A view of the Brandywine and Joe Pye Weed with tiger swallowtails at the Brandywine River Museum
On Sunday my daughter and her boyfriend took my wife and me
to the Brandywine River Museum. The museum is built onto an old mill. Two of
the restaurant walls are floor to ceiling windows with a view of the
Brandywine.
After breakfast we toured the 3 story museum exhibits
wearing our little stickers that showed we had arrived early on Sunday morning
when admission is free. The occasion was my 70th birthday.
I enjoyed the N C Wyeth paintings; paintings of other
American artists and some really cool weathervanes on exhibit.
The highlight of the day was unexpected. On our way back to
Coatesville we rode on narrow Chester County roads that mostly followed creek
valleys. My daughter said, “Is that a
hawk?” I saw a flash of white tail. At first I thought, Northern Harrier. But
the entire tail was white. I shouted, “It’s an eagle”.
American bald eagle was flying less than 100 feet away about 50 feet above the ground. She or he flew in about the same direction as our car
for several minutes.
I had only seen photos or viewed bald eagles downstream of
Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River. At the Conowingo site he eagles are out
in the river quite a distance away. This was up close. We didn’t need
binoculars. It was an elegant bird with dark brown body and wings and brilliant
white head and tail feathers
I doubt that this fierce and regal king of the sky or for
that matter the small birds harnessing him thought much of us poor earthbound
creatures cramped in a machine following a macadam path; but that eagle made my
day.
