That’s not unusual; there are hawks and eagles around all the time. But last month I was on the freeway, and I was swooped by a bald eagle. It probably didn’t get closer than 20 feet off the deck and about 30 feet ahead of me, but it seemed pretty close at 70 mph. I was going to mention it at the time, but I forgot to.
So yesterday afternoon I was on the freeway to Bellingham. It was a nice day, so I was on the motorcycle. I got swooped by a hawk. It was much closer than the eagle, at just above eye level and about 10 feet ahead when our paths crossed. It was low enough that it wasn’t obscured by my helmet. Anyway, it reminded me I should probably post so people can talk about their local raptors.
There was a nice-looking hawk on a light pole Tuesday. Hawks (and sometimes bald eagles) hang out on light poles a lot. I always wish I could get a photo.
Sometimes a pair of bald eagles fly fairly low over my house in the warmer months. I’m hoping for more of that this year.
Pop culture has finally overwhelmed my academic background. The first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title was that you were making a joke involving dinosaurs. Stupid xkcd has ruined me.
That said I envy you and your bald eagle encounters :). You can find them down here, but not commonly and not often up close.
There’s supposedly a bald eagle’s nest somewhere in the neighbourhood. But if there is, I’ve not seen it or else it’s long gone. But they do fly pretty low sometimes. Saw a high one as I lounged on the patio last week.
I see a lot more hawks than I do eagles, though. I don’t know what kind they are.
We see redtailed hawks all the time, both in the sky and hanging out on fenceposts, etc.
A few years ago, when Slim was still in preschool, I had an encounter with a very large, very angry turkey vulture. I was taking the back way to his preschool, which at the time was just a dirt road. As I came around a curve, I saw a large black-looking something in the middle of the road. I thought maybe it was a trashbag that had blown off somebody’s porch or whatever and I slowed down so I could go around it. I could see something else in the road in front of it but I wasn’t sure what it was…just a dead something or other. Squirrel, or rabbit maybe. When I got closer, a head popped out and I slammed on the brakes. I wasn’t sure what to do, but the bird raised his wings and made a hissing noise at me with this look like "Eh! I"M EATIN HERE! DO YOU NOT SEE ME? I’M EATIN HERE!’. I didn’t want to hit him and he didn’t seem inclined to move on his own, so I beeped my horn a couple times. He still hissed and rattled his wings at me. I was afraid he might attack the car.
After a couple of minutes and a few more beeps of the horn, the bird shuffled off to the side of the road, clearly upset that I’d interrupted his lunch.
The ospreys in front of my work are probably less than 3 weeks from seeing their first chick hatch (based on my estimate of their laying time in late March). Also have 2 red-tails nesting near my old house-they often perch in a dead tree and give grief to the local mockingbirds. Have seen a few swallow-tailed kites this spring near my apartment too.
I have friends about 25 miles from me who have a Bald Eagle nest in a tree on their farm. The pair has successfully fledged young each of the past 3 years.
