The Eagle's Domain

Bald eagles are lake and river birds. They seldom settle far from water, because fish are the center of their diet, and they build in the tallest trees they can find with a clear view of the shore.

The nests are built to last. A pair adds to the same nest year after year, and a typical one runs four to six feet across. One in St. Petersburg, Florida, reached nine and a half feet across and twenty feet tall.

So the title is literal. An eagle's domain is open water ringed by tall timber, and this picture puts that country inside the bird.

It is a double exposure, a photographer's idea: two images in one frame. The eagle is only an outline: one wing sweeping up toward the top edge, the other down toward the bottom, and a tuft of pale feathers at the right edge where the head would be. Inside that shape, jagged gray peaks streaked with snow rise over dark pines and a still lake that mirrors the range upside down. The wings fill with blue sky and soft cloud.

Outside the bird there is only a cream ground washed with pale blue and tan, the way a watercolor leaves its edges open. It suits a cabin or a study.