The sky above the fields was shoe-shine black. I stood outside for awhile and enjoyed the stars. A few decades ago, the American bald eagle was headed for extinction. It is not uncommon to see an eagle in the rural counties that border the lower Rappahannock River. Tuesday evening, in fact, I was standing in the parking lot at Northern Neck Seafood when a big one hopped up into a tree out behind the place.
Eagles are scavengers.
They look for easy pickings. The eagle apparently was hunting for any fish that might have fallen off a waterman's delivery truck. The big, white-headed bird would have been safer down by the river, but getting dinner there requires a little work. In a recent column, I said deer love suburban landscapes. That point is made clear from hunting statistics just released by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.