Freedom Flight....

We were heading down on a trip to visit a friend and on the side of the road was:

THIS!!!!:

He was eating road kill and then took off in a wonderful, wide wing-spreaded flight!

A glorious sight!:

This is an over-exposed shot of him on the side of the road, right before he flew:

(I was in a hurry. It was very sunny....so I just shot the shot from my camera, no time to make adjustments!)

When he took off, he soared and soared above my head.  I thanked him for letting me take his photo, but I was also a little scared he was going to land on my head with those claws!:

Here is a little blurry version of a closeup:

Look at the wingspan and those feathers!!:

And those white tailfeathers fanning out!:

Wow!!!:

One gorgeous, huge eagle:

I know they can be mean and kill other animals.

But I am still in awe of this majestic breed of birds.....

and I was SO happy to catch one on camera that day.