Tweets --

Thought I might share a startling experience I had this morning. Was
driving down the street when there was a swooping in the sky, and a hunk of
something came crashing down to the pavement in front of my car. The
swooping turned out to be two adult Bald Eagles, flying low, and the fallen
item appeared to have feathers when I passed it. Hurriedly I pulled over
and walked back to see what they had dropped.

It was a soggy Western Grebe, at least half devoured. The remains weren't
holding together very well; when I started to pick it up and put it on the
road shoulder it fell apart and I had to make a second trip to get the head
and spinal column. I was thinking in terms of removing a tempting morsel
from harm's way, lest the pile of feathers grow to include the black and
gray of crows and gulls, scavenging in the path of automobiles. But the
eagles were still up there, soaring around fairly low, eyeing me and the
lost grebe. I pulled a little farther forward and stayed to watch. They
stuck around another minute or so, as if wondering whether to risk trying
to retrieve the grebe, then soared away on the wind. I drove on and turned
the corner, then glanced back to see one of the birds soaring back again. I
didn't think it would dare to play "chicken" with the traffic, becoming a
road pizza itself, but then I'm afraid I can't vouch for the intelligence
of our national symbol...

I don't know if the eagles had been attempting a romantic talon-a-talon
food exchange, or whether they were fighting over breakfast. Either way, it
was quite a start to a blustery day: eagles dropping grebes out of the sky!

-- Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net