As you well know, if you have been following this blog for any amount of time, I have issues with the internet, phone and cable TV connections up here on The Farm. The cable TV only works when it is not raining. At the first drop of rain the satellite dish shuts down and the TV displays the message, "Connection Lost". With any luck the TV service will resume in a matter of moments, unless there is a monsoon going on in which case we will be without TV for hours. Likewise our iPhones only work when the wind is blowing from the Northwest and we are standing on one leg on top of the picnic table while whistling "Dixie" out in the middle of the field. (Slight exaggeration but not really!) And as for the internet . . . well that battle is fought every day and it gets pretty old pretty fast. The fact that it just took me the better part of twenty minutes to get my computer on line never fails to anoy the hell out of me.
Keeping all this in mind there are times when we are hard pressed to find something to entertain ourselves. A good book is always my go to source of entertainment but my eyes get tired and I end up falling asleep. And so we must resort to the only thing that is left for us country folk . . . Critter Watching !
There is no end to the wildlife we can watch from just about any window in the house but the main viewing station is the good old kitchen table. The Man sits there for hours looking out at the endless parade of birds that come to our 4 bird feeders. If it's not the Bluebirds in the late spring it is the bright yellow Finches who are here all the time. We have sparrows, cowbirds, mourning doves, red wing black birds and our wonderful little humming birds just to name just a few. There is a constant fluttering of wings and an occasional squawk or chirp but mostly they are fairly quiet.
The exception to that is the crow population that like to sit high in the trees surrounding the property. They never shut up ! As I"m sitting here right now they are making all sorts of noise, seemingly mocking me and my sedentary life. If I walk down the drive way to the road there are no fewer than a half dozen big black crows sitting in the trees over my head "yelling" at me as I walk past. We almost never see these noisy fellows out in the yard but they do love to land out in the field where they fill their bellies with who knows what.
Last but not least in our bird watching show we have the majestic Bald Eagles who roost in the trees that border The Farm. They seem to like the tall pine trees the most but they can be found out in the big white birch in back of the pond. We NEVER see the eagles down on the ground unless it is out by the pond. They love to sit on the old wooden row boat that is sitting in the high grass on the edge of the water. Occasionally they will sit on the edge of the pond itself or on rare occasions they will be IN the pond taking a bath. Because they are a distance away we don't really appreciate the size of these birds until one occasionally flies over and lands on the top of the barn. The barn is fairly near the house so when there is a big old eagle sitting up there we really get to enjoy the size and beauty of this bird.
Normally an eagle will land on the barn maybe once a month. With all the trees around to perch in they tend to avoid the hot tin roof of the barn. Yesterday was an exception. It was raining most of the day so the barn roof wasn't hot. As we sat in the kitchen a huge immature eagle who's head had not turned white yet, landed on the high pointed roof ridge of the barn. As he sat there surveying his kingdom two big black crows landed on the grass between the house and the barn. The eagle ignored them completely until he lost his balance and started to slide down the steep metal roof of the barn. He flapped his wings trying to regain his footing all to no avail until he slid down to the edge and started to fall off. At this point he gave a few awkward flaps of his wings and landed down on the grass next to the two crows.
I can only imagine what the eagle was thinking, if eagles think, as he landed on the ground. "Did anyone see that?" "Holy crap, I hope my friends didn't witness that!" The only witnesses he had were The Man and I watching from the kitchen doors AND the 2 black crows who had landed on the grass only seconds before the eagle literally "dropped" in.
As the young eagle dropped to the ground crow #1 made a bee line hopping across the yard toward the garden where he sat hiding. (I don't know why they didn't fly away but they both crows remained on the ground.) Crow #2 never moved. By now the eagle had retained some of its composure but was still just sitting on the grass trying to figure what the hell just happened. Crow #2 was standing maybe 8 inches away from the eagle just looking at it.
And then the crow started to squawk ! It hopped around that eagle "yelling" at it the entire time. Every so often the crow would get too close and the eagle would jump up off the grass flapping its wings as if to say, "Back off you dumb little crow!". This dance went on for a good ten minutes with the crow never backing down or moving away.
Finally the eagle had had enough of the stupid noisy crow. Having regained some of its composure the eagle gave one last look at the dopey crow and took off flying gracefully back to one of the pine trees on the other side of the field. The crow remained there until his buddy hopped back out of the garden to rejoice him and then the two crows flew away in the opposite direction from the eagle.
I have no idea what that encounter was all about and I'm sure it is something we will never see again. What I do know is that if we had been watching TV or been on the computer or phone we would have missed the whole thing. And that would have been a shame.
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