What better way to spend the July 4th weekend than seeing a bald eagle for the first time, just two miles from George Washington’s house?  That’s like spotting Santa on Christmas Eve, or killing your first vampire on Halloween, or maybe having rabbit stew for Easter, right?

I do realize that you readers cannot see the eagle, as it is only a tiny speck above the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Mount Vernon in the first picture below.  I was too excited at first to snap a picture, and those birds fly fast.

I realize that I have posted before about spotting an eagle for the first time in the hills around my home.  But my Virginian friends have explained to me that, based on my description of that bird, it was probably a condor.

We also saw the eagle in its nest across the parkway, and could hear the cries of both the bird and its mate.  They nest there because they dive for fish in the Potomac River.