? Wouldn't that be great! Find a flying wonder in your neighborhood.