The phrase “eagle eye” popped up. We’d posted a little story about a carrier pigeon. A reader questioned it. Cool interchange. It pointed out that our readers, being eagle-eyed, don’t miss much.
This reminded me of a day when I was lying in a clearing and saw a bird known for its eyes. Why was I on the ground? One way to see birds is to get off your feet. Find a secluded spot, sit down, lie back. Birds will come.
I saw a Ruby-throated Hummingbird hover nearby. Don’t see them when tramping the trail. I saw Eastern Kingbirds, a Brown Thrasher, a red fox, but that’s not where this is going.
Looking up, I saw seagulls. I didn’t grab the binoculars. Gulls are in a family of birds I categorize as generics. Sorry, I know birding purists will see a Kittiwake or Ross’s Gull when I see a generic gull.
I do know a Laughing Gull from a Herring Gull (it’s the one that’s laughing, right?), but I usually don’t I.D. these birds. They’re like flycatchers. Too many look too much alike.
Above the gulls I noticed other soaring birds. Black, with wide wings. Hey, Turkey Vultures. For these, I used binoculars. Like planes stacked over O’Hare, we had levels of circling birds. First gulls, then vultures.
But wait: Above the vultures there was a speck. A single bird, tiny due to distance. It had nothing to do with vultures. This was stacked higher. I could see dark wings with splayed tips.
Sun was shining white through the bird’s tail. The head was white. This was rare: a Bald Eagle. I thought of the humbling old idea that no matter how high up you are, somebody’s higher.
The gulls were up there enjoying scenery, the vultures were higher, looking for food, but there was something even higher. What was the eagle doing? It was looking at me.
That’s ego-centric, sure, but I felt it. Eye contact. He was looking at me because I didn’t belong in a field. And I was looking at him because he was an eagle.
I needed binoculars and all he needed was eagle eyes. He was like the guy who commented on our carrier pigeon story. He didn’t miss much.
I was starting to get cooked by the climbing sun late one morning out on our local NWR and decided to pan around one more time with the glasses when I spotted the unmistakable form of a bald eagle in an old cottonwood out to my west at the edge of the mesa. Two, two and a quarter miles over Middle Marsh, a bunch of prairie and a big center pivot field. I went over to my tripod and swung the ‘scope around. When I brought the focus in that bugger was staring straight down the barrel at me, head swiveled around nearly 180 degrees.
How’d he know?
Flyingmachine: thanks for the interesting info about heroic wartime pigeons.
And Norm S….in answer to your question, yes, Bald Eagle nests are re-used. One was used for 34 years according to a story we heard.
I had a relative who lived on Grindstone Lake in Wisc., close to to Hayward. Roger (my cousin’s husband, the original American Gothic type) used to sit on his back deck and watch an eagle’s nest across a small bay in back of their house. Roger saw eagles there every year. Once a big old boy was pulling apart a fish on the shore within a stone’s throw from where Rog was sitting. I saw the nest at the top of a very tall tree. It looked like it was balancing on the pinnacle of the tree. Being ignorant of our national bird’s habits, does it revisit the same nest every season?
This also reminds me of all the times I’ve been looking in a certain spot with the binocs for a certain bird I got a glimpse of and then all of a sudden I see something even better.
In response to the Reuters pigeon story, I was really intrigued by it and started searching and really couldn’t find accounts of it. I’m a hardened skeptic and of course had to dig trying to uncover the origins of the story. I was by no way trying to discredit it, and should have stated this in greater length in my original reply to the post. I also acknowledge that wikipedia shouldn’t be the final word, but allow one to get a starting point into further research at the very least.
Speaking of wiki, take a look at some interesting tidbits listing for Homing Pigeons:
Birds were used extensively during World War I. One homing pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the French Croix de guerre for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having been very badly injured. During World War II, the Irish Paddy and the American G.I. Joe both received the Dickin Medal, and were among 32 pigeons to receive this medallion, for their gallantry and bravery in saving human lives with their actions. Eighty-two homing pigeons were dropped into Holland with the First Airborne Division Signals as part of Operation Market Garden in World War II. The pigeons’ loft was located in London which would have required them to fly 240 miles to deliver their messages. Also in World War II, hundreds of homing pigeons with the Confidential Pigeon Service were airdropped into northwest Europe to serve as intelligence vectors for local resistance agents. Birds played a vital part in the Invasion of Normandy as radios could not be used for fear of vital information being intercepted by the enemy.