As The Eagle Flies

Caution: this is a serious post for once.

When I was a kid, I lived at the base of a hill called Eagle’s Caves. As you can likely figure out, at the top of the hill are caves—where eagles lived. By the time I came along there weren’t too many eagles around but I’m told there used to be a lot of them. Then, sometime in the eighties or so, the few remaining eagles disappeared—from the caves anyway; too many people around, I guess.

My present home is at the bottom of that same hill, only about a block and a half from where I lived back then, in a subdivision known as Eagle Cave Estates. I know, the name makes it sound like I live in a posh neighborhood or something. I don’t. It’s just a fancy name for a subdivision that was built on what used to be a pasture that I used to cut through on the way to the store.

Living here, I’ve often looked up to the caves, searching for an eagle. But in nineteen years, I’ve never seen one. Until yesterday. My daughters had come by for Father’s Day and we were standing outside watching their kids play when my son-in-law noticed an eagle overhead. It was flying very low, which made it easy to identify. As we watched, another bird of some sort came swooping toward the eagle. This bird was smaller, maybe a little more than half the size of the eagle—and apparently, not real bright.

The smaller bird seemed intent on attacking. The eagle, of course, wasn’t real worried about a confrontation. As the swooping bird grew close, the eagle flipped over, its talons stretched out to ward off the attack—or maybe mount a counter-attack. Either way, the not-so-bright bird, seeing those claws, instantly thought better of his ill-advised plan and veered sharply up and away. Soon the bird, whatever it was, was gone.

I guess maybe it wasn’t as dumb as I originally thought! I’m still not sure why the unidentified bird thought attacking an eagle would be a good idea—or that it would even work. But it was fascinating to watch so, smart or dumb, I’m glad we got to see its weak attempt at hunting.

After the short confrontation, the eagle continued on his way, flying high into the sky and it wasn’t long before I lost sight of it. Later however, I saw it again—flying up toward the caves. Then circling in the sky. For a brief moment it was like I was a kid again.

This might have been a one-time occurrence. It’s likely the eagle was merely visiting our neighborhood, maybe checking out where his ancestors used to live. Like a person going back to the “Old Country” just to see where Grandma grew up. Or maybe—the eagles are back! ~

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, The Lana Denae Mysteries, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook at www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS and paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million.