All that talk about eagles last week brought the subject to mind. It was about eagles with a capital E, but those Super Bowl ass-kickers are not the subject.
They just got us thinking about other rare raptors we’ve watched. And where and when they popped in and out of our life.
As a Chicago kid you had little chance of seeing a wild eagle. You’d go to Starved Rock Park and hope. Later on you’d hike the serious wilds of the U.P.—aptly named “up” for its position on the map—Michigan’s unsung hero of untamed wilderness.
There you saw eagles. Young Bald Eagles with brown heads, mature ones with white heads. All with mean eyes and muscles. 
Later you saw them in Alaska where they were common as pigeons. They were flying, coasting, sitting in treetops, and one met your gaze, defiantly saying: “no fear.”
You saw them in Yellowstone and also in Florida, one circling Disney World of all places. In Arizona you saw a Golden Eagle, its coloration highlighted in lowering sunlight.
So, yeah, Eagles with a captial E were in the news. But their namesakes were in your memory.
And recently, incredibly, there was one in your backyard. You have a puny pond back there, and in a tree overlooking the flat water sat a massive Bald Eagle. It reminded you of those on the Chilkat River near Hanes, Alaska where, eagles were common as pigeons.
But this one was in your backyard. Super.
Thats one to get as a yard bird. Me I got the Chicago Bears in my back yard.