Friday, April 27, 2007

Birds of Prey...

Share
Snuck out of the office for a couple hours of slalom sailing on Padilla Bay, launching off March's Pt. Had a good session, got changed, packed up my stuff - and saw a bald eagle fighting off some other raptor (looked like a big hawk) about 30 feet away from me. He succeeded, then sat down on a piece of rock even closer for a minute. As I was gaping in disbelief, he stretched his wings for a sec, then took off. I was too stunned to even grab my cell phone out of my pocket to take a picture.

We're kind of spoiled up here with eagle sightings. There's a few that hunt over the lake just a few hundred yards from our house. You almost forget how special they are. Almost. But today's sighting was something else - I've never seen one that close up, and he just hung out for a while, completely undisturbed by me presence. Sweet.

1 comment:

PeconicPuffin said...

You're lucky to see bald eagles with any regularity. I got within 50 feet of one, once, while canoeing on a lake in Wisconsin. The eagle had snatched a sunfish and taken it up to a tree to eat. When it very patiently held the fish down with one foot and ripped it in half pulling with its beak, the power of the bird was palpable. Strong, beautiful bird.