Golden Eagle in the Ecrins massif (French Alps)

The golden eagle often hangs over our heads without us taking the time to see it. Magnificent bird of prey, formidable aerial predator, the beautiful bird is observed in all seasons in the Ecrins massif and the Hautes-Alpes. Its large size distinguishes it from simple nozzles.

A majestic predator with exceptional flying qualities

Aigle Hautes Alpes The golden eagle seems to have only one obsession: to survive and reproduce to transmit its genes. He therefore seeks ascending air currents to ascend as high as possible. With a piercing view he then focuses his attention on all kinds of potential prey (marmots, chamois, young ibex, small game, rodents etc ...). After having melted on them and seized them in his powerful greenhouses he kills them with a violent peck. A famous philosopher describes in a fable the very different points of view of the eagle and the lamb in "Genealogy of Morality". The eagle having a certain affection not to say a real tenderness for the little lamb. And the lamb a vision radically opposed, the eagle being a kind of killer angel from heaven. The morality of each being especially related to his point of view ...
The eagle circle in the warm air currents with efficiency thanks to a sculpted aerodynamics over time, Darwinian selection and Darwinian evolution helping. The video below will allow you to observe its wing tips that reduce vortex drag and thus improve glide performance. The modern airliners use, by mimicry and for some years, the same principle, it is called winglets wingtips.

https://youtu.be/oHM5YOZTaG8

Anecdote Vallouisienne

The Golden Eagle is a species now totally protected and we are back a little anecdote about it. The former President of the Republic Valéry Giscard d'Estaing visiting the beautiful valley of the Vallouise in 1977 stopped in a small troquet run by a farmer, always friendly, with whom we conversed with great pleasure. The President of the Republic asked why there was a magnificent stuffed eagle in the room. The mischievous landlord, with a keen eye, explained to him most earnestly that the eagle had seized an infant in his landau and that he was obliged to shoot him with a rifle to save the child. child who fell back directly into the basket ...A source of confidence tells us, a few months after writing this anecdote, that this version would be false. It would seem that in reality the eagle worried the postman of the village. The latter climbing towards Puy Aillaud felt threatened by the raptor swirling too close to him. The raptor was then shot dead to allow the courier to reach the hamlet of Puy Aillaud!

https://www.ina.fr/video/R14028696

We propose other images of eagle on this blog during a release after care in the area of the Col du Galibier in the northern department of Hautes-Alpes.