Birds of Prey...

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.