Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Visitor Day

The Bag Lady had a visitor drop in yesterday morning. He was a little camera-shy, so she had trouble capturing him on film. He is almost impossible to spot in this first shot....










When she stepped out into the yard, he turned his back on her....








And, as she got a little closer, he turned and looked over his shoulder at her....








But when the Princess came tromping along to investigate what had caught the Bag Lady's attention, her guest took off. She had her camera at maximum telephoto, which still wasn't great, so in case you can't tell, he was a bald eagle. We see them quite often here in the winter, and this is the second time in recent years that one has perched in the trees behind the Bag Lady's house.


She spots them most often on the side of the road, feasting on some poor deer or moose that has been struck on the highway. One can always tell when there is a carcass somewhere because of the ravens and the eagles.

18 comments:

Sarah said...

Wow that's really amazing!

the Bag Lady said...

They are really beautiful creatures! Just wish I had a better camera.

Leah J. Utas said...

That is so cool. You are very fortunate to have a Bald Eagle visit.

the Bag Lady said...

I thought so, too. It's a darned good thing the Cowboy happened to look out the window when he did, or I wouldn't have noticed.

Hilary said...

That's an incredible bird. What great luck.. I'm glad you captured those shots.

the Bag Lady said...

I just wish I had been able to get better close-ups. He sat there quite awhile, but those trees are really tall, and I couldn't get any closer. He was quite disturbed as soon as I stepped around the house, and as I got closer, he almost took off a couple times. I tried to take a photo when he was in flight, but all I got was sky...

Anonymous said...

Wow! Great pics....guess my pictures of our squirrel in the "wild" probably are not that exciting.
:-(

Missicat

the Bag Lady said...

Missicat - is it a black squirrel? 'Cause we don't have black squirrels here, so it would be exciting to me!

Anonymous said...

Actually I have seen black squirrels...especially at the National Zoo, for some reason there are a lot there. Seems to me there is a story behind the black squirrels in the D.C. area - will have to look it up.

Missicat

Anonymous said...

Here's the black squirrel link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051802251.html

Missicat

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, missicat - will check into it.

Reb said...

Oh WOW! Sis that is great that they come and visit you. I know someone that would be extremely jealous of that, he is crazy for Eagles!

Time to upgrade your camera? Oh, I know, you could get one for the Cowboy for his birthday!

the Bag Lady said...

Reb - just need to train the eagles to land lower on the tree branches!!

JavaChick said...

Very cool.

Dawn said...

What an honour that he choose your place to roost awhile. Hopefully, he will be back. Does he bother your chickens? (I can visualise you having hens but maybe you don't!) We have hawks here - very tame, I know, after an eagle - and they occasionally grab a hen.

I went to a wildlife refuge where they had trained (falconry)our native hawk and during the demostration the handler told a story about it trying to grab a tourist's toy poodle!

the Bag Lady said...

Dawn, as a matter of fact, I don't have chickens. We used to have roosters (they were given to us as a prank -- I kept telling everyone that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't teach them to lay eggs!) but we finally took pity on them and gave them to a lady who had hens.
I do always keep an eye on my pets when I know there's an eagle around, although he was probably just resting on his way north.

Anonymous said...

I giggle that Im thinking about you this morning----and your oatmeal....and squirrel poop.

have a great day,

M.

the Bag Lady said...

Damned squirrels!!
The Bag Lady wonders if you'll be giggling after you read what she posted today...