Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A wonderful exhilarating thing happened on my way to town!!

I am approaching a turn in the road at the top of a hill that falls away into the valley.  Suddenly, about ten feet in front of me and almost touching the road, a magnificent american bald eagle swoops in from the north, crossing my path.  There is another car behind me, - I cannot stop, but as I look into the rear view mirror I see that the bird has circled and is swooping once again across the road between me and the car behind!!

The heart of some poor small creature must be filling with terror, but my own is beating with excitement.





You will see that this photo was captured by Ted Steinke at some other time and in some other place, but it depicts the speed and the ferocity with which the eagle swoops.

I turn the corner and continue down the town hill, filled with awe at the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time, and the magnificence of this splendid bird.

At the bottom of the hill I look back up the valley, but the eagle is nowhere to be seen, and I know that the next time he hovers in my vicinity I will be running to get the camera and he will be a mile high in the bright blue sky, making his way in great circles and swoops southward, down the valley, and I will gaze in wonderment.......and envy?

6 comments:

Penny said...

What a wonderful moment.

Wanda..... said...

I can imagine your appreciation of viewing such a moment, Hildred! Bald Eagles have just recently been spotted nesting in our area.

I had my own excitement this morning. After failing for years to capture a photo of a small Wood Thrush...one was sitting on my porch this morning...stunned after hitting a window. Eventually it recovered and flu away...but I got my photos finally!
♥...Wanda

Anonymous said...

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! That person took a wonderful pic at that time, but I can't completely understand your feelings at the time you saw such an an amazing creature! 2 of them have showed up at my parent's farm & mom was just telling me a couple stories of seeing them last evening & this morning - I sure hope I can see them when I visit them this weekend!!!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Yes -- envy too I think! Thank you for sharing this wonder and your awe of it!

Barb said...

Hildred, I had a similar experience on this trip we are taking. An eagle swooped in front of us and then flew upward before I could even blink an eye. It was a wonderful sighting!

Reader Wil said...

That must have been awesome! Even if you had had your camera at hand you would probably not have been able to take a photo when you were driving. But it's great you saw him.