EAGLES ARE ALWAYS A THRILL

A truly majestic eagle flew low over our place Sunday afternoon.

Friend Jim and I were in the orchard area busy taking down a dead tree, so I didn't get a photograph to share. In fact I was a dozen rungs or more up a ladder cutting off limbs so we could fell the tree safely without destroying a fruit tree or two in the process.

Later I checked my "bird list". I record all the birds I have seen anywhere on this property and over the years, the list has grown to seventy two different species which have at least briefly "stopped", i.e. perched or fed at least briefly in passing. Another much shorter list includes the kinds of birds that have flown over the lot without stopping to visit. Sure enough, sometime in the past twenty-one years another eagle made the fly-over list, but I don't remember it.

I will remember this one, however, because it was so low and slow that I could look it in the eye, so to speak. In Alaska this would not be an event, of course, but here it is quite unusual. If I had not been clinging to the tree and ladder for support I think I could have easily counted the wingtip feathers. In any case, I could not have used a camera if I had foolishly climbed to ladder-top with one in hand. We saw the eagle soar past again a short while later although it was further away and higher up.

Birds are just one impressive testimony of God's infinite creativeness, and I never tire of enjoying the variety and detail of color, form, function, and behavior of the birds around me.