Speaking of birds, I had a pretty kool eagle encounter Thursday evening. About 7:30pm and I'm sitting on the deck (about 10-12 ft off the ground) sipping a glass of vino and enjoying the beautiful evening. I'm looking off to the right at the mountains when I hear a 'whooshing' sound so turn to the left only to see a mature bald eagle about to crash into my deck railing a couple of feet away. Holy crap! I notice that it has a BIG chunk of fish in its talons and figure that it can't maintain altitude with that much weight. It does a big flare and just manages to clear the corner of the deck to get past with me feeling the wind of its wings on my face.

Our house is between an eagle nest in a big tree a few streets over and the ocean so we have eagles passing over and around the house a bunch times every day as they go back and forth from the nest. Even had them drop down for a closer look which can be pretty startling if you get surprised by them (BIG bird).

Anyway, it drops right down into my back yard, barely misses the wifes cloths dryer whirlgig thing, pulls up just enough to clear the fence then drops right down to head height as it crosses the street. I figured it might get hit by a car it was so low. It gets a couple of feet altitude, still hanging on the the chicks supper, and manages to squeeze between two house across the street, below roof level. These are bungalows so pretty low roof line. It claws for altitude and just manages to crash land on the roof of a 2 story two streets over. It's kinda pooched now as there is no way it can get enough altitude with the weight it's carrying to get back to the nest.

Then, to add insult to adversity, two immature eagles (look like 2 year olds) decided to attack and steal the fish. Wow, big eagle fight with lots of flapping and screaming (loud!) and carrying on. I grabbed my binocs and had a front row seat to all the action. After some time the adult finally gave up on the fish and tried multiple times to get enough altitude to get back to the nest all the time harrassed by the juveniles. I figured one would get killed as they were not fooling around. I lost her in the trees and sure hope she made it back safe. Saw one or more of the adults yesterday and today so hope it was her.

Ain't nature grand!