Poppy and CC's Corner: A proud symbol of a great nation.

On Super Bowl Sunday around 2 o'clock I heard a loud and boisterous racket in my back yard. It sounded like the usual suspects, crows cawing their irritating cry at the top of their lungs. We have them often and I frequently step on to the back deck and clap my hands to run them out of my back yard. But Sunday was different because they weren't in the yard, but high in tree behind my neighbors yard. I started to make some noise and run them off when I suddenly discovered what they were squawking about. They were actually fussing at a very large bird perched steadfastly at the top of the tree. He had his back to me so I couldn't identify him at first. We have turkey vultures occasionally but this bird seemed even larger and I couldn't see his head.

The crows kept up their vicious and irritating cacophony and even flying all around the giant bird steadfastly perched in the tree. I knew it had to be a vulture or a large raptor so I went back into the house and grabbed my camera and long lens so I could take a picture and identify who was causing all the problems. He turned his head just as I snapped my first pic and when I looked at the picture I realized that it was a raptor indeed, an American Bald Eagle. My heart jumped for joy, for I had never seen one this close and certainly I didn't expect to find it right behind my house. I started taking multiple shots of the great bird and his annoying entourage and finally decided to walk around to the opposite side and get a frontal view. I had to walk around my neighbors homes and I'm sure they were curious as I stood in front of their homes and saw me aiming my camera above their houses to get my shots. As those of you who photograph wildlife know, you never really know what you captured until you see the image on your computer.

I finished my walk around and thought it curious that he remained firmly perched in the tree. I went back into the house and quickly looked at some of the pictures. Cheryl popped in and I told her about my sighting and invited her to join me to see if he was still there. We walked onto the deck and discovered that he had not moved. She went to the neighbor's fence and said, "Why don't we go into his back yard and get a better view?" She led the way and I kept the camera at the ready. The closer we got to his tree, the more he kept his eyes on us. Finally, we reached the danger zone and he leapt from his perch. His pesky crows followed as he flew over the neighbors houses toward the street. Cheryl kept him in sight and sure enough he alighted atop an electrical pole on the corner of my street. We approached him again and as we crossed the street he again leapt from his perch. This time he landed on another limb of a nearby tree. We again approached the new perch and finally he jumped off and started a long soaring flight that took him far above the range of the crows and us. After a few minutes, he descended and again he was joined by the pesky crows. He continued soaring in high circles and eventually disappeared from our sight.

I didn't discover the reason for his stubborn behavior until I viewed one of the shots I had taken through a canopy of limbs and enlarged with my photo app. He firmly held a fairly large rodent in his beak, that had been fully dressed and readied for consumption. Obviously, this is what attracted the frenzied entourage of cawing crows. It also explains why the eagle didn't attempt to run them off, as he wasn't about to let go of his prey. I would like to think it was the squirrel who has been raiding my bird feeders on my deck. I wonder if you can train eagles to get rid of your squirrel problems? Forget it, Cheryl wouldn't let me do it anyway.