Getting a bird-watcher’s attention

Bird-watchers never get tired of watching the birds, but seeing the same ones every day– cardinal, nuthatch, titmouse, chickadee, blue jay, goldfinch, yellow-rumped warbler, downy and red belly woodpeckers, to name a few—isn’t very exciting, although a small flock of chittering cedar waxwings flitting about the lower pasture is interesting enough to stop and watch for a second or two.

But once in a while, one is compelled to sit up and take notice.

At the beginning of the week, we were driving home from the dentist and were within about 5 miles of the house. I was looking down because I was reading to Richard while he drove, and suddenly he says:

Wow!!! Look at that!! That’s an eagle!!!

Huh? What? What?!! AN EAGLE!!! Where!!!

I look up and catch a fleeting glimpse of a large, dark shape passing overhead, and now it is behind the car, and so I turn around and lean over and sure enough, I see the classic white head and...

Woah! It was an eagle all right.

Yesterday morning I was driving home from town after my aerobics class and the trip to the post office to get the mail, and as I turned down the frontage road to home, about a half-mile from the house, I saw flying toward me, at about tree-top level, a large dark bird with a white head, and my heart began to beat just a little bit faster and as it got closer it turned and flew over the trees. And I stopped and watched it until it flew out of sight.

This was probably the same bird we saw earlier in the week. Eagles do winter over in this area -- in fact, I went on an Eagle Watching expedition with the local Audubon Society many years ago -- but seeing one this close to town is not that common.

Very exciting.
Very exciting indeed.