Missed It By That Much!
See the bald eagle in the picture, Oh Best Beloved, beautifully framed against our blue sky?
No?
*sigh*
Guess who has been trying for weeks to get a photo of one of the eagles that frequent the area? Guess who missed the shot of a lifetime because she didn’t have her camera with her out in the yard when one of the local bald eagles swooped over at no more than 50 feet from the ground, and then circled several times?
Dag nab it!
This was the nearest we’ve ever had one come to the house. The little sharp-shinned hawks and the Cooper’s hawks will swoop in on occasion and nab songbirds right from our birdfeeders, even snatching a mourning dove last month from the feeder which is less than ten feet from our house. We’ve had redtail hawks land on the clothesline poles, and claim the yard as theirs. Our neighbors even had a Canada Goose in their front yard last week, waddling about with that peculiar gait common to geese and drunken sailors.
But the eagles… ah, the eagles! Those we watch from a distance as they soar ten or more stories above us, riding the thermals as they hunt, magnificent flyers with a piercing cry that, once heard, is never forgotten.
We weren’t the only ones who saw the eagle: the bunnies have gone into hiding!
19 Jun 2007 JAS
JAS - to have them so close to your yard must be…well words fail me. We have them nesting in CT (9 pairs) and we see them in the wintertime feeding along the CT River. I have pictures of them (not where I am now) which I will happily share with you. The truly are one of the most magnificent creatures there is.
We also have the predator birds (sans Eagles) in our backyard. The Sharp Shinned Hawk will fly right over my head - with its meal in its claws (not pretty). We’ve had Red Shouldered Hawks build a nest and lay eggs (that did not hatch due to an unfortunate late season snowstorm).
I saw a remarkable response from eagles when the Stapleton Airport in Denver was closed. We were driving the runways and stopped abruptly to see eagles soar low down the runway as if to reclaim a territory lost to them for 65 years.