Methinks…
…there’s some heavy-duty symbolism at work here:
There was a crash landing Sunday at the Duluth International Airport, but it didn’t involve airplanes. Rather, it was two bald eagles, which were fighting in midair when they locked talons. In a rare spectacle of nature, they were unable to disengage in time before crashing to the runway.
“Apparently, mature eagles will sometimes fight over territories,” Randy Hanzal, a Minnesota Conservation Officer, told GrindTV in an email. “They will do battle in the air, crashing into each other and grabbing an intruding eagle with their talons.
“Usually, they will let go of each other before hitting the ground, but in this case, they had the talons so deeply imbedded in each other they may have been unable to let go.”
[NOTE: I believe this is the first time I’ve ever put a single post into the categories “nature” and “politics.”]
This does not augur well for the Republic, sayeth a Roman.
Yes, some heavy-duty symbolism; but, both birds survived. That is amazing and goes to show how tough eagles can be when neither wants to be the “chicken” and let go first.
But they do NOT look like very happy birds,
Eh, well -join the rest of us.
The bald eagle mating ritual can include talon-to-talon arial acrobatics. The article did not specify the sex of the birds. In the picture one does seem larger than the other–the female being the larger bird in eagles–and this is the mating season.
Maybe they just got carried away, as has been reported elsewhere. For example:
http://animaltourism.com/news/2010/04/21/bald-eagle-in-mating-crash-may-get-to-go-outside
The speculation is that they lose track of where they are if they have not finished copulating.
Duluth International Airport! I spent three years there. It was an ADC base.
I see they were getting half of their annual ration of sunshine that day.
Half of America isn’t even putting up a fight against evil.
I live in So NH, we have the Merrimack River
it flows south about in mid state & we have a
pair of nesting bald eagles along its banks !!!!
They have eaglets too. Fish & game is surprised that eagles would be in this, not eactly rural area
but apparently fishing is good & they will stay close to a good food source.
Life goes on !
Oh, it’s only political if it’s a donkey and elephant locked in mortal combat. Although I’m hard pressed to imagine how they’d get hoofs and feet dug that deeply into each other…