Fabulous! I never tire of seeing soaring birds. One of the thrills of my life was flying my free-flight (it's on its own after you let go of the towline) model glider (six foot wingspan). It was circling in a thermal (circular updraft of air) when a hawk came and started circling with it checking out this newcomer. After three minutes the glider dethermalizes (a small clock timer allows the stabilizer to pop up at an angle, stalling the airplane). It gentling flutters to the ground. The hawk followed it almost to the ground. To see something you built up flying with those gorgeous hawks. Beautiful!
Cathy! I built one. Smaller, at 50 inches. Never flew it. Mine was fuse and rubber band triggered. Other, older flyers told sad stories of losing beautiful gliders when they failed to dethermalize. I didn't want to lose mine! Lost it anyway, to time and R/C....and Cessna's. Failed the flight physical, always an "active passenger." We have a family of buzzards here, probably close to your glider's size or better. I can watch them circle out of sight in front of approaching summer storm fronts. Follow a thermal all the way up. You can just tell that it is their favorite thing to do. Not bald eagles mind you, but this is Georgia. The buzzard should be our state bird....
My dad was an aeronautical engineer so when my brother got old enough they started flying models. I was not about to be left out. We'd go to the National Model Airplane Championships held at different Naval Air Stations across the country. Great fun!
I grew up north of Chicago, beside the Glenview Naval Air Station. The week the model competition was occurring, we kids vied to see who'd find an errant craft that sailed off the base. There were often roaming pickup trucks from the Navy searching the neighborhoods...maybe there was a $1 bounty involved. Or am I dreaming? Today it is the most successful base closure of all, 1200 acres re-developed spectacularly.
The free flight airplanes move down wind as fast as the wind is blowing. You go after it on foot. Navy personnel helped chase and find the airplanes which explains the pickup trucks. I was at that event!
Cathy, that reminds me of when I was in the 8th grade, my wish was to become an aeronautical engineer. There was a SAC base near where I lived. However, as it goes with many of us, our life dreams change, and I did many different things not related to that. As for flying, the last time I was in an airplane was the flight I took home from Heathrow Airport to Dulles Airport in 1991. Wow, I've been grounded for going on 31 years! But I love birds and love to see eagles and others soar through the air.
Nancy, I'm pretty sure we have eagles. but the buzzard seems more appropriate to GA politics and government.....and when they're not flying away with small animals or dropping carcasses in your yard, they're loads of fun.
So here in Arlington,Va within eyesight of the Washington monument I looked out my front window on a recent morning to see a large Cooper's Hawk eyeing me from the Maple tree in front of my house which is quite close to a broad four lane street. The health of the top predators is probably a fair index of the health of our environment -- so there is hope.
I hope you are right. May we remember that the climate is heating up and various creatures and other habitat are moving north in this hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere. As heating continues, eventually all will move up in altitude until there will be no place to go. If our stupid rich governments, e.g., the USA, and rich countries in Europe, South America, etc.,, continue to ignore what is happening, there will no longer be any hope.
Yours was towed, that size prop looks like a low rpm rubber band. Mine was supposed to be launched by innertube strips (we were involuntarily low budget, why I was scared to lose her), but I never launched. I've seen launches with model rocket motors, drop away CO2 carts--anything to get 'em up! That's a serious aircraft in that pic. All business. Designed to handle multiple launch setups I bet.
Here is the Harbinger which is the Nordic glider I built and flew: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=6190 The rubber powered international class was called Wakefield. It used 40 grams of Pirelli rubber used to tie the grafts of grape trees. I also flew Wakefield. Here is my dad's plan: https://outerzone.co.u/plan_details.asp?ID=2362 It took a lot of strength to wind that much rubber. The joke was to get the maximum you wound until it breaks and back off one turn.
You folks were in a WHOLE different league! Nice plans.
I couldn't access your dad's plans from substack. Will try another browser. I'm on my cell phone now. Right now I'm going to pull a "Heather" maneuver. 💤
Well, I'll brag for a moment. I was the National Model Glider Champion in 1968 when still a teenager. My brother narrowly missed making the US Team to go to the World Championships that same year.
I see eagles nearly every day. I never tire of it and am constantly reminded that, but for the efforts of Rachel Carson, and many others, eagles and many other birds would be extinct or nearly so. Ah, the days when even Republicans actually believed in science…..
Rachel Carson's work focused attention on how DDT had ravaged many species, especially those that lived in and around water or depended on fish for their diet. While federal protection helped the eagles from becoming extinct, the banning of DDT was essential. When I was a kid growing up in Florida, in and around the water, I don't recall seeing a single osprey. Now thankfully they're everywhere. It also explains why there are now so many alligators, which weren't common in urban lakes because of DDT.
Oh is that true? Alligators kind of “followed” the osprey? I am no fan of alligators and if I found one in my yard (not likely—I’m in TN) I would totally freak out.
Not followed the osprey. DDT made the eggs of many creatures soft, limiting the number that hatched. This included eagles, osprey, and alligators. DDT was first widely used during WW II to control mosquito-borne diseases like malaria. After the war, it was introduced in the U.S. In Florida, trucks with special equipment would spew out smoke that contained DDT to control mosquitoes. I know firsthand: like a lot kids, I ran behind the trucks because it was "fun" to be engulfed in the smoke.
Hope you've been the the national eagles center at Wabasha. Much recovery in Western Wisconsin and Minnesota along Mississippi, Red Cedar,, and St Croix rivers.
Fred - I have visited many times as I used to work at the Raptor Center at the U of MN. That's where the eagles the staff at the National Eagle Center use in their education programs were rehabilitated. As you might know, Minnesota has more nesting pairs of bald eagles than any other state except Alaska. All kinds of awesome to just walk outdoors and see one of those giant, handsome birds flying overhead.
Know of UM work. When we lived on Red Cedar, the return began. Now those big boys are all over, even out in the hills in hunting range. Your work paid off.
Thank you Heather and Buddy. Such a wonder of a picture that captured an eagle experience. As a totem, Eagle medicine is the power of the Great Spirit, the connection to the Divine. Eagle reminds us to take heart and gather one’s courage for Universe presents us with an opportunity to soar above mundane levels of life through astuteness, understanding, and hard work. Our country walks now in shadows of former realities, and we look for illumination. As we look at the eagles that landed close to Heather and Buddy, remember the gift of the freedom of the skies. Let us legalize that freedom within ourselves and follow the joy that our hearts desire.
Christine, beautiful imagery, with a tie-in to First American theology. I copied and pasted your comment to my notes, a rare thing for me to do. Peace to you as well!
Yes, shadows of former realities. And our lives actually touched those realities -- we were here for the final moments of their transition, to Dr. Richardson's bailiwick. You nailed it.
Thank you for adding to Heather’s post & photo, made my heart sing. I really needed that, esp. after so much hate in the world is thrust at us daily! I try to avoid but the negativity starts to wear one down a bit, after awhile. Bless you!
As an 82 year old grandmotherly type, living in Italy, I want to congratulate you on trying to take care of yourself by taking the occasional day off. You, along with the American Eagle, are a national treasure. What would we do without you?
They are magnificent creatures! We sometimes see them when we visit friends in Eagle River, WI. Rest well.
I just joined your newsletter, finally, after reading many of your posts on FB. Don't like FB much these days. Last year my husband and I both read, How the South Won the Civil War. Very sobering. Thank you for all you do in your generous teaching
Thank you, Anne-Louise. Peace and clarity are always welcome. I also subscribe to Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s, Lucid, a community that is also a place of peace and clarity and support. Important for all is us to have this in our lives when there’s so much turmoil in our country right now…and the rest of the world. So kind of you to write.
I think I understand what you're saying. Over the past few years, it has been a great way to connect with friends who I would not normally see because they live far away, and whose friendships I value. It's unfortunate that it has been corrupted, like so much else, with politics.
Good to see this. I know I need to see something completely different from this political mess sometimes, just to focus my brain and see more clearly. Thank you for the letters.
Two Bald Eagles on Sunday night, thank you Buddy for this remarkable sight. Heather Cox Richardson, in this time of turmoil, you persist with morning deliveries of Letter from an American. The neatly contained, wisely selected and well elucidated document lays out the issues of day. America is such a wild, all over the place mess, and, yet, you've shown us the art of containment. How you choose the right pieces among the fragments and make America whole -- as much as possible -- is a feat to be grateful for. Thank you, Heather for making sense of our country.
The Eagle
Alfred Billings Street
An eagle in this lovely scene
Was perched upon a hillock green,
Where strew'd remains of bow and spear
With here and there a scattered bone,
Bared by the frost and rain, made known
An Indian burial-place was here.
And as he stood, his form stretch'd high,
And from his keen and martial eye
Glances around he shot,
He seem'd within the halo-light
With ruffled plumes, and crown of white,
The monarch of the spot.
Balancing on his outspread wing,
At length he look'd as if to spring,
While higher arch'd his kingly neck;
Rustled the leaves — and with a shriek
He swept up, pointing high his beak,
And dwindled to a fading speck.
Alfred Billings Street (December 18, 1811 – June 2, 1881) was an American author and poet.
Street was born in Poughkeepsie (city), In 1848 he was appointed New York State Librarian, a position he held until his death. His poems deal with the sights and sounds of the woodland and
and the life of the more primitive days of the settlement of America.
I wanted to stop in Poughkeepsie. How many times? It was on the way from the upper westside in Manhattan to East Chatham, NY, where my husband and I had a home, but I didn't stop and missed the eagles, too. Thank you for reminding me of that time and of the places, Richard.
Do you think if one could wrest the single minded pursuit of power from the Republicans, avert their eyes and minds--for just a few moments-- from subverting democracy, and direct their gaze to these fabulous creatures, symbols of our democracy, that something might crack their conscience...reflect...maybe...something would happen?
Exceptionally outstanding letters this past week. So clear and packed with good information. As always, thank you.
Agree! Excellent!!
Yes agree! very informative this past week. Thank you !
I’ll say!!!
Maybe they are bringing the American dream back to us all - we can only hope...
What a wonderful image! 💙
Fabulous! I never tire of seeing soaring birds. One of the thrills of my life was flying my free-flight (it's on its own after you let go of the towline) model glider (six foot wingspan). It was circling in a thermal (circular updraft of air) when a hawk came and started circling with it checking out this newcomer. After three minutes the glider dethermalizes (a small clock timer allows the stabilizer to pop up at an angle, stalling the airplane). It gentling flutters to the ground. The hawk followed it almost to the ground. To see something you built up flying with those gorgeous hawks. Beautiful!
Cathy! I built one. Smaller, at 50 inches. Never flew it. Mine was fuse and rubber band triggered. Other, older flyers told sad stories of losing beautiful gliders when they failed to dethermalize. I didn't want to lose mine! Lost it anyway, to time and R/C....and Cessna's. Failed the flight physical, always an "active passenger." We have a family of buzzards here, probably close to your glider's size or better. I can watch them circle out of sight in front of approaching summer storm fronts. Follow a thermal all the way up. You can just tell that it is their favorite thing to do. Not bald eagles mind you, but this is Georgia. The buzzard should be our state bird....
Happy flying to ya.
My dad was an aeronautical engineer so when my brother got old enough they started flying models. I was not about to be left out. We'd go to the National Model Airplane Championships held at different Naval Air Stations across the country. Great fun!
I grew up north of Chicago, beside the Glenview Naval Air Station. The week the model competition was occurring, we kids vied to see who'd find an errant craft that sailed off the base. There were often roaming pickup trucks from the Navy searching the neighborhoods...maybe there was a $1 bounty involved. Or am I dreaming? Today it is the most successful base closure of all, 1200 acres re-developed spectacularly.
The free flight airplanes move down wind as fast as the wind is blowing. You go after it on foot. Navy personnel helped chase and find the airplanes which explains the pickup trucks. I was at that event!
For me it was boomerangs.
Cathy, that reminds me of when I was in the 8th grade, my wish was to become an aeronautical engineer. There was a SAC base near where I lived. However, as it goes with many of us, our life dreams change, and I did many different things not related to that. As for flying, the last time I was in an airplane was the flight I took home from Heathrow Airport to Dulles Airport in 1991. Wow, I've been grounded for going on 31 years! But I love birds and love to see eagles and others soar through the air.
Hey, hey! The eagles are on their way, and will chase the buzzards away.
Nancy, I'm pretty sure we have eagles. but the buzzard seems more appropriate to GA politics and government.....and when they're not flying away with small animals or dropping carcasses in your yard, they're loads of fun.
Same in TX. Yep, had that happen, half a rabbit. Ugh
Gus, sadly I agree. Let's just hope that our changing demographics will eventually fix the rules, and thus the game. I hope I live to see it happen.
Nancy, There is much hope for Georgia. We are working on it. May we both see it happen!
What do you mean Gus, “Hope “ for Ga. ?
So here in Arlington,Va within eyesight of the Washington monument I looked out my front window on a recent morning to see a large Cooper's Hawk eyeing me from the Maple tree in front of my house which is quite close to a broad four lane street. The health of the top predators is probably a fair index of the health of our environment -- so there is hope.
I hope you are right. May we remember that the climate is heating up and various creatures and other habitat are moving north in this hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere. As heating continues, eventually all will move up in altitude until there will be no place to go. If our stupid rich governments, e.g., the USA, and rich countries in Europe, South America, etc.,, continue to ignore what is happening, there will no longer be any hope.
Dude that’s crazy!
Check it out at: It's the F1A class towline glider -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_flight_(model_aircraft)
I thought that I was “dangerous “ because I boogie board in oregon and literally anywhere else there is water. But this is amazing!
Yours was towed, that size prop looks like a low rpm rubber band. Mine was supposed to be launched by innertube strips (we were involuntarily low budget, why I was scared to lose her), but I never launched. I've seen launches with model rocket motors, drop away CO2 carts--anything to get 'em up! That's a serious aircraft in that pic. All business. Designed to handle multiple launch setups I bet.
Here is the Harbinger which is the Nordic glider I built and flew: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=6190 The rubber powered international class was called Wakefield. It used 40 grams of Pirelli rubber used to tie the grafts of grape trees. I also flew Wakefield. Here is my dad's plan: https://outerzone.co.u/plan_details.asp?ID=2362 It took a lot of strength to wind that much rubber. The joke was to get the maximum you wound until it breaks and back off one turn.
You folks were in a WHOLE different league! Nice plans.
I couldn't access your dad's plans from substack. Will try another browser. I'm on my cell phone now. Right now I'm going to pull a "Heather" maneuver. 💤
Well, I'll brag for a moment. I was the National Model Glider Champion in 1968 when still a teenager. My brother narrowly missed making the US Team to go to the World Championships that same year.
wow. amazing engineering! Well done in the extreme.
I just found this Youtube video of the Wakefield rubber class model. Even shows them winding the motor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBv0bfGEhxw
Wow! Also, thanks for the definitions!
I see eagles nearly every day. I never tire of it and am constantly reminded that, but for the efforts of Rachel Carson, and many others, eagles and many other birds would be extinct or nearly so. Ah, the days when even Republicans actually believed in science…..
Rachel Carson's work focused attention on how DDT had ravaged many species, especially those that lived in and around water or depended on fish for their diet. While federal protection helped the eagles from becoming extinct, the banning of DDT was essential. When I was a kid growing up in Florida, in and around the water, I don't recall seeing a single osprey. Now thankfully they're everywhere. It also explains why there are now so many alligators, which weren't common in urban lakes because of DDT.
Let's not be "Silent (this) Spring"!
She needs to be back on the best seller list.
Many osprey in my Florida neighborhood !
Oh is that true? Alligators kind of “followed” the osprey? I am no fan of alligators and if I found one in my yard (not likely—I’m in TN) I would totally freak out.
Not followed the osprey. DDT made the eggs of many creatures soft, limiting the number that hatched. This included eagles, osprey, and alligators. DDT was first widely used during WW II to control mosquito-borne diseases like malaria. After the war, it was introduced in the U.S. In Florida, trucks with special equipment would spew out smoke that contained DDT to control mosquitoes. I know firsthand: like a lot kids, I ran behind the trucks because it was "fun" to be engulfed in the smoke.
Hope you've been the the national eagles center at Wabasha. Much recovery in Western Wisconsin and Minnesota along Mississippi, Red Cedar,, and St Croix rivers.
Fred - I have visited many times as I used to work at the Raptor Center at the U of MN. That's where the eagles the staff at the National Eagle Center use in their education programs were rehabilitated. As you might know, Minnesota has more nesting pairs of bald eagles than any other state except Alaska. All kinds of awesome to just walk outdoors and see one of those giant, handsome birds flying overhead.
Know of UM work. When we lived on Red Cedar, the return began. Now those big boys are all over, even out in the hills in hunting range. Your work paid off.
I am blessed in Northern Michigan, too. Awesome birds!
Thank you Heather and Buddy. Such a wonder of a picture that captured an eagle experience. As a totem, Eagle medicine is the power of the Great Spirit, the connection to the Divine. Eagle reminds us to take heart and gather one’s courage for Universe presents us with an opportunity to soar above mundane levels of life through astuteness, understanding, and hard work. Our country walks now in shadows of former realities, and we look for illumination. As we look at the eagles that landed close to Heather and Buddy, remember the gift of the freedom of the skies. Let us legalize that freedom within ourselves and follow the joy that our hearts desire.
Peace brothers and sisters!
Christine, beautiful imagery, with a tie-in to First American theology. I copied and pasted your comment to my notes, a rare thing for me to do. Peace to you as well!
Yes, shadows of former realities. And our lives actually touched those realities -- we were here for the final moments of their transition, to Dr. Richardson's bailiwick. You nailed it.
At least we have the eagles to remind us, and inspire us to be be wisdom keepers all, while we yet remain.
Hopefully to pass it on!
Lovely…🙏🏼
Thank you for adding to Heather’s post & photo, made my heart sing. I really needed that, esp. after so much hate in the world is thrust at us daily! I try to avoid but the negativity starts to wear one down a bit, after awhile. Bless you!
As an 82 year old grandmotherly type, living in Italy, I want to congratulate you on trying to take care of yourself by taking the occasional day off. You, along with the American Eagle, are a national treasure. What would we do without you?
This is my meager offering tonight regarding a bird that is not held in such high esteem as the eagle:
Flight of the Crow
jro 12/14/21
I am not a big fan of crows
Who scare away little birds
Who harass even the red tail hawks
But I am still amazed at one flying by
Unfazed by gravity
Yesterday’s letter recounting the achievements of the Biden administration was heartening. If only they would toot their own horn more.
Anybody on the right read that? What is your answer to that?
Maybe the relentless repetitive blasting from a very loud horn for four years has dulled everyone's hearing.
Indeed
What was that? (cups his hand to his ear)
I read it. I plagiarized and turned into an LTE. We’ll see if it’s published.
I guess we all need to blast it out there ourselves.
Thank you for another week of informative, hopeful, frightening letters. You’re amazing.
They are magnificent creatures! We sometimes see them when we visit friends in Eagle River, WI. Rest well.
I just joined your newsletter, finally, after reading many of your posts on FB. Don't like FB much these days. Last year my husband and I both read, How the South Won the Civil War. Very sobering. Thank you for all you do in your generous teaching
Welcome to the fold, Joanna. It's a place of peace and clarity.
Thank you, Anne-Louise. Peace and clarity are always welcome. I also subscribe to Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s, Lucid, a community that is also a place of peace and clarity and support. Important for all is us to have this in our lives when there’s so much turmoil in our country right now…and the rest of the world. So kind of you to write.
Will be glad when FB not the end all for so many
I think I understand what you're saying. Over the past few years, it has been a great way to connect with friends who I would not normally see because they live far away, and whose friendships I value. It's unfortunate that it has been corrupted, like so much else, with politics.
Welcome Joanna!
Thank you MaryPat!
Good to see this. I know I need to see something completely different from this political mess sometimes, just to focus my brain and see more clearly. Thank you for the letters.
I relate to the beauty to which you subscribe. I row on a lake in Central coast California that has eagles swooping down to catch fish.
Two Bald Eagles on Sunday night, thank you Buddy for this remarkable sight. Heather Cox Richardson, in this time of turmoil, you persist with morning deliveries of Letter from an American. The neatly contained, wisely selected and well elucidated document lays out the issues of day. America is such a wild, all over the place mess, and, yet, you've shown us the art of containment. How you choose the right pieces among the fragments and make America whole -- as much as possible -- is a feat to be grateful for. Thank you, Heather for making sense of our country.
The Eagle
Alfred Billings Street
An eagle in this lovely scene
Was perched upon a hillock green,
Where strew'd remains of bow and spear
With here and there a scattered bone,
Bared by the frost and rain, made known
An Indian burial-place was here.
And as he stood, his form stretch'd high,
And from his keen and martial eye
Glances around he shot,
He seem'd within the halo-light
With ruffled plumes, and crown of white,
The monarch of the spot.
Balancing on his outspread wing,
At length he look'd as if to spring,
While higher arch'd his kingly neck;
Rustled the leaves — and with a shriek
He swept up, pointing high his beak,
And dwindled to a fading speck.
Alfred Billings Street (December 18, 1811 – June 2, 1881) was an American author and poet.
Street was born in Poughkeepsie (city), In 1848 he was appointed New York State Librarian, a position he held until his death. His poems deal with the sights and sounds of the woodland and
and the life of the more primitive days of the settlement of America.
Thanks for the poem, dear Fern. It was a pleasure to read aloud.
Street's birthplace, Poughkeepsie, is next to the Hudson River, which is a great place to see eagles and other wildlife. Thanks for this poem, Fern!
I wanted to stop in Poughkeepsie. How many times? It was on the way from the upper westside in Manhattan to East Chatham, NY, where my husband and I had a home, but I didn't stop and missed the eagles, too. Thank you for reminding me of that time and of the places, Richard.
Do you think if one could wrest the single minded pursuit of power from the Republicans, avert their eyes and minds--for just a few moments-- from subverting democracy, and direct their gaze to these fabulous creatures, symbols of our democracy, that something might crack their conscience...reflect...maybe...something would happen?
What wonderful neighbors! May their traits continue to inspire the country they symbolize.
Thank you for all you do!
Thank you for sharing such beauty. Your photo creates a peaceful space in the tumult. Thank you for your columns. Your insight is invaluable to me.
We have a protected park for Bald Eagles along the Merrimack River in Bedford, NH.
I did not know this. Looking forward to walking the trail when in opens April 1. Thanks!